Lin Songtao

254238712@qq.com

THE Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, but after finishing the rice dumplings, or zongzi (粽子), you may feel a bit bloated. It’s time for a cup of tea to relieve this sensation. What are the choices for the tea that works? Hao Yihong, an enthusiast who has studied tea for 10 years, gave her suggestions.

“The tradition of drinking tea on the day of Dragon Boat Festival traces back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770 B.C.-221 B.C.). On this day, people went up into the mountains to pick herbs and fetch water from wells at noon to make ‘noon tea,’ which they believed could prevent diseases,” Hao said at her teahouse in Longhua District on Wednesday.

Hao mentioned that the choices of tea types that go best with different zongzi vary with the flavor of the food. “The best match for salty zongzi can be Oolong tea such as Tieguanyin and Dahongpao. In addition, Pu’er tea is also a good choice. Raw Pu’er tea is cool, tastes mellow and smooth, and is beneficial for food digestion and weight loss. If you eat sweet ones, green tea should be on your mind. This kind of tea will immediately make you feel refreshed, and also promotes the metabolism of glucose, so that not too much sugar stays in your body.”

Hao also recommended several tea types best for summer. “Flower tea, especially tea with chrysanthemum, honeysuckle and jasmine, and green tea such as Longjing, Biluochun and Maojian are excellent options. People who often drink white tea in summer rarely get heatstroke and experts believe that this is because it contains a variety of amino acids that has an antipyretic effect.”

She recommends using hawthorns, goji berries and rose petals for a flavorful tea.