Herbal tea in Hong Kong is legally a food, even though every recipe on the counter passes through the Department of Health first. The Chinese Medicine Council states that "herbal tea sold in the herbal tea shops is regulated under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance", while the food hygiene department's permit requires that "the formulary and dosage of each ingredient" of every tea sold "shall be approved by the Director of Health".
That hybrid explains most of what you see at the counter: a handful of named brews, no ingredient lists, and a separate chilled tray of grass jelly with its own rules. This guide decodes the counter using the heritage office, the herb standards published by the health department's Chinese medicine office, the food hygiene department's permit conditions and the Consumer Council's advice. It names only shops or companies that an official source names.
What herbal tea is, officially
The government heritage office describes herbal tea (涼茶, leung cha, "cooling tea") as "a decoction of Chinese medicinal herbs made according to traditional Chinese medicine theories", popular across South China. Its reasoning is climatic: the region's climate is "hot and damp" and its water regarded as "heaty", so decoctions "to prevent the heat and damp symptom-complex, to cool the body and prevent the common cold" became "part of the unique food culture of the region".
Herbal tea has the highest heritage status of any Hong Kong food item. It was "inscribed onto the first national list of ICH in 2006", jointly nominated by Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao, and was automatically included when the first Hong Kong Representative List of 20 items was announced on 14 August 2017. The national-list document names no representative bearer for it, unlike several other items. Hong Kong-style milk tea, by contrast, is on the Hong Kong list but not the national one, as the cha chaan teng menu decoder explains.
The heritage office adds three details worth knowing at the counter. Herbal tea in Hong Kong "has a history of over a hundred years"; decades ago "the herbal tea shop had another function as a neighbourhood 'entertainment centre'"; and "each herbal tea shop and manufacturer has its own prescriptions as a trade secret". Because of hygiene regulations, the inventory notes, herbal tea "is mainly produced in centralised workshops".
The Chinese-language version of the heritage entry is more specific about purpose. It calls herbal tea a drink of the Lingnan region "boiled from specific Chinese herbs", used for removing damp, reducing "fire", relieving dryness and summer heat, and preventing colds, and says it remains "a functional drink in daily life today". A related inventory item, Kam Wo Tea or Hop Chai Tea, records a traditional production cycle of "nine rounds of steaming and sun-drying" that has been maintained.
The heritage documents describe no formulas. Neither the office's pages nor its inventories mention 24 flavours, five flower tea, Abrus tea or turtle jelly by name; they list herbal tea under the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, alongside snake wine and bone setting, and state that "people believe that herbal tea keeps the 'Dampness' and 'Fire/Heat' humours in balance within the human body".
The counter, decoded
The decoder below covers the items usually on a herbal tea counter, with what an official source says about each. No official source publishes prices for shop-brewed herbal tea, and the only listed chain does not disclose them in its filings.
| On the counter | Chinese | What official sources say it is | Price range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 flavours | 廿四味 | A multi-herb tea drunk "to clear heat and remove damp" (Consumer Council); formula is each shop's secret | Not officially published |
| Five flower tea | 五花茶 | A flower tea drunk for the same purpose; no official list of which five flowers | Not officially published |
| Abrus tea | 雞骨草 | Brewed from Abri Herba, the dried whole plant of Abrus cantoniensis (health department standard) | Not officially published |
| Prunella tea | 夏枯草 | Brewed from the dried fruiting spike of Prunella vulgaris (health department standard) | Not officially published |
| Hemp seed drink | 火麻仁 | No official herb standard exists for hemp seed | Not officially published |
| Turtle jelly | 龜苓膏 | "Herbal tortoise plastron jelly" in the largest chain's filings; no official test of turtle content | Not officially published |
| Sugar cane water | 竹蔗水 | Sugar cane drink; one sample gave 23 g of sugar per 250 ml cup | Not officially published |
| Grass jelly | 涼粉 | A separate restricted food; must be kept at or below 10°C | Not officially published |
The herb standards give a scientific anchor for some of those names. The Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards, launched in 2002, reached twelve volumes covering 357 materials in December 2025. Its monograph for 雞骨草 describes "the dried whole plant of Abrus cantoniensis Hance (Fabaceae)", collected all year and dried in the sun, "slightly aromatic; taste slightly bitter". Its monograph for 夏枯草 describes "the dried fruiting spike (infructescence) of Prunella vulgaris", collected in summer "when the spike becomes brownish-red".
The Abrus standard names abrine, N-methyl-L-tryptophan, as its chemical marker, which is how a laboratory checks that the herb in a sample is what the label says. The Prunella and honeysuckle standards work the same way, each specifying the plant part, collection season and identifying tests. None of them tells you anything about dose in a brewed tea, which is a matter for the formula the shop files with the health department.
