Jujube Tea Recipe (Dried Fruit) for Sleep

Jujube tea is a calming and nourishing East Asian herbal concoction, perfect if you love warm, fruity beverages. It is delicately sweet and makes a healthier alternative to sugar-packed energy drinks. You can enjoy it any time of the day, be it in the morning or before bed.

Therefore, we bring you the family recipe that our parents taught us. Our jujube tea recipe is simple, quick, and involves no complex processes. So, you can prepare it even on your laziest days. Find out how to make jujube tea with only a few ingredients.

Jump to:

• What is it?
• What Does Jujube Tea Taste Like?
• Ingredients
• How To Make Jujube Tea From Dried Fruit
• Cooking Tips
• Jujube Tea Recipe for Sleep
• Variations
• Jujube Tea Benefits

What is it?

Jujube, also known as Chinese dates, is a round, reddish fruit typically used in Chinese traditional medicine. Jujube tea is an herbal drink made from this fruit brewed with ginger, goji berries, and honey. 

This beverage has many variations, but the Korean and Chinese versions are the most popular. Due to their different preparation methods, Korean jujube tea is typically thicker and sweeter and contains pine nuts. On the other hand, the Chinese version is more diluted and less sweet. However, we will make the Chinese version of our jujube tea recipe.

What Does Jujube Tea Taste Like?

In general, jujube tea tastes slightly tart and sweet. Some people have likened the taste to raisin tea. Ginger also gives it a subtle spicy and tangy flavour. Apart from that, you can also catch a hint of sourness from the goji berries. 

However, the taste depends on the quantity of each ingredient used to make the drink. Some are prepared sweeter, some sour, but the perfect balance of all ingredients will give you a comforting, flavourful beverage. 

Ingredients

To make jujube tea, you only need jujube, ginger, goji berries, and honey. These are the main ingredients required in the recipe, but you can add more ingredients if you want.

Many of these are dry ingredients that you can buy from an Asian supermarket or medicinal store. Because they are dry, they have a long shelf life, which is excellent for keeping when you need to drink them for their medicinal benefits. We also keep some in our dry pantry, mainly for abdominal menstrual pain.

Jujube

You can make jujube tea with fresh jujube fruits. However, it is usually prepared with dried jujubes. Finding dried fruit overseas is also more common, and they introduce a more enhanced flavour. 

There are different sizes of jujubes. The ones we often see are 4-5 cm long, but there are also smaller ones (2-3 cm long) that we tend to use. Both work fine, but you must adjust the number of jujubes used based on their size. The jujube seeds will make the tea bitter if you cook them together, so you must remove them. We try to buy seedless jujubes because they're much easier and quicker to make.

For 1 litre of water, we suggest using about 6 pieces of regular-sized dry jujubes. If you're using the smaller 2-3 cm ones, double the amount.

Alternatively, you can use instant jujube tea bags. This is the best option for making the drink quickly and skipping through the preparation process. It is also great for first-timers who want to know the taste. The only downside is that you won't be able to change the flavour profile. Therefore, we prefer making the drink from scratch.

The dried fruits are sweet, so the more you add to the drink, the sweeter it will be. Furthermore, adding more dried red dates will make the beverage consistency thicker and more syrup-like. We recommend adding more when serving as a cold drink.

Ginger

Ginger provides a distinctive, warm, slightly spicy flavour that complements the drink's sweetness. You can use powdered or fresh ginger. However, we highly recommend using fresh ginger for a bolder flavour. 

Our jujube tea recipe uses about 2 inches of sliced fresh ginger for nutritional purposes. However, for daily consumption, we recommend only using about 1 inch of ginger, as 2 inches of fresh ginger will make the tea quite spicy. You can modify the quantity according to your preferences.

Although ginger powder can be more intense, it tends to create a milder taste in drinks. In addition, it can be more convenient and have a longer shelf-life.

Goji Berries

Goji berries, also known as wolfberries, are commonly added to this herbal concoction to enhance its depth of flavour. These berries are typically tart and sweet, contrasting the natural sweetness of jujube.

Honey

Honey is commonly used to make jujube tea as it is a natural sweetener that complements the other ingredients. We prefer using honey to sweeten the tea further since it doesn't overpower all the different flavours. The taste can differ from one to another, depending on the type of honey used. Honey can introduce floral, fruity, or earthy notes.

Besides honey, you can also use substitutes like brown sugar. However, adding brown sugar can darken the drink's colour and create a deeper amber hue. It may also add a caramel-like flavour due to the presence of molasses. This ingredient can be a satisfying addition, but some may find it too strong.

Longan (optional)

An optional ingredient we like to add is dried longan. The longan fruits contribute a delicate floral sweetness to the mildly sweet red dates. Their soft, smooth, and chewy flesh will also enhance the drink's texture. We love its chewy texture, hence we will include it when we make our jujube tea recipe.

How To Make Jujube Tea From Dried Fruit

The process of making this traditional Chinese beverage can be divided into two parts: preparing the dry ingredients and making the tea.

Preparing the dry ingredients: 

1. Firstly, prepare the dried jujubes. If the fruits are big (approx. 4-5cm), you will need 6 of them, but if they're small (2-3cm), prepare around 10-12 pieces. Then, soak them in water for 10 minutes. This step is important to rinse off the dust from the fruits' surface and ease the cutting process.
2. Then, cut the soaked fruits in half and remove the seeds. You can use a paring knife for this step. It is optional to remove the seeds, but we recommend doing it to impart a bitter taste to the drink. The seeds have a slightly bitter and astringent flavour that can affect the overall flavour profile. 
3. Prepare about 5 grams or a tablespoon of goji berries. Rinse them to remove any dirt. You can add more for a sweeter beverage.
4. Slice 2 inches of fresh ginger. If you're using ginger powder, prepare ¼ teaspoon of it. The general rule is that ⅛ teaspoon of ginger powder equals 1 inch of fresh ginger. You can add or reduce the amount of ginger to suit your preferences.

