Scented tea, also known as Fragrant tea, is a tea made by special technology using the characteristics of tea that is good at absorbing odors, using processed tea as raw materials, and adding fresh flowers that are suitable for eating and can emit fragrance as flower materials. Flower tea has a strong fragrance and a dark tea soup color, which is deeply loved by northerners who prefer heavy flavors.
Flower tea is mainly made of green tea, black tea or oolong tea as tea base, plus fresh flowers that can emit fragrance. According to the different varieties of fragrant flowers used, flower tea can be divided into jasmine tea, magnolia tea, pearl orchid tea, etc., among which jasmine tea is the most common.
Flower tea should be drunk plain, milk and sugar should not be added to maintain the natural fragrance. When drinking alone, it is advisable to use a small porcelain teapot or glass cup to brew; when entertaining guests, it is advisable to use a larger teapot or boil for three to five minutes before drinking, and you can continue to brew once or twice.
When brewing scented tea, you should first appreciate the appearance of the scented tea. When brewing scented tea, first put the tea leaves on a clean and odorless white paper, smell the scented tea aroma, observe the shape and color of the tea embryo, and form a preliminary impression of the quality of the scented tea. When brewing, take 2-3 grams of scented tea into the cup and then put it in the cup. Cool the boiling water slightly to about 90℃, then pour it into the cup, and then cover the cup to prevent the aroma from dissipating. You can observe the ups and downs of the tea in the water through the wall of the glass cup, as well as the tea leaves slowly unfolding, the leaf shape recovering, and the tea juice exuding color. This process is called "eye tasting". After brewing for 3 minutes, uncover one side of the cup lid and smell its aroma. Those who are interested can also take a deep breath to fully appreciate the aroma. This process is called "nose tasting". When the tea soup is slightly cool enough to be palatable, drink it in small sips, hold the tea soup in your mouth, let the tea soup flow back and forth on the tongue surface once or twice, fully contact with the taste buds, taste the tea flavor and aroma before swallowing. Do this once or twice, and you can taste the true fragrance and flavor of precious flower tea.
In addition to flower tea made from fresh flowers and tea leaves, we usually call plant stems, leaves, and flowers that can be brewed like tea as "tea", such as chrysanthemum tea, globe amaranth tea, etc. These teas usually have certain health benefits.
Natural combination of vision, smell and taste
When brewing scented tea, you can see the beautiful flowers and tea leaves reviving and stretching in hot water. Depending on the water temperature, some scented tea soups will show different colors. When hot water is poured in, the pure natural aroma emitted by the scented tea can make people feel more comfortable physically and mentally. Therefore, drinking scented tea can be said to be a comprehensive enjoyment of vision, smell and taste.
Scented tea is one of the media for contacting nature
Scented tea is extremely fragrant, gathering the essence of flowers and plants, and getting the agility of scented tea. When drinking scented tea, people will feel the power of nature, relax their body and mind, and relieve stress. For people in busy cities, scented tea is not only a drink, but also a way for people to return to the embrace of nature.
Regulate the body and mind
Flowers and herbs are products of nature. Using them to regulate the body will not cause side effects and is very beneficial to physical health. Although flower tea does not have an immediate effect like medicine, it can help us achieve physical and mental balance and health. Drinking a cup of herbal tea every day, whether you want to relieve stress or beautify your face and slim down, you will get unexpected surprises if you stick to it for a long time. Good flower tea can be brewed many times, unlike tea leaves that cannot be brewed for a long time, and unlike coffee that can only be brewed once. Even if you can't finish it and keep brewing it, you don't have to worry about the leakage of bad ingredients.
Flower tea is usually used as a healthy drink. Drinking it in moderation can supplement nutrition for the human body, help refresh the mind, relieve fatigue, and cheer up the temperament. However, if it is consumed excessively or for specific people, flower tea may also have some side effects.
1. Affecting the spleen and stomach:
Some flower teas are cool in nature, and tea is cold in nature. Long-term excessive drinking may affect the spleen and stomach, stimulate the gastrointestinal tract, enhance gastrointestinal motility, and easily cause diarrhea, indigestion or malabsorption.
