Green Olive, Mandarin Cake and Dried Pear Tea

Why people make this tea

As summer fades into autumn, the air in many climates — and certainly in Hong Kong’s heavily air-conditioned offices — turns notably drier. The throat starts to feel rough, the skin feels parched, and there may be a dry cough with sticky phlegm that is hard to bring up. Nourilo spotted bright mandarin cake (ju bing) and dried pear (xue li gan) at the Chinese medicine shop and bought them for exactly this transition season. Dried pear retains the pear’s renowned moistening and lung-supporting properties while losing much of the raw pear’s cold nature, making it a better fit for those with a more sensitive constitution. Fresh green olives add a pleasant tartness and are traditionally associated with generating fluids, easing sore throats, and preventing throat inflammation. Together with the naturally sweet mandarin cake — which has none of the bitterness of fresh mandarin peel — this produces a brew that is clean, sweet-tart, and genuinely pleasant to drink.