Rose, Jasmine, and Silk Tree Flower Tea

Why people make this tea

Urban life has a way of drawing people tight, like a rubber band pulled to its limit. Nourilo observes that when stress is chronic — work pressure, poor sleep, emotional frustration — the body gives signals: a tight chest, irritability, irregular cycles, a sense of being perpetually on edge. In Chinese food therapy, this cluster of symptoms is often linked to the liver’s role in keeping energy (qi) flowing smoothly. Aromatic flowers are among the gentlest and most pleasant remedies for this: their fragrance alone has a measurable relaxing effect, and their traditional properties reinforce it. This three-flower tea is something Nourilo recommends keeping on hand as an everyday drink — simple enough to prepare in a travel mug for work, pleasant enough to enjoy as a moment of calm during a busy day.

Method

1. Place all three dried flowers into a teapot or steeping mug.
2. Rinse once with boiling water, then discard the rinse water.
3. Pour in fresh boiling water and steep, covered, for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in honey to taste.
5. Serve warm and inhale the fragrance as you drink — that is part of the therapy.
6. The flowers can be re-steeped once or twice with fresh hot water.

Nourilo’s Tips

• This tea has a gentle nourishing effect on the liver and spleen-stomach — pleasant to drink daily.
• For someone who needs to have it at the office, Nourilo suggests putting a small pinch of each flower into a tea bag and dropping it into a travel flask to steep throughout the morning.
• Adding a small pinch of osmanthus flower (gui hua) alongside is a lovely variation — osmanthus is particularly good for the stomach.
• These flowers are available at specialty flower tea shops, tea stores, and Chinese or Asian herbal shops, as well as online.
• Silk tree flower “buds” (he huan mi — the small red-and-yellow bud form) and the fluffy dried “open flower” (he huan hua) are both correct and have the same function.