Wild herb tea tastes great and can also help nurture good farmland; Sanyu Hao carries on the spirit of the Great Emperor Shennong

Legend has it that the Great Emperor Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, and only afterward did agriculture and medicine develop. Next to Sanyu Temple in Tianmu, Taipei, where the Great Emperor Shennong is worshipped, a grocery store inherited from a grandmother has transformed into a wild herb tea shop called "Sanyu Hao," offering passersby a cooling cup of thirst-quenching, heat-clearing tea on the bustling street.

Grandma's grocery store becomes a petite wild herb tea shop

Taking bus 616 all the way to Tianmu, passing the Taipei American School and Taipei Japanese School, and getting off at the Sanyu Temple stop, you walk into the wild herb tea shop on the street corner, where the Zhou sisters, the shop owners, and tea maker Su Lizhong are preparing offerings. Older sister Zhou Peiyi pours the cooled Double Herb Tea into a large bottle, while younger sister Zhou Yijing and Su Lizhong take bottles and dried fruit to Sanyu Temple, just a short walk away, to worship the Great Emperor Shennong.

Sanyu Hao is not big, but it is the place Zhou Yijing and Zhou Peiyi know best. "This used to be Grandma's grocery store. When I came home from school as a child, I would sit on that chair at the door and chat with classmates." Zhou Yijing recalls. Now the original grocery store space has been divided into three sections: their younger brother sells chicken cutlets at the end near Sanyu Temple, while she and her second sister Peiyi have opened a wild herb tea shop at the other end.

Walking into Sanyu Hao, the most fitting description is "petite and exquisite." The small space can hold about 8 to 10 people, with only seats and no tables. Zhou Yijing explains that this is meant to create the feeling of sitting in front of a temple entrance, chatting and eating snacks. For elderly people who have difficulty moving their knees or legs, there is also a higher seating area at the back.

A new food and agriculture base with the spirit of the Great Emperor Shennong

Sanyu Hao has been open for less than a year. When Zhou Yijing first told her friend Su Lizhong about her idea of opening a shop, the two saw the Great Emperor Shennong worshipped at Sanyu Temple next door and thought of the legend of Shennong spreading knowledge of the hundred herbs. Thus the idea of a wild herb tea shop was born, and Su Lizhong also became Sanyu Hao's tea maker.

Su Lizhong, who has a background in insects, previously worked in the restaurant industry, and later focused on food and agriculture education, says that he used to be accustomed to engaging with ecology and nature, and then gradually learned through food and agriculture education how to engage and interact with people. In the process, he met many farmers and local residents with traditional crafts, and learned from them how to coexist with the land.

After meeting people from all kinds of backgrounds and promoting food and agriculture education on the front lines for several years, Su Lizhong wanted to consolidate his past experience in food and agriculture education. It happened that his friend Zhou Yijing wanted to open a shop. Su Lizhong believes: "To consolidate and organize what one encounters in food and agriculture education, a base is needed to properly present it, and tea drinks are one of the media closest to daily life." Sanyu Hao thus became a medium for sharing the connection between food and land with everyone through actual products.

Where there are wild herbs, there is good farmland; the ancestors ate herbs in daily life

"Wild herbs and farmland are inseparable. Only a good farmland environment will have diverse wild herbs." Su Lizhong says that when he did food and agriculture education in the past, he often interacted with farmers, and while visiting farmland, he found that many farmers who follow organic principles, are friendly to the land, and use ecological farming methods place special importance on creating the environment between fields. In addition to crops, there are many wild herbs in the farmland.

Su Lizhong says that Chinese society was founded on agriculture, and the ancestors' use of plants was not limited to crops in the fields but also included wild herbs, or gathering in the mountains and forests. People began using various wild herbs very early on, and traditional Chinese medical texts contain countless records of the medicinal functions of different plants. To this day, wild herbs can appear in every corner of life. "Grass jelly often eaten as a snack, herbal tea and houttuynia tea that cool and quench thirst in the countryside are all examples of wild herb use."

Su Lizhong says that diverse wild herbs, especially flowering wild herbs, can maintain the balance of soil nutrients and moisture for the environment in which crops grow and regulate the microclimate of the overall environment. Various wild herbs can also create suitable living conditions for many organisms, and after their lives end, they can replenish organic matter in the farmland.

