This book is great if you have more traditional Chinese medicine. If you are unfamiliar with traditional Chinese medicine though it still gives you many options for healing drinks like flu tea, etc.

Tea was first used as a form of medicine in China. Today, many herbal teas are still used to promote health and prevent illnesses. This book contains many formulas with some therapeutic effects.Some of the formulas given in the book would be well known to anyone with a Chinese upbringing. For example, ginger tea for common cold and vomiting, puer tea to aid digestion. However, there are hundreds of formulas here, some of which can be used to support conventional treatment for hypertension, dermatological illnesses, hormonal and reproductive issues. Not all the formulas would be useful to you. This book is also meant for the layman and you won't find any serious TCM prescriptions here.So why buy this book when you can find many of the formulas in this book on the internet? Well, written by an authority on the subject, this book is a safer bet.One possible problem for readers in Western countries that I can see, would be the availability of ingredients. Some of the ingredients mentioned in this book are not even readily available in Singapore. Good to have if you have some money to spare. Otherwise, just search for these formulas from a reliable website.

This was a book I bought on a whim. I'm a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and I tend to keep clear of anything with "folk" on the front cover. I'm trying to be a serious medic here, so I can do without my chosen profession being clouded with unproven quack remedies! But when the book arrived I quickly had to change my tune.I would consider this book a small stepping stone on the way to the serious books on TCM formulae (such as Dan Bensky's  Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies ). The formulae in  Chinese Medicinal Teas: Simple, Proven, Folk Formulas for Common Diseases & Promoting Health  are generally simplified versions of more complex TCM patents. Let's face it, if you come down with a cold, who has any Herba Ephedrae (mahuang) in their kitchen cupboard? But you may well have ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and so on. This book employs a lot of the more commonly available foodstuffs and medicinals.I like this book because it has a number of very simple formulae, that laymen can utilise, but it also builds on those formulae to get close to a number of the decoctions regularly prescribed by TCM professionals. For that reason it is a useful resource and a good link between the twin pillars of Chinese herbal medicine and Chinese functional foods.I give it a thumbs up and say it's very good value for money.