Gardenia vs jasmine
Two heady white florals, and gardenia is markedly more bitter with a curious savoury note as it cools. Its fruit is a bigger trade item than its flower, which is unusual in this category.
botanical
What is being compared
Why these get confused
Gardenia is called cape jasmine and is not a jasmine, and its fruit and flower are different goods.
Point by point
| Aspect | Gardenia | Jasmine |
|---|---|---|
| Flavour | Enormously perfumed and quite bitter, with a mushroom-like note as the cup cools. | Faintly sweet and slightly green, with much less bitterness. |
| The other part | The orange fruit is a major yellow food dye across Japan, Korea and China. | There is no comparable secondary product; the flower is the whole story. |
| In blends | Used in very small quantities in southern Chinese flower teas. | Used at larger scale, and layered rather than blended in the traditional process. |
| Handling | Flowers brown within hours of picking and must be dried immediately. | Buds open after dark, which is when the scenting is done. |
| What the name covers | Flower and fruit are both sold as gardenia and have almost nothing in common. | One product with one use, and the confusion is about whether the tea contains flowers. |
The short answer
Jasmine is the more forgiving of the two. Gardenia rewards a very light hand and punishes a normal one.
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