Other common herbal-tea herbs also have official monographs: chrysanthemum, liquorice, Smilax glabra rhizome, Lophatherum, honeysuckle, Isodon, Melicope, Polygonum chinense, Ilex rotunda bark, Centella, Elephantopus, rush pith and Houttuynia. Several others do not: hemp seed, Mesona (the grass jelly plant), frangipani, sophora flower, kapok flower, cogon grass root, Microcos leaf, Ilex asprella, Abrus seed and tortoise plastron. An absent monograph means only that no official quality standard has been written, not that the herb is unsafe.
Who checks what is in the bowl
The regulatory line is clear once it is laid out. A restaurant licence covers "unbottled non-alcoholic drinks other than Chinese herb tea", so brewed herbal tea cannot be sold under an ordinary restaurant licence. "Chinese herb tea" is instead a restricted food under Schedule 2 of the Food Business Regulation, sold only with the food hygiene department's permission, and it may also be sold in a composite food shop with the right permit.
The Chinese herb tea permit is where the Department of Health comes in. The formulary and the dosage of each ingredient of each tea must be submitted "for referral to the Director of Health for vetting", and the standard conditions say "only Chinese Herb Tea approved in the premises are to be sold" and each tea "shall be prepared in accordance with the formulary, ingredients and dosages as approved". Brewing outside a proper kitchen must be done by electricity only, the shop must have a sterilizer of at least 23 litres, and a non-standard condition may require that tea comes only "from a licensed food factory or other lawful sources".
Grass jelly has its own permit, and its conditions explain the chilled tray. Leung fan must be stored and displayed "at a temperature not exceeding 10ºC, preferably at a temperature between 0ºC and 4ºC", "all leung fan shall be washed and cleansed with potable water before cutting", and the shop needs a sterilization apparatus for the knife. Since 1 January 2025 a single composite restricted foods permit has been accepted, with the condition that no restricted food is consumed on the premises where Chinese herb tea and other restricted foods are both sold.
Bottled herbal tea is a separate question. The Chinese Medicine Council says whether a bottled product counts as a proprietary Chinese medicine "depends on whether the method of application and the claimed use fulfill the conditions for 'food containing Chinese herb'". Its guidance sets a three-part food test — used like normal food without a dose regimen, no curative or health claim, and all herbs generally considered food — and states that "packaged drinks that contains herbal medicine(s) ingredients and does not have a recommended dose regimen" are not treated as a finished dose of Chinese medicine.
Getting that classification wrong has consequences for the seller. Under section 119 of the Chinese Medicine Ordinance, selling an unregistered proprietary Chinese medicine carries a maximum fine at level 6 and two years' imprisonment. The ordinance, passed by the Legislative Council on 14 July 1999, contains a Schedule 1 of 31 potent or toxic herbs and a Schedule 2 of 574 herbs, and importing or exporting the Schedule 1 herbs and five Schedule 2 herbs needs a health department licence.
Selling raw herbs is licensed differently again. Anyone who retails or dispenses Chinese herbal medicines needs a retailer licence from the Chinese Medicine Council, and the Chinese Medicine Ordinance's Schedule 1 lists 31 potent or toxic herbs that "can only be purchased in accordance with a prescription given by a registered Chinese medicine practitioner". None of the herbs typical of a herbal tea counter is on that list: not Abrus, not Abrus seed, not Prunella, not hemp seed, not the flowers of five flower tea, not liquorice, cogon root, sugar cane, Microcos leaf, Ilex asprella, Mesona or tortoise plastron. The herbal medicine streets of Sheung Wan, where raw herbs are sold by weight, are covered in the dried seafood street guide.
When the system failed
Approval of the formula has not always meant the tea matched it. On 8 May 2009 the Department of Health announced that a herbal tea from a shop on Lung Mun Road, Tuen Mun, was adulterated with "amantadine, chlorpheniramine and paracetamol"; amantadine "can only be sold on a doctor's prescription". A special operation followed, and on 16 June 2009 the department reported samples from three more shops, in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon City and Tai Wo Hau, containing paracetamol or paracetamol and chlorpheniramine, and "reminded the trade that sale of herbal teas adulterated with western medication is an offence".
The most recent case found was named. On 31 March 2014, "acting upon a complaint from the public", the food hygiene department sampled teas from Yong Ding Tang Herbal Tea at 36 San Lok Street, Sheung Shui, and found that three of them contained paracetamol and/or chlorpheniramine. The department instructed the shop "to immediately stop selling the relevant herbal teas". The health department's Chinese medicine office states the general rule that proprietary Chinese medicines "should not contain any western medicine as ingredients".
Turtle jelly and the turtle question
Turtle jelly (龜苓膏) is the counter item most tangled up with law. The largest listed herbal tea company describes its product as "herbal tortoise plastron jelly" in its annual report. The golden coin turtle, Cuora trifasciata (三線閉殼龜, traded as 金錢龜), is listed by the agriculture and fisheries department under CITES Appendix II, and a licence is required to import, export or possess scheduled species "whether alive, dead, parts or derivatives (including medicines)".