Making the tea: 

1. Prepare a pot containing 1 litre of water. Add all ingredients into the pot and leave them to boil with medium-high heat. Once the water boils, lower it to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Then, strain the tea into a glass jar. Make sure to press the fruits to release all the juices. Finally, add some honey once everything cools down and mix well before serving.

Cooking Tips

Here are some cooking tips to help you approach our Chinese jujube tea recipe.

Preparing beforehand

You can prepare the drink in advance and save it for later. First, leave it to cool before pouring it into a glass jar. Then, place it in the refrigerator. Once you're ready to enjoy it, you can have it cold or heat it up in a pot on medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes. You can store it to drink later, but the general wisdom is not to drink overnight tea as it is said to be unhealthy.

It is also possible to prepare the herbal blend in advance. Prepare the ingredients according to our jujube tea recipe. Cut the dried dates in half or smaller pieces to make them more convenient for future use. Mix the dates with other ingredients in your desired proportions. Then, store them in an airtight container. Once you're ready to brew it, take the desired amount of the mix and follow the brewing instructions.

Discarding boiled ingredients

Most of the nutrients are in the tea, so don't worry about removing the ingredients. You can leave them if you prefer to have something texture to bite on, but they don't add any additional benefits from what we know from Chinese sifus. Leaving the ingredients in doesn't add any extra flavour as most of it is already extracted during brewing. You can include the leftover strained fruit in your tea for additional texture. They can also be kept and used for other cooking purposes, such as herbal soups.

Variations

This Asian beverage is quite versatile and pairs excellently with many other ingredients. So, just like other herbal infusions, you can create several tasty variations.

Jujube longan tea

One of the most popular variations worth trying is jujube longan tea. You can make this lovely cup simply by steeping dried longan and seedless red dates in hot water.

Adding milk 

Furthermore, you can make jujube milk tea by adding some milk. You can make it by simply following our jujube tea recipe. 

However, remove the goji berries and ginger. They can cause the milk to curdle. Instead, use honey as the sweetener before adding it to the milk. Finally, you can add chewy tapioca pearls for a full boba experience. 

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is usually added to Korean jujube tea to introduce an earthy, sweet, and spicy flavour. Moreover, it contributes a comforting, warm, woody, and vanilla-like scent, making the beverage more aromatic and flavourful.

Both cinnamon sticks and powder can be used to make the comforting drink, but the former is more commonly used. Furthermore, since the Korean jujube tea recipe uses cinnamon as a sweetener, you can omit the goji berries so it isn't overly sweet. 

Pine Nuts

Finish your drink with a sprinkle of pine nuts. This is also a common ingredient in the Korean jujube tea recipe. The nuts are known for their rich, buttery taste and provide a pleasant crunch when sipping on the brew. 

Jujube Tea Benefits

This herbal tea has many health benefits, making it a great daily nutritional drink. For example, it is packed with fibre, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties. Besides that, it contains no caffeine, which can help with anxiety and insomnia relief. The cup is also beneficial for digestion and women's health.

Natural Laxative 

Drinking a cup of this warm beverage daily can promote gastrointestinal health and reduce flatulence or bloating. Healthline says the fruit is high in fibre and can speed up digestion. Its natural laxative properties can help regulate bowel movements, alleviate constipation, and promote a healthy digestive system. This also indirectly makes it an effective natural remedy for weight loss.

Antioxidant And Anti-Inflammatory

Furthermore, as WebMD affirmed, jujube tea's health benefits include being an antioxidant powerhouse. Antioxidants are known to benefit the skin and significantly reduce signs of ageing. So, drink it regularly to support a healthy ageing process and maintain supple skin.

The antioxidant properties also prevent the onset of undesired health conditions. So, the beverage is also a potent ally in lowering the risk of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease. This is supported by a study that proves that jujubes are also anti-inflammatory and can neutralise harmful cells. With that being said, the drink itself is an immunity booster.

Anxiety And Insomnia Relief 

Moreover, thanks to its calming properties, those struggling with insomnia can also drink jujube tea for sleep. You've probably heard of this tip if you've watched the famous K-dramas 'The Good Bad Mother' and 'Our Beloved Summer'. And the protagonists are right, as various medical and health sites like The Sleep Doctor have confirmed. This traditional herbal drink brings a sense of calmness and relaxation to help those with anxiety and insomnia. 

Less Caffeine 

Most Chinese infusions contain caffeine, but this is an exception. Therefore, it is highly recommended to those who want to enjoy Chinese brews without caffeine. In addition, those who enjoy matcha daily can occasionally substitute it with this drink to reduce their caffeine intake.

Women's Health 

Interestingly, this warm traditional brew is highly recommended to women since it improves blood circulation and regulates hormones. Traditional medical practitioners recommend drinking the beverage to recharge from the fatigue and weakness caused by blood loss. Hence, jujube tea is a safe and ideal beverage for periods, pregnancy, and postpartum.

Overall, jujube offers many benefits, even within its leaves. You can consume the drink daily to maximise the health benefits. Furthermore, we recommend enjoying it with natural sweeteners like honey to maintain nutritional value.If you enjoyed our Chinese brew, you'd also love sipping on some Oolong milk tea or Congou tea. Follow us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks for more flavourful blends.