Vietnamese Herbal Tea (Nước Sâm)

Nước Sâm is widely available in Vietnam, often homemade and sold in plastic bottles. It has a slightly sweet, earthy flavor. It’s similar to iced black tea but with a deeper, more herbal taste.

But don’t worry, in the recipe below, I’ll show you exactly which ingredients I used for my batch. And even with my simplified version, it still came out great.

Sugarcane (Mía)

Finally, I can use the sugarcane from my garden without needing an expensive press.

Simply smash the fresh stalks or split them open before boiling to extract their natural sweetness for the tea.

Dried Red Dates / Jujubes (Táo Tàu)

Just like the sugarcane, these add another dimension of sweetness to the tea. You can always find dried red dates in Asian grocery stores. Look for them in the tea aisle.

Cured Rehmannia Root (Thục địa)

This black root provides the tea with its signature dark color and a deep, slightly bitter, roasted flavor. I can usually find it in the spice and tea section of Asian supermarkets if I’m lucky, but it’s not always available.

Monk Fruit (La Hán Quả)

One of the easiest to find here in Sacramento. A dried, round fruit with a hard shell. Sometimes they are green, as in the pictures below, or black. I pick whichever is available, although the black one provides a more herbal and earthy flavor. Simply crack it open and boil both the shell and the insides.

Corn Silk (Râu Bắp)

These are the silky threads from the top of an ear of corn. In Vietnam, they are widely used and sold in small bundles, but here, I can only find them still attached to fresh corn on the cob. To make things easy, I just boil sweet corn (and enjoy them however you like) and use that nutrient-rich water as the base for the tea.

Rock Sugar (Đường Phèn)

This is the traditional sweetener of choice. It provides a lighter sweetness than refined sugar. There are whites one and brown ones. Choose whichever is available.

You can also use any sweetener you have on hand, such as honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, brown sugar or palm sugar.

For my specific recipe below, I’m actually not using any added sugar because the fresh sugarcane provides enough sweetness.

Dried Chrysanthemum (Hoa Cúc)

These are the mature yellow flowers of chrysanthemum plant. They add another herbal note.

Winter Melon (Bí Đao)

Fresh or dried winter melon is incredibly common in Vietnamese herbal tea.

When it’s the dominant ingredient just like chrysanthemum, it will be its own tea (Trà Bí Đao).

There are many varieties of winter melon, but the one commonly used for this tea is the monstrous-sized variety with ashy-colored skin. They are often sold pre-cut because they are simply too huge to sell whole.

Imperata Root / Cogon Grassroot (Rễ Tranh)

I don’t have this one pictured because I can’t usually find it here in the Sacramento area. In the wild, cogon grass looks like thick patches of tall, bright green grass with fluffy white flowers at the top.

But for Nước Sâm, we only care about the roots. Fresh cogon grass roots look a lot like pale, skinny little bamboo sticks.

Pandan Leaves (Lá Dứa)

The vanilla extract of the East. This is absolutely essential for aroma, especially against the bitter backdrop of the other ingredients.

When boiled, the leaves impart a vanilla-like fragrance. You can typically find pandan leaves frozen in Asian supermarkets.

Once you have everything, it simply comes down to giving the herbs and roots a good rinse and boiling them in a large pot for about 50 minutes. That’s it.

Let it cool, strain, and store it in the fridge until fully chilled. To serve, pour the herbal tea over a cup filled with ice.

Print