Shaxi Herbal Tea Making Craft

The Shaxi herbal tea making craft traces to the late-Qing "Huanghui Herbal Tea" (the "Huang Chao Shan Tang" tea) of Shaxi in Zhongshan; it is said that a sedan-chair bearer who spent long days on the road gathered folk prescriptions and worked out a formula for seasonal colds and aching limbs that gradually spread, now over a century old. In 2006 the craft entered the first national ICH list under traditional skills (project number VIII-89).

Its craft centres on five herbs—gangmei, jinniukou, putao, choumoli and yedianqie—insisting on authentic, carefully paired ingredients, passing through selection, washing, decoction and concentration into either a liquid decoction or soluble granules, keeping the efficacy of the traditional brew while suiting modern brewing.

Shaxi herbal tea is a key part of Lingnan's herbal-tea culture and among Zhongshan's national ICH items, carrying the folk-medicine wisdom and émigré memory of a "century-old remedy," with real value for the study of Lingnan's traditional herbal practice and household healing customs.