Local wild turtles are protected too. When officers seized 31 turtle specimens in May 2022, including nine golden coin turtles, the department noted that there are wild populations of the species in Hong Kong and that "all local wild chelonians are protected by the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance". The maximum penalty under the endangered species law is HK$10 million and ten years' imprisonment; under the wild animals law, HK$100,000 and one year.
What no official source says is how much turtle, if any, is in the jelly you buy. The only official record of a turtle jelly controversy is a September 2013 transcript in which the Secretary for Food and Health said Centre for Food Safety samples showed bacteria "not exceeding" limits and no mould, after inspections of the company's 81 retail points and its only production plant in Hong Kong, and that routine sampling includes turtle jelly. The transcripts say nothing about turtle content, and no Consumer Council or food safety test of it was found.
The decision table below applies the official record to ordering. It is guidance on reading the counter, not medical advice.
| If you are | Consider | What the official record says |
|---|---|---|
| Watching sugar | Unsweetened herbal teas over sugar cane or sweetened drinks | One sugar cane sample: 23 g sugar per 250 ml; four of five luohanguo drinks under 0.5 g per 100 ml |
| Of a "deficient-cold" constitution, in TCM terms | Skipping herbal tea | Consumer Council: not suitable for this constitution |
| Planning to drink it daily | Limiting it to short spells | Consumer Council: generally not more than a week at a stretch |
| Wanting it chilled | Drinking it warm | Consumer Council: chilled herbal tea can upset the stomach |
| Taking paracetamol or antihistamines | Extra caution with shop teas | Past cases of paracetamol and chlorpheniramine added to shop teas |
Where official sources point you
Only two herbal tea businesses are named in the official record as operating shops, and neither is a recommendation. The largest is Hung Fook Tong, whose 2025 annual report says it had 108 self-operated shops in Hong Kong at the end of 2025 — "the largest herbal retailer in Hong Kong based on retail network size" — and whose interim results report 107 at 30 June 2026. The company says its founder, the late Wong Jing Fat, opened the first Hung Fook Tong herbal tea shop in Kwai Chung, and it marks its fortieth anniversary in 2026. How it fits among the city's other retail chains is set out in the local chain map.
The other is a building rather than a brand. The Antiquities Advisory Board's appraisal of Nos. 60, 62 and 64 Hollywood Road, confirmed Grade 2 on 9 June 2022, records that "for more than six decades, No. 60 on the corner of Hollywood Road and Peel Street has been a herbal tea shop which also sells tortoise jelly and sugar cane juice". It does not name the shop. The same appraisal notes that No. 64 housed a traditional herbal medicine shop, Tin Hee Tong, in 1928.
Hung Fook Tong's filings show the scale of the modern trade. Its Hong Kong retail revenue in the first half of 2026 was HK$223.4 million, 77.2 per cent of the group's total, and in its 2025 financial year it put front-of-pack labels on four drinks, including "Bitter Herbs Tea for Clearing Heat" and "Floral Herbal Tea for Removing Dampness". The company says it will promote herbal tea as national intangible cultural heritage in its anniversary year.
The Consumer Council's advice is the most practical official guidance on drinking. In 2016 it described 24 flavours and five flower tea as drinks people choose to "clear heat and remove damp", but warned that herbal tea "is cold in nature, not an ordinary health drink or tonic", should not be taken long-term by people without "heatiness", and "generally should not be drunk for more than a week at a stretch". It adds that people with a "deficient-cold" constitution should not drink it, and that chilled herbal tea can upset the stomach. The sugar figures come from a separate 2015 study with the Centre for Food Safety, which tested 141 Chinese-style beverages and found the 101 non-prepackaged samples ranging from 0.027 to 19 grams of sugars per 100 millilitres. For brewing at home the Council recommends ceramic or clay pots, because aluminium and other metal pots "may release metal", and advises against pre-washing herbs because some seed-type herbs are lost in washing.
What this guide does not cover
No prices appear, because no official source publishes herbal tea prices and the listed chain does not disclose them. No official list of the five flowers in five flower tea exists, and no official classification of bitterness or strength was found, so neither is given.
The text of the Chinese Medicine Ordinance and the Food Business Regulation could not be loaded from the legislation site, so definitions are quoted from the Chinese Medicine Council's guidance and the food hygiene department's permit guide. Whether individual herbal-tea herbs appear on the ordinance's Schedule 2 of 574 herbs was not verified for the same reason.
No official test of the turtle content of turtle jelly was found, and the health department's herb standard for Abrus says nothing about the toxicity of Abrus seeds, so this guide makes no claim either way. No official advisory specifically on herbal tea in pregnancy was found. The tourism board's herbal tea pages returned access errors, and the Consumer Council's full herbal tea articles from 2007 and 2015 could not be opened beyond their summaries.