Jasmine dragon pearl

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Fuzhou — 0–800 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. The jasmine fields are near sea level; the tea leaf scented here is generally grown at higher elevations elsewhere in the province.

• Hengxian — 20–300 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. Jasmine is a lowland flower crop here; the tea base it scents is generally grown at higher elevation elsewhere.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Fuyun 7 — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Early, vigorous and very downy, giving plenty of silvery bud material. High yield relative to the older Fujian cultivars, and correspondingly less concentrated.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
4. 4. Scenting — Transfers floral volatiles into the leaf by repeated contact with fresh blossom, without leaving the blossom in the product.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Jasmine-scented green tea — A finished green tea re-enters the factory in the flowering season and goes round a loop — layer with fresh blossom, screen it out, re-dry — as many as nine times.

  Where it is practised: Fujian above all, with Guangxi and Sichuan also producing at scale. The base tea and the flowers frequently come from different provinces, which is why the trade is organised around moving finished tea to where the jasmine is.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: 2-Phenylethanol, Indole, Jasmine lactone.

• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Scenting
  • raises 2-Phenylethanol
  • raises Indole
  • raises Jasmine lactone

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

Hand-rolled scented pearls are a twentieth-century refinement of a much older scenting tradition, developed as a premium presentation for export markets that valued visible craft.

TeaHQ synthesis — TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Flash-chilled iced tea

  2.5–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Cold brew tea

  1.2–2 g/100 ml · 4–10 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

When the cup goes wrong

Written against green tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 37 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale — A dozen or more packets are open at once, three or four get drunk regularly, and the rest fade quietly on the shelf until they are thrown away.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Scented vs flavoured tea — Two ways to make tea taste of something else, one of which takes a week and one of which takes a spray nozzle. The difference is visible in the packet if you know what to look for. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• Beijing bowl tea and the northern tea house — Coarse tea sold by the bowl at a street stall for the price of nothing, jasmine-scented tea as the northern default, and a tea-house form whose selling point is the stage rather than the leaf.

Journeys featuring this tea

• Exploring scented tea — Someone who likes jasmine tea and suspects there is more to it than one product.

Guides covering this tea

• How to read a tea label
• Why tea absorbs smells, and why that is also how jasmine tea is made
• Scented and flavoured are two different productions, with a difference you can taste
• Teas made from finished tea
• Storing flavoured, scented and blended teas, which behave unlike plain leaf
• Floral: orchid, jasmine, lilac and the family that covers half the catalogue