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.

Method

1. Rinse the green olives, then use the flat side of a cleaver or knife to gently crack each one — this helps the flavour release during cooking.
2. Rinse the mandarin cake and cut into smaller chunks.
3. Rinse the dried pear and remove any remaining seeds or cores.
4. Place all ingredients in a pot with 1.8–2.1 L of water.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium simmer for 30 minutes until the liquid reduces to about 1.2 L.
6. Drink warm.

Nourilo’s Tips

Mandarin cake’s bright orange colour is completely natural, the result of the mandarin itself, not added dye. The processing removes the bitterness of the peel, so the resulting tea is clean and sweet. This brew is suitable for all ages and is especially handy during the drier autumn and winter months or any time the throat feels dry from air-conditioning. It is also traditionally associated with relieving mental and physical tiredness and easing mild liver qi sluggishness.