In the first instalment of a four-part Health Matters series on traditional Chinese medicine, Lisa Cam and Ashlyn Chak explore how a new generation of health-conscious youth is discovering century-old leung cha and helping neighbourhood tea shop owners safeguard a dying trade.
Long before modern chain pharmacies and over-the-counter painkillers were readily available in Hong Kong, there were leung cha: intensely bitter herbal “cooling teas” brewed in massive brass cauldrons in traditional open-front shops.
To the uninitiated, these dark, earthy, grassy decoctions served in ceramic bowls are an acquired taste at best. For generations of local workers, though, these century-old remedies have been consumed to ease sore throats, flush out seasonal “dampness” and reset bodies run down by urban stress.