Magnolia bud
The furred, unopened flower bud of the yulan magnolia, picked in late winter before the tree breaks into flower. It is used in Chinese flower blends and, in Anhui, layered with green tea in the way jasmine is layered further south.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Magnolia denudata
- Family
- Magnoliaceae
- Part used
- Flower
- Origin
- Eastern and southern China; also cultivated well beyond that
- Drunk in
- Anhui, Zhejiang, Henan
Character
Perfumed with a distinct cooling camphor note, and more bitter than its scent suggests. Used sparingly in blends for exactly that reason.
Notes: magnolia, camphor, citrus peel
History
The yulan has been planted at Chinese temples and in palace gardens since at least the Tang period and is one of the oldest ornamental trees in continuous cultivation. Its use for scenting tea is a much later and much more localised practice than jasmine’s.
How it is drunk
Blended rather than drunk alone, and best known through the scented green teas of Anhui and Zhejiang. The flowering tree itself is a significant early-spring sight in Shanghai, where it is the city flower.
Production
Buds are cut in late winter while still closed and covered in grey down, and dried whole. A bud that has begun to open is downgraded, so the picking window is short and weather-dependent.
Preparation
Infusion · Blended with tea
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 85–90 °C · 4 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
Several magnolia species are harvested and sold under the same Chinese name, and the bark of a different magnolia is a separate trade item entirely. Buds and bark are not interchangeable.
Common mistakes
- Using it in flower-blend quantities. Like lavender, it overwhelms everything around it.
Related botanicals
- Lavender — Cool camphorous florals that overwhelm anything they are blended with at ordinary quantities.
Teas this connects to
- Jasmine green tea — Anhui scents green tea with magnolia in the way Fujian scents it with jasmine, on the same layering principle.
Comparisons
- Lavender vs magnolia bud — Two cool camphorous florals that overwhelm anything blended with them at ordinary quantities. Both are pinch-scale botanicals and both have a reputation for tasting medicinal, earned the same way.
- Gardenia vs magnolia bud — Two intensely perfumed Chinese flowers used in small quantities in blends, and both far more bitter than their scent suggests.
- Osmanthus and magnolia bud — Two Chinese flowers with carrying aroma that are used very differently: one is a sweet apricot scent added to tea and sweets, the other a sharp closed bud that needs restraint.
Guides
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Magnolia denudata Desr. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Magnolia bud is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.