Have you been wanting to eat according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), but don’t know where to start?
It’s time to try Five Seasons TCM's tonic bags, now available in the Pink Moon curation. Choose from Lullaby Calming for peaceful sleep, Smooth Digestion to support easy digesting and Better Than Coffee to stay focused without jitters.
With a similar delivery to a tea bag, they can be conveniently consumed either as a broth or beverage. A simple way to add functional foods into your favorite recipes and daily routine, these herbal culinary sachets provide you with the benefits of traditional TCM food therapy in a modern, effortless way.
Five Seasons TCM is a boutique wellness brand on a mission to make Traditional Chinese Medicine more approachable for our times. On their online platform, you can find medicinal cooking recipes, learning resources and TCM self-care tips for your diet - all in a format that’s easy to digest.
Born in Shanghai and now based in New York City, Zoey Gong is a TCM chef, nutritionist and the founder of Five Seasons TCM. Her journey into treating food as medicine began when she sought out to treat her own health concerns as a teenager.
Below, we asked Zoey more about her mission and the inspiration behind creating these tonic bags.
Five Seasons TCM is a boutique, BIPOC-women-owned wellness brand that shares and modernizes the knowledge of TCM food therapy through educational content, functional products and its avant-garde aesthetic.
My mission with the brand is to:
- Promote, educate and inspire a TCM lifestyle
- Provide access to high quality, sustainable and curated products inspired by East Asia
- Showcase the authentic knowledge of using food as medicine
- Amplify the voices, practitioners and talents of the Asian community
TCM philosophy and ingredients are everywhere in my culinary work and daily home cooking. I have around 60 kinds of TCM herbs in my pantry and there is always seasonal produce in my fridge. When I am cooking for myself, I focus on cooking and yin nourishing to adjust my own imbalances.
I design menus based on the season around me. For example, during the hot, humid summer, I choose foods that are cooling and dampness-reducing. I prepare meals using lighter cooking methods such as steaming and will eat more raw vegetables. In cold, dry weather, it’s a very different story. I use my oven for roasting and will make plenty of warming bone broth.
It is about what we eat, yes, but it is also very much about when and how we eat.
TCM food therapy uses a lot of herbal mixes that serve to achieve different functions. They are used to make tea, porridge, bone broth and more. The traditional way of using them requires picking and mixing the herbs, soaking, cooking and then straining them out. It is quite a laborious process.
To make things easier, yet still keep the tradition of using whole herbs rather than granulated extracts, I developed these tonic bags so that people who don’t know a lot about the herbs or don’t have a lot of time can also receive the benefits of these beautiful medicinal plants.
Another reason why I decided to develop these tonic bags was to be able to share this unique component of Chinese medicine along with a more zen way of cooking.
I was indeed inspired by the most common complaints I heard in my practice.
We have a total of 9 blends targeting women’s health, men’s health, energy, digestion, liver health, skin and metabolic health, respiratory health, sleep and immunity.
These blends are also designed to be suitable for the general public, since they are not too hot or too cold in nature.
Steep or boil one bag in 2-3 cups of water. Enjoy as a tea throughout the day!
