Exploring scented tea
Scenting is a real process with grades, and it is routinely confused with adding flavouring. These teas show what repeated layering with fresh blossom actually produces, and where the conventions differ by region.
Who this is for
Someone who likes jasmine tea and suspects there is more to it than one product.
What you should come away with
The ability to tell scented tea from flavoured tea in the packet, and to judge scenting quality by aroma rather than by visible petals.
Scenting, and the flowers that are removed
Buds rolled into pearls before scenting, so each one unfurls and releases the aroma gradually. In good Fujian scenting the spent flowers are screened out entirely.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Intensely jasmine without becoming soapy, which is the difference between real scenting and added flavouring.
Why this step follows
Fujian scenting with the flowers removed, then the Sichuan style that leaves them in. The general rule about visible flowers has this one real exception.
Strongly jasmine, over a soft Sichuan green base. The visible flowers are the regional signature rather than a sign of poor scenting.
Read alongside
- The tea flavour wheel explained
Flavour wheels organise descriptors from broad families outward to specific terms. They are navigation aids rather than science, and their usefulness depends entirely on being coarse enough to be usable.
- Understanding tea tasting notes
A tasting note is a pointer, not a claim. Nothing has been added to the tea, the writer is not describing an ingredient, and the note is only useful if it helps you recognise something.