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Jasmine TeaTaste: This tea is for romance. It is also a light, refreshingly fragrant tea with endless versatility. Like Champagne, lower grades can have a stronger taste, while the highest grades are more subtle, delicate and smooth. Appearance: Leaf: Most jasmine teas are made with green tea, but you will also find pouchong and black tea scented with jasmine flowers. The leaf can be processed into many different shapes-- twisted, curled, rolled into tiny balls, or tied together into display teas. Brew: The liquor is almost colorless, perhaps a very pale light green or amber. It has a magical fragrance to make you forget all your troubles.
Choosing the occasion for jasmine tea is a matter of your style. You can savor it when you wish to capture the romance of summer moonlight, and/or you can drink it all the time with any food. Serving Suggestions: This tea is served with strongly flavored foods as well as alone. It is good with curries, chicken and fish, and vegetarian dishes. A good quality jasmine green tea will work beautifully with fruit and flower salads, or desserts made with flowers, or soft cheeses with pressed flowers. Preparation: Steep about one half teaspoon of tea per cup in water from 170F to 190F for two minutes. You can repeat the steeping up to two times.
The jasmine plant was brought to China from Persia sometime in the third century AD. But jasmine tea did not become popular in China until the Song Dynasty (960-1270 AD). Traditional Chinese medicine recommends this tea to decrease nervous tension, to increase circulation, and to break down saturated fat. Today, jasmine is known in alternative health care as an effective anti-depressant--good for anxiety, lethargy, sadness, lack of confidence, fearfulness, paranoia, post-natal depression, and menopause problems. Along with raspberry leaf tea, it has been used to help childbirth and milk production. It can help release muscle and joint pain, including chronic back pain. It is also considered a romantic enhancer, helping all aspects of romance. How is Jasmine tea made?
Most start with a chinese green tea for a base. Some will use pouchong/oolong or black tea. The tea is plucked and processed in April and May and then kept dry until the jasmine flowers bloom in August and September. The flowers are gathered in the morning and kept cool. When they "pop" open in the evening, they are placed with the tea so that the scent can be absorbed over the next four hours. The spent flowers are removed. This will be repeated from two to seven times over a month's processing before the tea is ready for sale. Grades: Grading depend on the number of scentings over a month and the proper proportion of flowers to tea. Lower grades use only two or three scentings. The scent will be stronger but will disappear quickly. Higher grades will use seven scentings over a month's time, which gives a more subtle and long-lasting fragrance.
Yin Hao is considered the finest jasmine tea. Yin Hao is James Bond's tea. James Bond, 007, rarely drinks tea, but he is a connoisseur of the finest things whether of danger or love. So when he does drink tea, it is always Yin Hao. Origin: The most famous area is Fuzhou (Foochow) in Fujian (Fukien) Province, China. It is also made in Taiwan, and other areas. Other Names: Yin Hao Mo Li Hua Cha Dragon Phoenix Pearl
Here are three sources for Jasmine tea:
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