Summer is the season of sensual delights—long days, warm breezes, and that brilliant energy of foliage in full bloom. Jasmine tea blends fit right in with that relaxing and invigorating pace of life and are an excellent choice to quench your thirst or compliment summer’s many delightful and fresh meals. A versatile tea, jasmine blends are excellent served hot or absolutely refreshing iced. If you’re feeling daring, try them iced with a fruit puree like peach or strawberry, and sweetened with a touch of your favorite honey.
Jasmine Tea Over Centuries
In China, Jasmin Tea is also known as Xiang Pian or Mo Li Hua Cha, and has been brewed for centuries by blending Chinese green tea leaves with the pleasingly scented jasmine flowers. Among scented teas of the world, jasmine tea is perhaps the most popular as it also provides a range of health benefits like reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels and boosting the immune system, among others.
The Aromatic Jasmine Flower
Jasmine tea is made from green, oolong, black, and even white tea blends infused with the exotic and aromatic jasmine flower. The jasmine flower blooms only at night—quite a romantic personality trait! In modern tea-making practices, tea leaves and jasmine flowers are “mated” in machines that control temperature and humidity in order to create the optimal absorption process and the perfect tea blend.
Other sources reveal a more traditional mating process where jasmine flowers are added to large stores of tea leaves during the night and infuse as the precious flower opens. This process can be repeated up to 12 nights for some of the higher grade teas. Depending on the tradition of the tea harvesters, loose jasmine tea may or may not contain flower petals and other material from the jasmine flowers.
Popular in Ayurveda
Jasmine flowers have been popular in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, and the aromatic plant has been used to increase immune function, reduce fevers, and act as an aphrodisiac. Chemically, the jasmine plant contains salicylic acid, linalool, and other alkaloids; this gives it real versatility in terms of homeopathic health remedies—it’s known as an analgesic, fever reducer, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, etc.
The aromatic effects of the flower have also been known to create both calming and invigorating moods. And, when jasmine tea is made from a green tea blend, the tea retains the same benefits of fighting cancer and heart disease as well as lowering LDL cholesterol levels.
Wonderful Harmony of Taste and Aroma
One of the biggest delights of drinking jasmine teas is the wonderful harmony of its taste and aroma. The smell of the jasmine flower comes to a full and lively scent during brewing and adds a subtle sweet flavor to the tea base. Most blends are brewed for 3-5 five minutes, and since it’s so aromatic, you’ll get the benefit of enjoying the aroma as you wait for your cup. Remember that teas can be seasonal and temperamental, so make sure you check the package or ask your tea merchant the optimal brewing practice for your particular jasmine blend.
Jocelyn Eide is a writer-researcher from Montana, USA, and writes on a variety of insightful topics, including natural health. When she is not working, she is likely doing Yoga.
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