It is said that when Lin Zexu banned smoking in Guangdong, it was a hot day and he was tired from running around all day. Unfortunately, he suffered from heat stroke, sore throat and cough. The entourage invited famous doctors to prescribe prescriptions, but the medicine had no effect. The condition was getting worse day by day, and everyone was very anxious. Someone actually found Wong Lao Kat, and the medicine cured his illness. So Lin Zexu came to thank him and asked about his name and the medicine he used. Wang Laoji answered truthfully: "Everyone calls me Wanglaoji. What cures you is a few worthless herbs." Lin Zexu couldn't help but sigh: "Medicine has no distinction between high and low. The worthless herbs can be boiled into tea and have miraculous effects; they can make people follow their wishes." When you drink it, you can cure diseases and prevent diseases, and the poor people will benefit more." Later, he ordered someone to send a large copper gourd pot with three big gold characters "Wang Laoji" engraved on it. There are people selling Wong Lao Kat on TV every day, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I never knew what Wong Lao Kat was. When you get to Guangzhou, you have to deal with Wong Lo Kat.
Guangdong’s herbal tea has a long history and is rich in varieties and forms. Famous herbal teas include healthy herbal teas such as Deng Laoji herbal tea, Wanglaoji herbal tea, and Qingxintang herbal tea. In addition, Shiqi herbal tea, Sanhutang herbal tea, Guiling paste, raw fish kudzu soup, etc. are also traditional herbal teas loved by Cantonese people. .
The earliest and most respected herbal tea by Guangzhou people is Wanglaoji herbal tea, which is recognized as the "ancestral of herbal tea" and the "king of medicinal tea".
In ancient times, the Lingnan land was hot and humid, and miasma was pervasive. Many people had fever, body aches, chest tightness, and yellowish-white complexions. The local people could only use acupuncture, scraping, cupping and other traditional methods to treat the disease. The pain was unbearable and the people's bodies were left with rows of black and red blood marks and welts, and even one person was completely changed beyond recognition.
It is said that in the first year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1796), there was a man named Wang Zebang (real name Wang Ji) in the countryside of Heshan, Guangdong. After seeing this scene, he went to the mountain to collect medicine before dawn every day. Based on the knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine that I learned from my father and from Taoist priests and mountain residents in Luofu Mountain and Dinghu Mountain, I collected various Chinese herbal medicines. Then I went home, made a fire, cooked the medicine, and tasted it myself. He found that the tea he brewed was bitter at first and then sweet, and his throat felt comfortable. So he also invited the villagers to drink it. Soon after drinking it, the sick people gradually improved. After drinking another bowl the next day, all the patients who had taken the medicine were cured. The news spread to ten, and people in neighboring villages came to Wang Ji to drink medicine. A year later, an epidemic and summer plague (now known as meningococcal meningitis) broke out in the area. People relied on drinking Xiao Aji's medicinal tea to avoid the disaster.
Wang Ji later came to Guangzhou and opened a small shop on Jingyuan Street (now east of the Cultural Park) to practice medicine and sell herbal tea cooked with large copper gourds. When Wang Ji was treating people, he found that many people got sick due to the heat caused by the hot weather. So, he and his son went to Baiyun Mountain to collect herbal medicines, studied them carefully, selected a herbal tea recipe, and cooked it in the shop for patients to drink. The effect was very effective.
It is said that when Lin Zexu banned smoking in Guangdong, it was a hot day and he was tired from running around all day. Unfortunately, he suffered from heat stroke, sore throat and cough. The entourage invited famous doctors to prescribe prescriptions, but the medicine had no effect. The condition was getting worse day by day, and everyone was very anxious. Someone actually found Wong Lao Kat, and the medicine cured his illness. So Lin Zexu came to thank him and asked about his name and the medicine he used. Wang Laoji answered truthfully: "Everyone calls me Wanglaoji. What cures you is a few worthless herbs." Lin Zexu couldn't help but sigh: "There is no distinction between high and low medicines. The worthless herbs can be boiled into tea and have miraculous effects; they can make people follow their wishes." When you drink it, you can cure the disease if you are sick and prevent the disease if you are not sick, and the poor people will benefit more." Later, he ordered someone to send a large copper gourd pot with three big gold characters "Wang Laoji" engraved on it.
Wong Lao Kat Herbal Tea Shop is located in the downtown area. There are many dock workers, rickshaw pullers, hawkers, and passing merchants nearby. Whenever you have a headache, fever, sore throat, constipation, or bad breath, you will spend two cents. For just money, you can drink a bowl of herbal tea, which can relieve heat, quench thirst, and cure diseases, so it is popular among people.
