Salt-Preserved Kumquat Tea

Why people make this tea

Kumquats arrive in the market every year at the start of cooler weather, just when coughs, sore throats and hoarse voices start to appear — which is probably not a coincidence. In Chinese food medicine, the kumquat is one of the great throat-friendly fruits: mildly warming, fragrant, and particularly associated with smoothing the flow of qi downward (helping to ease that tight, congested feeling in the chest and throat), relieving thirst, and generating beneficial fluids. Salt-preserving them concentrates and preserves all these properties, and the brine that forms is itself useful — a teaspoon added to each cup of tea intensifies the throat-soothing effect.

Making a jar of salt-preserved kumquats is one of those kitchen projects that pays dividends for months. Nourilo keeps a jar on hand throughout autumn and winter, and reaches for it whenever anyone in the house develops a scratchy throat or loses their voice.