What is Chrysanthemum tea? (菊花茶)
Chrysanthemum tea is a herbal tea that’s made from brewing dried Chrysanthemum flowers. It has no caffeine in it, and it’s a popular choice in Chinese culture because of its anti-inflammation and ‘cooling’ effect (aka combat 热气 yeet hay).
This drink has been a childhood favourite of mine as an Australian Chinese living in Sydney. After school, I would grab a box of sweetened Chrysanthemum tea from my local Chinese grocery shop. You would recognise this from its vibrant yellow juice box.
So what does Chrysanthemum tea taste like?
It’s very floral. If you’re into floral teas, this one is for you. At the same time, it’s light and refreshing. I’d compare it to camomile, but in my opinion this has sweeter and more floral notes.
Chrysanthemum milk tea
The first step is to extract as much flavour from the dried Chrysanthemum flowers.
While you can just add these dried Chrysanthemum flowers to hot boiling water, to get the best flavours I would recommend boiling it in a pot for at least 5 minutes, on low heat.
This will help extract the floral flavours and ensure that your milk tea isn’t bland when you add ice and milk later on!
If you’re not a fan of milk tea, you can have this tea as is! Just pour it over some ice and you’ve got yourself a cup of refreshing Chrysanthemum tea!
If you have grown up drinking Chrysanthemum juice boxes, you’re gonna need to add some sweetness to the tea.
I would recommend to start by adding 2 tablespoons of honey. Taste it, and if it’s not sweet enough, add 1 tablespoon of sugar or stevia.
Since the Chrysanthemum juice boxes actually contain sweetened Chrysanthemum tea, to get that same flavour you can’t skip the sugar and honey.
Adding green tea with Chrysanthemum
If you want a stronger tea aroma, you can add green tea too. Because green tea is light, it won’t overpower the Chrysanthemum floral notes.
I added a green tea bag into the Chrysanthemum tea and let it steep for around 30 minutes.
The reason why I didn’t add it to the boiling pot was because I didn’t want the green tea flavours to be too strong.
The packaging!
If I’m going to be honest, I’m really proud of how this drink packaging turned out!
I used a paper cup and drew our Bao Bae logo, with some Chrysanthemum flower details.
This cup was inspired by the latest viral Chinese tea shops like Molly Tea and Chagee.
Tips for you!
Here are some more tips if you’re making this for the first time:
- Add honey and stevia: if you love that nostalgic Chrysanthemum tea that you purchased in a yellow juice box, add enough honey and stevia/sugar for that added sweetness! This will bring out those floral flavours even more.
- For a stronger tea: boil the dried Chrysanthemum flowers in water for at least 5 minutes to extract more flavour. You can also green tea bags to the Chrysanthemum tea for a stronger tea flavour.
- Bonus if you use evaporated milk or want want milk: if you want to have stronger milky flavour without diluting the drink, add evaporated milk instead of regular milk. But don’t add too much, as this can overpower the Chrysanthemum tea!
- Heavy whipped cream topping: definitely recommend adding this, it really adds a bit more indulgence to the drink! This drink is on the light side, so adding whipped cream isn’t too heavy.
Chrysanthemum Milk Tea
Ingredients
Method
- In a small pot, add the dried chrysanthemum flowers and water.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat with the lid on.
- Once boiling, lower the heat and let it gently simmer/steep for 7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the honey and sugar, and stir until fully dissolved.
- Add the green tea bag and let it steep for 10 minutes.
- Strain and transfer the tea into a glass jug. Let it cool completely at room temperature, then chill in the fridge if desired.
- Fill a cup with ice.
- Pour in the cooled chrysanthemum tea.
- Add the milk and stir gently.
- Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of dried chrysanthemum petals for decoration (optional).
