Yang Sheng Tea Ritual

In this guided tasting, you'll sample four seasonal herbs (updated bi-weekly) paired with four complementary snacks. You'll also learn to use a traditional Chinese tea set, from rinsing the herbs to pouring with intention. As you sip and savor, you'll discover each herb's unique properties and benefits, all while enjoying a quiet moment of zen in the heart of SoHo.

Step 1: Meet the Herbs
You are introduced to four seasonal herbs, updated bi-weekly based on traditional Chinese seasonal point principles. Silver Root herbalist shares each herb's name, origin, flavor profile, and TCM functions and explains how they support Yang Sheng (nourishing life).

Step 2: Learn to Brew
A Silver Root herbalist demonstrates the traditional Chinese tea set, including gaiwan, fairness pitcher, and cups. You learn the mindful movements: rinsing the herbs, smelling its fragrance, steeping with patience, and pouring with intention.

Step 3: Taste and Savor
Sip it alongside a thoughtfully paired snack. Repeat for all four pairings. Between tastings, notice the changing aromas and flavors.

For the first time, Silver Root, which is driven by its mission for TCM education and led by a team of Chinese women with diverse backgrounds, has arrived outside of China, landing right in the heart of NYC's SoHo. While this is a sensory experience, we treat TCM with deep reverence at every step, from herb selection, to staff training, to the tea in your cup.

Most tea tastings focus on loose-leaf caffeinated teas like green, black, or oolong—rarely herbs.

Our tasting features four seasonal organic herbs with delicious, nuanced flavors that rival any fine tea.

We rotate all herbs bi-weekly, following the traditional seasonal points of the Chinese solar calendar. Come back every two weeks for new tastings!

We source all-certified-organic Dao Di herbs, a rarity even within China and nearly impossible to find in New York.

We curate traditional teaware from China so you learn to brew with authentic tools.

Yang Sheng (養生), or "nourishing life," is rooted in the observation that human biology responds to environmental shifts—temperature, humidity, daylight, and barometric pressure. Traditional Chinese solar terms map these transitions into 24 seasonal points, each signaling a subtle change in nature's energy.

Modern chronobiology supports this: circadian rhythms, hormone fluctuations, and immune function all vary with seasons. By rotating our herbs bi-weekly to align with these points, we offer teas that work with your body's natural adaptations—cooling herbs as heat builds, warming roots as cold descends. This isn't ritual for ritual's sake. It's seasonal syncing, steeped and sipped.

Located in a historical neighborhood in Shanghai, Silver Root Apothecary is an east-meets-west food therapy studio focused on the concepts of “food as medicine,” Chinese healing philosophy, and holistic natural living. Created by registered dietitian, food therapist, and a Shanghai native, Zoey Xinyi Gong, Silver Root offers a wide range of cooking classes, wellness workshops, nutrition consultations, TCM treatments, creative cultural events, and highly curated products that are designed to provide the tools and knowledge for selfcare and healing.