Tea: What Is Jasmine Tea?

By Author: Marcus Stout
Total Articles: 113
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One of the tea blends you simply cannot miss is Jasmine tea. If you've never tried it, you're missing a real treat. Much of the world has already discovered the fragrance and flavor of Jasmine tea. In fact, it is the most popular Chinese flavored tea.

What makes jasmine tea so special is its special blend of high quality loose tea leaves with jasmine petals. The jasmine petals impart a delicate yet very aromatic fragrance to the tea. The jasmine petals also impart a slightly sweet flavor to the tea.

Jasmine has been produced in China for at least 700 years. The original production of jasmine tea included plucking the jasmine blossoms just as they are beginning to bloom and adding them to the tea leaves at night to ensure the best infusion of the aroma and fragrance. In most cases, the tea was scented twice - using two different sets of jasmine blossoms to ensure that the tea is properly infused.

Jasmine tea is most often made using green tea. Jasmine green tea is one of the healthiest teas you can drink. Green tea has been shown to have more health benefits than black tea because ...
... of the way that it's processed. Green tea does not go through a fermentation process. The fermentation process that happens to black tea converts the natural anti-oxidants to other compounds. So, while black tea is a healthy beverage, it is not as healthy as green tea, whose anti-oxidants are left in their natural state.

Anti-oxidants are important to protecting our health. Anti-oxidants help to neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are oxygen containing molecules that are created as a by product of converting the food we eat into energy. Left unchecked, these free radicals damage our cells and DNA, leading to aging and disease.

A diet rich in anti-oxidants keeps these free radicals under control. And, green tea is one of the best sources of anti-oxidants around. Including green tea in your diet along with other plant based products like fruits and vegetables can help protect your health.

In recent years, a lot of research has shown some very specific and interesting things about drinking green tea. We've learned that green tea has the power to prevent many types of cancer, including breast cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer. In addition, long term green tea drinkers tend to have a lower body weight and are more successful at losing weight.

Green tea can also help prevent heart disease by helping lower cholesterol and preventing blood clots, which are the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes. In addition, green tea may be helpful at regulating insulin naturally.

So, if you like the idea of adding green tea to your diet, then jasmine green tea may be a great way to enjoy a wonderful fragrance and flavor and protect your health at the same time.

If, however, you're not a green tea drinker, you can find jasmine tea in other forms. Oolong jasmine tea is also a very popular blend. Oolong teas are also processed a bit differently than black teas. Oolong teas are semi-fermented, meaning that they are fermented, but for a shorter period of time than black teas. To produce a good oolong tea, fermentation must be stopped when the leaves are 30% red and 70% green.

It is the ability to stop the fermentation at precisely the right time that gives oolong teas their distinct flavor. Most oolong teas are also dried using charcoal, giving it another distinct dimension. Oolong jasmine tea has the typically smooth and fruity taste usually found in oolong teas combined with the fragrant sweetness of jasmine.

Jasmine tea can be made from white tea, too. In fact, today, white jasmine tea is becoming quite popular. Sweet and light white tea combined with the subtle scent of jasmine makes for a very delicate and refreshing beverage. It's one of the mildest jasmine teas you'll find. And, drinking white jasmine tea will provide all the health benefits of drinking green jasmine tea.

Finally, there are also a few black jasmine teas. Because black tea has a bolder flavor, you'll find black jasmine teas to have a more subtle jasmine flavor, as the jasmine scent and taste does not stand out as much when combined with black tea as it does when combined with lighter green and oolong teas.

As you can see, jasmine is a favorite for blending with tea, making jasmine tea one of the easiest tea blends to find. Because jasmine tea is so common, however, it's important to ensure that you're choosing only the best quality tea when you purchase your jasmine tea.

The best jasmine tea is made using real jasmine petals combined with the highest quality loose leaf teas. In jasmine green tea, you'll often find that some of the best and most flavorful jasmine teas use tightly rolled green tea pearls mixed with jasmine petals.

In addition to teas mixed only with jasmine, you'll also find jasmine teas mixed with other flavors as well. Because jasmine imparts mostly fragrance and only a subtle flavor to the tea, it mixes easily with other flavors, as well.

You'll find jasmine tea flavored also with vanilla, rose and orange. All of these have the delicate aroma and sweet flavor of jasmine, but include a second, complementary flavor to add dimension to the taste of the tea.

Whatever form of jasmine tea you choose, you're sure to love it. Jasmine tea, whether in green, oolong or black form is one of the most traditional of all Chinese teas and certainly one of the most fragrant and enjoyable.

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About the Author:

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Marcus Stout is President of the Golden Moon
Tea Company. For more information about tea,
(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea)
green tea (http://www.goldenmoontea.com/blacktea)
and black tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com