Jasmine tea is a fragrant tea made with jasmine flowers and green or oolong tea. It is commonly served in Chinese restaurants and can be found in specialty tea shops. The tea is prepared by curing the flowers with the tea leaves and can be consumed plain or with sugar. The best jasmine tea is made with whole leaves and should be brewed briefly with water just below boiling point.
Jasmine tea is a highly aromatic variety of tea flavored with jasmine flowers. In addition to providing a rich floral scent, the flowers add a subtle note to the tea that many people find quite pleasant. Jasmine tea is readily available in Chinese markets and can often be obtained from large grocery stores or specialty tea shops. Many people may be familiar with jasmine tea because it’s a frequent offering in Chinese restaurants.
Depending on the variety, jasmine tea can be brewed with green tea or oolong tea. Oolong jasmine is very common, with a rich and delicate flavor that also tends to settle the stomach. Many restaurants offer oolong jasmine tea for this very reason. More rarely, black tea is used as a base. The flavor of black tea tends to overwhelm the jasmine, however, as black tea tends to be very tannic. The tea is often mild enough to consume plain, although some people add small amounts of sugar out of preference for sweetened teas.
To prepare jasmine tea, jasmine flowers are harvested at the peak of their bloom and then cured into finished teas under carefully controlled humidity and temperature conditions. As the jasmine flowers dry, they infuse the tea with their flavor; sometimes multiple curing steps are used to brew extremely potent jasmine tea. At the end of the curing process, the tea is cooked again to remove the moisture given off by the jasmine and can then be packaged for sale.
In some cases, jasmine flowers are left in the tea. This function is purely ornamental, as the flowers are essentially odorless and tasteless at the end of the curing process. However, they can look pretty cool as they rehydrate in tea water and unwind. The practice of leaving dried flowers in tea is actually quite widespread, and many novelty teas and herbal teas include dried flowers or flower assortments to spice things up during the brewing process.
The best jasmine tea is smooth, since it includes whole leaves and no clippings or stems. Ideally it should be brewed loose in a teapot and strained for service, although many people prefer to use teaballs for their brew as they are more convenient. Both green tea and green tea should only be steeped briefly, as they can turn bitter with long steeping, and the water should be just below boiling point for the best flavor and scent.
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