GEORGE TOWN, Feb 12 — It is bitter and nasty, yet the Chinese swear by this medicinal herbal tea to "cool down” the body.

In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that there are cooling or heating properties in various types of food and that when your body gets "over-heated” it will lead to illnesses like fever, cough and flu.

These kind of illnesses are often treated with herbs that have "cooling” properties.

The Chinese medicinal herbal tea does not actually contain tea leaves but is made from of a mixture of herbs and roots that have been boiled to produce the dark, almost black, bitter concoction.

The recipe for the tea is believed to date back to ancient China.

Over the centuries, medicinal herbal teas have played an important role in healing or preventing certain illnesses caused by imbalances in the body. There are different types of medicinal herbal teas but in Malaysia’s traditional Chinese medicine shops, most only sell three to four common types.

Different types of powdered herbs are added to the tea in order to "treat” various illnesses like flu, cough, fever, etc.

This tea can also be taken for general wellbeing.

Then there is the chrysanthemum tea which is a light golden colour. This tea is made from boiling dried chrysanthemum flowers along with some rock sugar to make it more palatable.

It is taken to relieve body heat but is not as potent as the bitter black tea.

In Penang, there used to be small roadside stalls selling specifically these two types of tea, the bitter black tea known locally as kor teh (translated to mean bitter tea) and kek hwa teh which is the chrysanthemum tea.

Now, most of these stalls are gone but there are still a few vans making the rounds selling these medicinal teas.Here are five places where you can still get these traditional teas:

1. Roadside van, Jalan Rangoon

GPS: 5.420080, 100.326038

Time: 6pm-11pm

2. Roadside stall, Jalan Anson

GPS: 5.415150, 100.319626

Time: 3pm-8pm

3. Zi Run Tang Herbal Tea, Jalan Teh Ewe Lim

GPS: 5.392661, 100.306438

Time: 12pm-7.30pm

4. Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Lye, Jalan Perak

GPS: 5.397666, 100.314885

Time: 3pm-10pm

5. Roadside stall, Jalan Pasar, Bukit Mertajam

GPS: 5.363893, 100.460689

Time: 11am-6pm