Hi everybody! The tea I’m going to show you today, insam-daechucha (ginseng jujube tea), is Koreans’ all-time favorite.

Koreans have been using ginseng for thousands of years and strongly believe in its abilities to boost the immune system and give us energy. Because it takes so long to grow, is so precious, and is so hard to find, it’s very expensive. There are ginseng farms where roots are grown commercially from anywhere from 2 to 6 years, although most are grown for 4 years. However many people think the best ginseng grows wild in the mountains, which can only be found by foraging and good luck. I read about a guy in Korea who found 11 good-looking ginseng roots that were 120 years old, and sold them for $300,000!

Not everyone reacts well to ginseng: it adds heat to your system, so if your natural temperature is already a bit warm, it might upset your natural balance and be too much heat for you.

Ginseng is a little bitter, so it goes well with sweet jujubes: this tea is a little bitter, a little sweet, and has a strong, earthy ginseng flavor.

I’ll show you two ways to make insam-daechucha today: the authentic traditional (farther down below) and a time-saving modern way that I developed. The traditional method makes for a clearer tea, and has a nice flavor. When you boil this tea, the smell will be full in your house! The time-saving way that I show in the video will have chewy and soft bits in the tea, and will be very strong. The key to this method is to use fresh ginseng.

I love both ways! They are super-delicious and I always feel so good after drinking them!

Ingredients (serves 12)

  • 2 large fresh ginseng roots (2 ounces), washed and dried with paper towel
  • ½ pound dried jujubes, washed and pat-dried with a paper towel
  • water
  • ½ cup honey
  • pine nuts

Ginseng_Jujube Tea

Directions

  1. Remove the seed from each jujube. Cut into small pieces, put them in a bowl, and set aside.Ginseng_jujube tea
  2. Remove the top of the ginseng roots. Cut them into small pieces and put them in the bowl.
  3. Grind the mixture of ginseng and jujube in a food processor or a powerful grinder until it becomes a sticky lump.
  4. Put the mixture into a bowl and add honey. Mix well with a spoon and transfer to a glass jar.

Ginseng Jujube tea

To serve:

Add about 1 tablespoon of the mixture into a cup of hot water and mix well. Sprinkle with a few pine nuts and serve hot. The mix will keep in the fridge for a month.

Ginseng Jujube tea

ginsengjujube_tea

Traditional method to make ginseng jujube tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the ginseng roots and the jujubes in a pyrex pot (or an earthenware pot).
  2. Add 7 cups of water and boil over medium high heat for 30 minutes. Then lower the heat.
  3. Simmer for 2½ hours until ⅓ of the tea boils off and it turns brownish red. Remove from the heat.Ginseng jujube tea
  4. To get the full amount of possible flavor from the ginseng roots and jujubes, we’ll need to make tea from it at least twice. There are no hard and fast rules, it really depends on the strength of your ingredients. So pour out this tea, share and drink it, but keep the ginseng and jujubes in the pot. Traditionally, Koreans drink the first batch as the second batch is boiling, but if it’s too much for you, you can keep it in the fridge for later.
  5. Repeat steps 2 and 3: add more water and simmer, until all the flavor from the ginseng roots and jujubes is gone.

To serve:

Pour the tea into cup, add some honey to taste and stir well. Sprinkle with a few pine nuts and serve hot.

ginsengtea_honey

Ginseng_jujube_tea

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25 Comments:

  1. dustbunny55 South joined 2/18 & has 4 comments

    I made this with ginger instead of ginseng (and no pine nuts, I will have to get some for next time) and it is absolutely delicious!! Now, how to get my mum to enjoy it too, as red dates are full of iron haha
    Thank you Maangchi!!


    See full size image

  2. sunmee85 Maryland joined 12/16 & has 4 comments

    Made this today as well and it tastes very healthy!


    See full size image

  3. putri90 joined 5/15 & has 3 comments

    Hi maangchi..
    can i replace ginseng with ginger? How much ginger i should use? Ginseng is very expensive in my town

  4. Boo Colorado Springs, CO joined 3/14 & has 1 comment

    I am loving your recipes! If I can only find dried, not fresh or powdered, how much dried ginseng do you think I should use?

