ABSTRACT
My childhood memories of drinking herbal tea are associated with tears and fierce fights with my grandmother. These ended in a bitter defeat every time. Grandma, generally tolerant, would not have me leave a drop of the herbal tea on the pretext that it was ‘good for me’. Yet the concoction – the epitome of bitterness in a matching colour of dark brown – that has been brewing in the earthen clay pot for several hours was in no way appealing to a child who had a sweet tooth. The old saying, ‘Bitter medicine is good medicine’ never worked for me! Herbal tea shops at that time were places where only the aged and the ‘old-fashioned’ visited. However, herbal tea shops have emerged in the late 1980’s as an arena for both ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ health-conscious people. Nowadays, even I occasionally pick up a bowl of the once-horrifying ‘twenty-four herbs’ concoction to ‘curb’ my ‘heat’.
