Chrysanthemum tea

Vietnamese nameVietnamesetrà hoa cúcThai nameThaiน้ำเก๊กฮวยRTGSnam kekhuaiKorean nameHangul국화차Hanja菊花茶Malay nameMalayteh bunga kekwa, teh krisantimumIndonesian nameIndonesianteh krisan (Chi Hua Ching)Tamil nameTamilsaamandhi

Chrysanthemum tea is a flower-based infusion beverage made from the chrysanthemum flowers of the species Chrysanthemum morifolium or C. indicum, which are most popular throughout East and Southeast Asia.

To prepare the tea, chrysanthemum flowers (usually dried) are steeped in hot water (usually 90 to 95 degrees Celsius after cooling from a boil) in either a teapot, cup, or glass; often rock sugar or cane sugar is also added. The resulting drink is transparent and ranges from pale to bright yellow in color, with a floral aroma. In Chinese tradition, once a pot of fresh chrysanthemum tea has been drunk, hot water is typically added again to the flowers in the pot (producing a tea that is slightly less strong); this process is often repeated several times.

Chrysanthemum are first cultivated in China as a herb as early as the 1500 BCE, making tea from them became popular during the Song dynasty.