Colored Chrysanthemum Honey Tea (Cai Ju Mi Cha)

Why people make this tea

Tibetan colored chrysanthemum is a naturally multicolored, wild-harvested bloom from the plateau — not the dyed variety sometimes encountered in the market. One steep produces a fragrant, lightly sweet tea with a gentle, refreshing quality. Traditional wisdom associates chrysanthemum broadly with dispersing wind and clearing heat from the liver channel — the liver being the organ most closely linked, in Chinese medicine, with the health of the eyes. So a cup of chrysanthemum tea is something people reach for when their eyes feel hot, tired, or strained after a long day. The honey addition softens the slightly bitter edge and makes it more soothing.

This is also a pleasant tea to have before bed if your mind is a little wired — its calming quality can support a smoother transition to sleep.