  5. Wenzz9090 Miri, Sarawak. East Malaysia joined 3/13 & has 1 comment

    Hi Maangchi,

    Can I replace the ginseng roots with ginseng powder? I kind of have an over supply of the ginseng powder and I’m looking for ways to use it up :p

  6. jackiezhu New York joined 12/13 & has 1 comment

    Hi Maangchi,

    I’m really interested in trying out this tea. But where can I find free ginseng in Manhattan or Queens? I checked the H-mart in 32th street korean town, but no luck. If you know any good place, would you ming share it? :)

  7. caoikee dublin joined 3/11 & has 3 comments

    Once again delicious Maangchi ;) I was wondering… I have a Quince fruit lying on my kitchen table and its cold outside …do you have any recommendations/recipes how to make 모과차 or Quince Tea maybe? Thanks again from 아일랜드 섬 ;)

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,045 comments

      Wow you can find mogwa in Island! Great!
      I didn’t know mogwa is quince fruit in English! Peel it and remove the seeds. Cut it into half or quarters. Then slice it very thinly like paper. Be careful when cutting. Mogwa is a very hard fruit. Add sugar, the same amount of mogwa. Mix well and keep it in a glass jar in the fridge. You can make tea right away or a few hours later. Put a few pieces of mogwa into a tea cup. Add some juice, too. Then mix it with hot boiling water. Sprinkle with a few pine nuts. Enjoy! : )

      • caoikee dublin joined 3/11 & has 3 comments

        Thanks a million Maangchi. I did what you said and it was delicious ;) There is a small Korean community here in Dublin but Korean food and culture has become much more popular in the last 5 years (last year the main university even had unofficial K-Pop dance classes!) and now I’m able to get almost everything I need for your recipes in the Korean supermarket in the city centre ;) Actually, when you posted your Rice Cake Injeolmi recipe I went in search of 볶은 콩가루 and 쑥가루 (for the Ssuk Injeolmi). It was a difficult quest initially but the lady in the Korean supermarket was very intrigued why an Irish girl wanted these ingredients but one girl in the queue said “by any chance you were looking at Maangchi’s recipe too?”. I laughed and said “yes” and then the lady in the shop said “well, we better order in a few packets. There might be more wanting to make injeolmi” ;) Thanks again :)

  8. HyeNa New York joined 12/13 & has 6 comments

    Hi,

    I have been looking at your website for months and have cooked many recipes from it. Today, while browsing, there was a pop-up ad for womenshealthfour.co…I did not click on it but it still popped up. Can you fix this problem? I have searched to see if this ad is malware or virus and found that this popup resulted from advertiser’s error. Can you check with your advertiser to make sure the ads are safe and there will be no more pop-ups. Thanks.

    Anyways, I have some dried ginseng. Can I soak it and prepare it to use it for the non-traditional recipe?

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,045 comments

      Hi, my advertiser is google adsense which has no pop-ups. I don’t see any pop-ups on my computer. So I think problem is on your computer. Check out. “I have some dried ginseng. Can I soak it and prepare it to use it for the non-traditional recipe?” No, I wouldn’t do that. Use traditional method. Happy cooking!

      • HyeNa New York joined 12/13 & has 6 comments

        Maybe I accidentally clicked on an ad by mistake. I checked google safe browsing and your site showed up as having no malware…so that’s a relief. What about apple tea? I saw a fan’s gift to Kim Jae Joong is a jar of homemade apple tea concentrate with thinly sliced apple pieces in it. It looks pretty. Is that a variation of ginger tea or is it something else?

      • HyeNa New York joined 12/13 & has 6 comments

        One more thing. Jaejoong had a instragram video where he showed that he is cooking. There was steamed lobster, and a bulgogi stew with enoki mushrooms, spinach, carrot and dangmyun. What did he make with the lobster? Can you post some Korean recipes for lobster? Thanks in advance.

  9. lilian73 Braziil joined 1/13 & has 5 comments

    I’d love to make this tea but it’s very hard to find good quality jujubes and pine nuts here, let alone ginseng. I wonder if it’s possible to make that citron tea at home, maybe you could post a recipe some time :p

  10. Krynauw Otto Pretoria, South Africa joined 9/13 & has 54 comments

    Wow Maangchi,
    I was hoping you could post a ginseng tea recipe! Thanks so much!
    Krynauw

  11. colewm New York, NY joined 12/13 & has 2 comments

    Is it ok to eat the ground up ginseng and jujubes when you are drinking the tea?

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