Coughing or having a sore throat is a disruptive pain. I know because my boss has been hacking away for the past 1 month after falling ill from a flu. The fever left her but the cough seemed to loom behind. I passed her a bottle of Three Legs Pe Pa Kao, which is made of all natural products such as loquat leaves, honey, pear, chuan bei, menthol and other traditional Chinese herbs (a total of 15!).

I'm sure we Singaporean Chinese are most familiar with pipagao as a reliever of coughs and sore throat but do we know how it really works? There are specific herbs in the concoction that helps to ease the build up of phelgm (by the loquat/pipa leaves, which the name comes from), reduce the inflammation of the throat or lungs and therefore, relieves the cough or sore throat. Best thing? "Side effect" of these herbs is great skin! Well...some TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) docs will also tell you that taking Pe Pa Kao regularly will also benefit those with asthma as the herbs work to strengthen and nourish the lungs.

Anyway, about the effectiveness of said Pe Pa Kao. My boss stopped coughing the day she started eating it. Of course, she was coughing really badly so she was downing a tablespoon of it 3 times a day. She also realised that she was not drinking warm water excessively anymore, as the phelgm had reduced significantly.

I do like to take pipagao because it's sweet and minty, plus the fact that Three Leg's Pe Pa Kao is sweetened only with honey makes me feel a little better about the type of sugar I'm taking. I've recently started to take it because I've just recovered from a stomach flu but have been eating a little too much junk thanks to the multiple farewell lunches I've been receiving this week. As such, my throat is a little sore and I can feel a small ulcer-like swell at the back of my throat. After taking a tablespoon of Three Legs Pe Pa Kao, I could feel that the swelling went down a little and my throat is almost back to normal! Besides taking it 'neat', I found that mixing it with some warm water makes it quite a tasty soothing drink that prolongs the relief.

What I found quite special about this particular brand of Pe Pa Kao is that after refrigeration (I keep it in my fridge after opening it), the syrup still flows out instead of hardening like how the other famous brand's does. Moreover, it comes with a non-drip cap so you don't have to deal with a sticky cap each time you pour the syrup. It's a PET bottle instead of glass, so it's really lightweight and easy to bring along with you if you happen to be coughing a lot or down with a sore throat. People who need to use their voices very often may want to consume this frequently and therefore, they will also appreciate the lightweight too!


Interesting fact: the company that manufactures this is Halal-certified. Sweet news! Means that this cough/sore throat 'syrup' is definitely suitable for vegetarians/vegans/ and Muslims (perhaps even Jews?). Three Legs Pe Pa Kao is available at NTUC, Unity Healthcare Pharmacies, Mustafa, OG, Polyclinics, Sheng Siong, Chinese medical halls and selected Watson's. It comes in 2 sizes - 180ml and 320ml. It really is very affordable and trust me, tastes a lot better than those cough syrups the doctors love to prescribe.

If you want more details, head onto www.wenken.com and check out their other products as well as their popular 'Cooling Water'!