Retro yet fashionable wild herb fresh milk tea, roselle sparkling drink, plus rice-based snacks from Hakka mothers

Even for retro herbal tea, Sanyu Hao has added many innovative elements, from simple wild herb tea to wild herb fresh milk tea, and roselle lemon sparkling drink. Su Lizhong explains, "Sparkling drinks and fresh milk tea are popular drink types now. Presenting wild herb tea in the beverage forms people are used to makes it easier for them to accept and get to know it more quickly."

Taking a sip of Red Date Double Herb Tea made with red dates, grass jelly herb, and houttuynia, the tea brings a sense of warmth to the body as it goes down, while the heat-clearing properties of grass jelly herb and houttuynia calm the restlessness inside. Paired with luh tang zi, it has a slight chewiness and a faint rice aroma when eaten. It really feels like a time of sitting at a temple entrance with friends, chatting, drinking tea, and eating snacks.

The snack Double Herb Luh Tang Zi is a piece of Hakka women's everyday wisdom that Su Lizhong discovered when he was running a villagers' story workshop in Nanpu Village, Beipu Township, Hsinchu. Luh tang zi is made from glutinous rice, and its texture is like tangyuan and also a bit like mochi. The white one is original flavor, and the green one is mugwort flavor. Pairing the two with Double Herb Tea is something Su Lizhong attempted together with local Hakka mothers to combine Hakka life experience with wild herb elements. The faint rice aroma carries a slight freshness of mugwort, and eaten together with the prepared Double Herb Tea, it adds some layers to the original flavor.

Common wild herbs are available in limited seasonal quantities; there is always a surprise when you come to drink

Speaking of the characteristics of wild herbs, Su Lizhong says wild herbs are constant, seasonal, and regional. They can be seen everywhere in all kinds of places (constant); different types of wild herbs grow differently depending on the season (seasonal); and each place has different wild herb ecology depending on climate, water, and soil conditions (regional).

Because of these three characteristics of wild herbs, more of their qualities will be presented on the menu in the future. The current menu is mainly based on the constant ones. Su Lizhong visits farms in various places from time to time to look for interesting wild herb themes. "Only when a farm has created a good ecological environment and the farmer also has the concept of treating wild herbs well will it be considered for use."

The supply status of raw materials for many special wild herbs is such that quality and quantity still cannot be stabilized at present. In this regard, Su Lizhong says that commonly used herbs in the shop, such as grass jelly herb and houttuynia, mostly come from Caosheng Yuan - Jianxing Herbal Shop, while special wild herb raw materials are supplied seasonally or in limited quantities.

Encouraging customers to bring their own containers, reducing plastic while drinking tea, and also selling agricultural products

The taste of wild herb tea is different from ordinary hand-shaken drinks. How have customers responded since the shop opened? Zhou Yijing says the main customers are office workers and mothers with children. "For older people, herbal tea is a drink after hiking or labor." In addition, the Taipei American School and Taipei Japanese School are nearby, and sometimes parents who pick up their children come by.

Zhou Peiyi, who greets customers at the counter and mainly interacts with them, says that most customers are in the 30 to 50 age range, and younger customers have also increased recently. Office workers mostly choose houttuynia tea and Double Herb Tea, while younger customers mostly choose wild herb fresh milk tea, roselle lemon sparkling drink, and snacks. After the pandemic, inquiries at the shop also increased quite a bit.

The shop sells wild herb tea and also promotes plastic reduction. Zhou Yijing explains that hand-shaken drinks use a lot of packaging material, so customers who bring their own containers or refill old bottles get a discounted price. If buying in large quantities, they are also encouraged to bring their own large bottles to fill up, which is even more economical.

In addition to wild herb tea, the shop also displays and sells other products, such as houttuynia tea bags, as well as environmentally friendly lemons and dried roselle. Zhou Yijing says Sanyu Hao is not big, but it is also doing its modest part to support farmers who maintain a good environment and good ecology.

Food and agriculture education and selling tea are both about making the environment more sustainable

You can drink tea in the shop, and small events are occasionally held. On Sanyu Hao's fan page, wild herbs are introduced every week, with detailed content ranging from pharmacopoeia records and folk usage to growth characteristics, appearance features, and scientific names. These are all recorded by Su Lizhong when he visits farms. "Even after turning to selling tea, I am still doing food and agriculture education!"

"Buying and selling is a commercial act, and it is also a means to keep the environment sustainable." Su Lizhong explains that from food and agriculture education to Sanyu Hao, the original intention is always to hope for environmental sustainability, and selling tea drinks and agricultural products is a way to support farmers in return. Only when farmers are willing to properly create an ecological environment will there be crops and wild herbs, and only then can the environment continue to be sustainable.