cold and taking medicine

After you have taken medicine, wait about one hour before you have tea. Tea gets in the system more readily than most things, so the reverse is about 30 minutes. Longer for people whose absorption is weak, say one hour for older people.

If you normally are vibrant and lively and strong in the stomach, bouquet style Phoenix oolongs infused in the gaiwan gongfu style works the best to kick start your own system to fight that accidental cold invasion. If you are only so-so normally in terms of digestion and briskness, matured classic style Phoenixes and Wuyi infused also in the gongfu style works well. The use of ginger and black sugar (not brown sugar as in coffee sugar) is for warming up your stomach, where a cold could be attacking most fiercely. This is good for most people. In such case, infuse the tea strongly using a long duration.

In any case, avoid teas that are cold or very cool in TCM nature, that is ANY tea turned cold (temperature cold), green style Minnan and Taiwan oolongs, steamed or lightly fired (either baked or roasted) green teas, premature shengcha pu’ers, and light style white teas, such as silver needles. They are good when you are healthy to fortify your own protective strength.