Two American Ginseng Drinks Recipes – Basic Ginseng and Ginseng Chrysanthemum

American Ginseng “Beards”/ American Ginseng Fiber, 洋参须 (Yang Shen Xu)

I’m featuring two recipes – (1) basic ginseng drink and (2) ginseng with chrysanthemum tea towards the end of the post ^o^

Not all ginseng are created equal. For example, most types of Korean Ginseng is generally considered to be ‘heaty’ while American Ginseng is known to be ‘cooling’ (based on the Chinese herbalogy system of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ foods). I prefer the latter (American Ginseng) as I am living in a tropical country (Singapore), where the hot and humid weather tend to make one ‘heaty’ rather than the other way round.

The type of ginseng I am featuring is known as 洋参须 (Yang Shen Xu). I have a hard time translating it to English, because the sites I googled so far refer to 洋参须 as “American Ginseng” but I think it’s too generic, because only the first two words 洋参 (Yang Shen) refers to American Ginseng, so it is essential to translate the word 须 (Xu) which I think means “beards”. Yes the translation sounds weird but I have heard of people calling it as that. But maybe a more professional sounding name is “American Ginseng Fiber” like this site has translated. Please correct me if I am wrong or if you know of other names. The translation is important as there are many types of American Ginseng around and the word 须 (Xu) shows the exact type of ginseng that I’m using. As you can see from the photo above, they are small, thin and wispy looking (hence it’s resemblance to beards?) My command of Mandarin as you can tell, isn’t very good =P

A well known property of this ginseng is that it is very ‘cooling’. So consuming it will supposedly reduce your body heat (降火). Lots of mums like to prepare this drink for their children during the school exams period so they can ‘burn the midnight oil’, because this type of ginseng is also known to keep one alert (提神) hehe. So if you are someone who don’t sleep easily at night or have to avoid caffeine near bedtime, you should likewise avoid drinking this tea at night. You should also avoid this if you are pregnant or have special medical history. You can purchase it in Singapore at the Chinese medical halls such as Fuhua (where I bought a 150g packet for S$5.50) and Eu Yan Sang.

Chrysanthemum Flowers and American Ginseng “Beards”

Recovering from wisdom tooth surgery more than a week ago was quite the ordeal for me. Between Day 6 and Day 10, I experienced increased and throbbing pain that made me sick, pukey and the pain was so bad I was almost hallucinating. All I could do was sleep. And then on Day 11, the pain subsided suddenly and on Day 12, I was in no more pain. Really weird right?

Well the point of saying all this is that post my mini wisdom tooth surgery, I experienced so much physical discomfort that I could feel my body going out of balance and becoming extremely ‘heaty’ though I wasn’t having a fever. B said that the objects I touched felt warm after that … wah that’s really quite exaggerated though I think he is right!

So once I was feeling all right again and free from taking painkillers, the first drink I thought of making is ginseng tea which is known for its super cooling properties. And I really think it helps to bring down my body heat ^^

I prepared two versions of the tea – (1) basic ginseng drink and (2) ginseng with chrysanthemum tea the next day. So I am going to share not one, but two ginseng drinks recipes herb. The reason I am showcasing two recipes is to show that the ginseng tastes great on its own, as well as when it’s paired up with another herb.

Basic Ginseng Drink 洋参须水
(Serves 2)

Ingredients
30g American Ginseng “Beards” 洋参须
1.5 litres of water
a pinch of salt* (optional)

Directions
Bring water to a boil in a pot. Add ginseng and boil over high flame for 5 minutes. Flavour with some salt if you like*. Take out the ginseng using a strainer and serve the drink at room temperature or chilled.

*Note: The addition of salt is purely personal … I personally find that the taste of this particular ginseng goes really well with a bit of salt. Feel free to skip this according to your preference.

Ginseng Chrysanthemum Tea 菊花洋参须茶
(Serves 2)

Ingredients
50g chrysanthemum flowers
30g American Ginseng “Beards” 洋参须
2 litres of water
70g rock sugar (adjust according to your preference)

Directions

Bring chrysanthemum flowers and water to a boil in a pot. Take out the chrysanthemum using a strainer. Then add the ginseng and boil for another 5 minutes. Take out ginseng using a strainer. Add rock sugar to taste and off fire when the sugar has dissolved. Serve the drink at room temperature or chilled.

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Besides making these cooling and refreshing drinks, ginseng can be used in cooking too! Watch up for my upcoming recipes using American Ginseng

More cooling drinks to try:

- Chrysanthemum Tea
- Lemon Barley Drink
- Water Chestnut and Bamboo Drink

I’m sharing my ginseng drinks recipes with Weekend Herb Blogging… now managed by Haalo of Cooking (Almost) Everything At Least Once and hosted this week by … yours truly! Yes, me! =P If you wish to participate, do find out the details from here

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And good news!! I entered my Pumpkin Chawanmushi for Cookthink’s Root Source Challenge (Pumpkin) … and I won! =O omg yippee! The recipe is now proudly featured at cookthink’s website and I get a free cookbook too (didn’t realise there were prizes, pleasant surprise), double yay! This is my first time entering RSC … a big thank you to cookthink for selecting my entry ^o^

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Tagged as: Chrysanthemum, ginseng, rock sugar