Goji Berry and Chrysanthemum Tea
For eyes that are dry, red and tired at the end of a day.
Season Year-round
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon goji berries
- 1 tablespoon dried chrysanthemum flowers
- 2 cups just-boiled water
Method
Steep, covered, for five to ten minutes. Drink warm. You can top the pot up once or twice through the afternoon before the flavor gives out.
This pairing is not folklore. It is the addition that turns Liù Wèi Dì Huáng Wán, one of the most-prescribed formulas in Chinese medicine, into Qǐ Jú Dì Huáng Wán 杞菊地黄丸 — the Lycium, Chrysanthemum and Rehmannia Pill — which is what a practitioner reaches for when the eyes are the complaint.
The reasoning runs through the Liver. In Chinese medicine the Liver opens into the eyes, and Liver blood and yin are what keep them moist and functioning; when those run short the eyes go dry, gritty, tired and sensitive to light. Goji berries — gǒu qǐ zǐ 枸杞子 — nourish Liver and Kidney yin and are described as brightening the eyes. Chrysanthemum — jú huā 菊花 — is cool and light, and clears the heat that rises and makes eyes red and irritable. One works from below and the other from above.
Goji berries are better cooked or steeped than eaten raw by the handful, and considerably better than the chocolate-covered ones.