Due to the remarkable efficacy of the big copper gourd herbal tea, the local chamber of commerce and neighbors sent Wang Laoji a plaque with the words "Hanging the pot to help the world and save all sentient beings". Wong Lao Kat herbal tea was passed down from generation to generation, and everyone benefited from it. Even today, it is well-known by word of mouth. Later, this herbal tea was simply called "Wanglaoji Herbal Tea", and a generation of herbal tea kings was born.
One year, influenza broke out in the Nanyang Islands, and there were many patients. After Wong Lao Kat found out, he donated his herbal tea prescription, which restored many patients to health. Wong Lao Kat's herbal tea began to spread to Southeast Asia. He also prepared raw herbal medicine packages, which were welcomed by overseas Chinese and more and more buyers came from overseas.
In the eighth year of Daoguang's reign (1821), Wong Lao Kat's brothers opened branches of Wong Lao Kat herbal tea shops in Hong Kong and Australia respectively. This was the original branch of Wong Lo Kat, and it remains popular to this day.
When Wanglaoji herbal tea was born, it appeared as a water decoction. The medicinal materials were boiled in water and sold in bowls. Those who needed it could drink it standing in front of the counter. It was very convenient for people passing by. It is also commonly known as "water bowl" Herbal tea”. But those who need to drink must go to herbal tea shops. In order to solve this problem, his descendants packaged and sold the medicinal materials according to the proportion of the prescription, and used the "olive line gourd" as the trademark, called big tea bags. Since then, Wanglaoji herbal tea has been exported to various places inside and outside the province. Later, various herbal tea operators followed suit, making herbal tea more popular. At that time, large tea bags had been taken by thousands of "Lao Guang" to make a living overseas and became popular on five continents. It can be said that wherever there are Cantonese people, there is Wanglaoji herbal tea.
The nearly 200-year history of Wanglaoji herbal tea was officially born. It was a period of vigorous development of the southern herbal tea industry. Twenty or thirty brands have appeared, especially in recent years, large-scale herbal tea companies have emerged. Such as: Deng Lao herbal tea, Qingxintang herbal tea, Xu Qixiu herbal tea, Dasdaanggong herbal tea, 24-flavor herbal tea, etc. There are also Huang Zhenlong herbal tea, Ah Zhen herbal tea, Li Xuezhen herbal tea, Pingantang herbal tea, etc. operated in a new chain mode.
In addition, the Xia Sang Ju herbal tea launched in the 1980s opened up a new field of herbal tea infusions.
It is said that Liang Qichao went to the United States for inspection from 1898 to 1903, and wrote in the book "Travel Notes of the New World": "There are Westerners who like to use Chinese medicine, and this is enough to make them rich. There is the so-called Wanglaoji herbal tea. It costs two copper coins in Guangdong and sells it to Westerners for five or ten dollars. "People buy big tea bags and boil them in two and a half bowls of water to drink, although there is no herbal tea shop. The problem of being able to drink herbal tea, but it still needs to be boiled for a certain amount of time. Around the 1940s, the descendants of Wong Lao Kat prepared the medicinal materials in proportions, ground them into coarse powder, and packaged them in quantitative packages for sale, which was called "Wang Lao Kat herbal tea powder". In this way, you can save time in cooking medicine. You only need to soak it in boiling water for a period of time or boil it for two or three minutes before drinking. After 1987, the herbal tea was made into granular infusions called "Wanglaoji Herbal Tea", which was easy to carry and take.
During the Cultural Revolution, due to political reasons, Wong Lao Kat herbal tea was renamed Guangdong herbal tea. Later, due to the spring breeze of reform and opening up, Wong Lao Kat herbal tea, the number one brand of herbal tea in China, was renamed again.
Wanglaoji herbal tea has experienced more than two hundred years of development. With the accelerated pace of people's lives, you no longer need to fry herbal tea yourself. As long as you spend one or two yuan, you can drink the most authentic herbal tea immediately. In recent years, in order to adapt to market trends and make it easier to carry, According to the requirements, people can drink canned herbal tea without going out.
On a hot day, drink a cup of herbal tea to cool down and relieve the heat; after you have had enough wine and food, drink a cup of herbal tea to relieve hangover and reduce inflammation; when you first catch a cold, drink a cup of herbal tea to relieve the cold and drive away the disease.
Wanglaoji herbal tea, a century-old brand, together with other new herbal tea brands, is making unremitting efforts to continue and develop the herbal tea complex of Guangdong people, making new contributions to the health of people in Guangdong, the country and even the world. contribution. It will go out of southern Guangdong, to the whole country, and to the world at an unprecedented speed!