Tea Forte Advent Calendar: Day 8 - Jasmine Green

 


I do love a good Jasmine Green tea, and while it is DIFFICULT to mess it up, it IS possible if your green tea isn't the right quality or if you are too heavy on the Jasmine, or if you use a Jasmine oil instead of blossoms or pre-scenting the leaves.  So - I was excited but cautiously so.


Reading the description of the blend made me feel safer that it was indeed going to be a well done and lovely cup of Jasmine Green.  Why you ask?  Because they labeled the tea as a Chung Hao.  Chung Hao is a Chinese tea from the Fujian province where the Jasmine Green tea blend was invented for use in the Imperial Court.  To say it is a Chung Hao usually means that the tea has been hand harvested and DEFINITLY means that the tea has been scented by mixing the drying tea with fresh jasmine blossoms and then removing the blossoms before packing the tea.  It gives an entirely different balance to the tea than using oil, or adding blossoms after the leaves have already been dried.  Chung Hao style is my favorite style of Jasmine Green.


I made the cup, took a sip and was transported to a lovely happy place.

It didn't pair at all well with my buttery shortbread finger, so I saved the cookie until after I had finished the cup.  The buttery goodness wiped away the slight grass after taste that the last sip of the green tea had left.


Final thoughts:  Lovely.

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