Flower removal and the finishing round (qi hua, ti hua)

What it is

Scenting is a loop and the removal is what makes it one. Fresh jasmine is layered with the tea overnight while the blossoms open; by morning they have given up their volatiles, they are limp and wet, and if they stay in the tea they rot and the whole lot goes stale. So the mass is screened, the spent flowers are discarded, the leaf — which has taken up moisture from them — is re-dried, and it is cooled and layered with an entirely fresh charge of flowers for the next round. A premium jasmine tea goes round that loop between four and nine times, and the flowers are new every time. The last operation, ti hua, is different in kind: a short final contact, sometimes only a few hours, whose purpose is a fresh top note rather than absorption in depth. Whether its flowers are screened out is where the grades diverge — traditional high-grade practice removes them, and dried blossoms left visible in the packet are usually decoration added for the buyer's eye.

Also transliterated as: qi hua, qihua, ti hua, tihua.

What it does to the leaf

Separates spent blossom from scented leaf by screening, and returns the leaf to a drier to remove the moisture the flowers gave it, so that the next round begins with dry, absorbent tea.

What it does to the cup

Determines whether the aroma is clean or muddied: flowers left to break down give a heavy, stewed, slightly rotten edge that is easy to mistake for strength, and each re-drying round also costs a little of the base tea's own character.

Variants that matter

Ways this step is carried out that produce genuinely different results, rather than regional names for the same thing.

Screening between rounds (qi hua)

Performed after every round. Mechanised at scale with vibrating screens, still done over trays for the top grades.

Finishing round (ti hua)

A short final contact for the top note. Not counted the same way as a full round, which is one reason quoted round counts are hard to compare between sellers.

Flowers left in

Cheaper grades and decorative products leave blossom in the packet. It looks like evidence of scenting and is closer to evidence of the opposite.

Other steps at the Scenting stage

• Applied flavouring — A flavouring preparation is metered onto finished dry tea while it tumbles, and the lot is then left to equalise. It is not scenting, and the two are constantly confused because the finished packets look alike.
• Citrus peel stuffing — Hollowing a mandarin, packing it with dark tea and drying the whole fruit, so peel and tea age together in one object.
• Pine smoking — Withering and drying leaf over a smouldering pine fire so smoke volatiles are absorbed into it — the step that makes smoked Lapsang Souchong.
• Scenting — Layering finished tea with fresh flowers so the leaf absorbs their aroma, then removing the spent flowers.

Guides covering this step

• Teas made from finished tea — Jasmine tea, hojicha, shou pu-erh and the Fu brick all begin with a completed, saleable tea and then do something else to it. That is where the six-category scheme starts to creak, and the creaking is informative.
• Reading a wet leaf backwards to the process — The spent leaf in the bottom of the pot is the most honest document a tea comes with. Almost every processing decision leaves a mark on it, and reading those marks is a skill that takes an afternoon to start and rewards a lifetime.