Herbal Tea (Leung Cha)

Herbal tea is the Lingnan folk wisdom of using medicinal herbs to regulate the body against a hot, damp climate; Hong Kong's tea shops, scattered across every neighbourhood, carry on the Guangzhou tradition. In 2006 it was jointly nominated by the cultural authorities of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau and entered the first national ICH list (item number VIII-89), one of Hong Kong's earliest national ICH items.

Herbal tea compounds many medicinal herbs according to traditional formulas and simmers them slowly; common brews include twenty-four-flavour tea, five-flower tea, chrysanthemum tea, self-heal tea and tortoise jelly, each balancing herb natures and brewing heat, sold fresh from street-corner tea shops in a living craft.

Herbal tea carries the wellness philosophy and herbal knowledge of the Cantonese world, an important vessel of Lingnan's food-as-medicine tradition, and stands as one of the few national ICH items jointly nominated across three regions, giving it real value for shared cultural identity.

Herbal tea can be tasted at tea shops throughout Hong Kong's neighbourhoods.