Especially for those with weak gastrointestinal tract or those who are physically unwell, excessive drinking of scented tea may aggravate symptoms.
2. Causes qi and blood imbalance:
Certain scented teas such as rose tea and jasmine tea have the effect of promoting qi and blood circulation. Long-term excessive drinking may damage the human body's qi and blood, leading to qi and blood imbalance, which is a potential factor for the occurrence of certain diseases, such as insufficient qi and blood, irregular menstruation, etc.
3. Increase caffeine intake:
Some scented teas contain caffeine. If you drink too much, you may increase your caffeine intake and cause insomnia, palpitations, headaches and other symptoms.
4. Allergic reactions:
Some people may be allergic to the chemical components in some scented teas. Excessive drinking may cause allergic reactions, such as rashes and shortness of breath.
Especially for people who are allergic to pollen or pregnant women, special attention should be paid to allergic reactions that may be caused by scented tea.
5. Food poisoning:
If unfresh flowers are used to make scented tea, food poisoning may occur. Therefore, when drinking scented tea, you need to pay attention to choosing fresh and clean flowers.
Scented tea should be protected from insects and moisture, and should also be protected from direct sunlight that may make the flowers brittle or deteriorate.
1. Sealed packaging is the best way
Sealed cans are the best storage containers for scented tea, which can prevent scented tea from getting damp and deteriorating. Therefore, the best way is to put the scented tea in a sealed jar and seal the jar mouth to prevent moisture; if it is packed in the original bag, the air should be squeezed out and clamped with a clip to keep it sealed.
In addition, it can be placed in a fresh-keeping box, so that it can be stacked for easy collection.
2. Avoid direct sunlight
Place scented tea in a cool and dry place because light, moisture and temperature can easily cause scented tea to deteriorate. If the scented tea is placed in the refrigerator, the shelf life can be extended, and it can generally be stored for about 2 years. However, the scented tea that is usually stored does not need to be refrigerated in the refrigerator, just use a sealed glass jar to store it.
If fresh flowers and herbs are used, try to pick the leaves or flowers before use; if there are remaining flowers and herbs after brewing once, you can put them in a cup of water, or put them in a fresh-keeping bag and store them in the refrigerator, and use them up as soon as possible.
In order to increase the concentration of floral fragrance, high-end tea leaves need to be scented 2 to 3 times. The scenting process each time is basically the same as above, with only slightly different amounts of flowers, temperature, time, moisture content, etc. The production process of scented tea usually involves multiple key steps to ensure that the tea leaves can fully absorb the floral fragrance and form a unique floral tea flavor.
Strictly inspect the tea leaves to ensure that their quality meets the standards.
Select jasmine or other fragrant flowers with full shapes, uniform sizes, and white colors.
According to different grades of tea leaves, they are piled and refined.
The tea leaves are required to have a moisture content of 8%, a clean and uniform appearance, and no inclusions.
Flower feeding: The flower buds are spread out after entering the factory, and piled when the flower temperature is close to room temperature or 1-3℃ higher than room temperature. When the pile temperature reaches 38-40℃, turn the pile and spread it to cool down. Repeat this process 3-5 times. The purpose is to maintain the quality of fresh flowers and promote uniform ripening and opening.
Screening flowers: When the opening rate of jasmine flowers reaches 70% and the opening degree (the angle formed by the petals after the buds open) reaches 50-60°, screen the flowers. The apertures of the screen are 12 mm, 10 mm, and 8 mm, which are used to grade the fresh flowers. When the opening rate of the graded jasmine flowers reaches more than 90% and the opening degree reaches 90°, it is the appropriate standard for scenting.
When the temperature of the tea pile exceeds 40 degrees, the tea pile needs to be spread out to cool down to avoid the generation of stewed turbidity.
After the temperature drops below 32 degrees, the tea leaves are gathered again and scenting continues.
Also known as flowering, it is to screen out the scented flower residue to separate the tea and flowers.
Flowering should follow the principles of timely, fast, and clean.
During baking, it is very important to control the moisture content of the tea. Generally, the moisture content of the first scent is about 5%, the second scent is about 6%, and the third scent is about 6.5%, and the moisture content increases gradually.
The baking temperature is generally 80-120℃, and it gradually decreases with the increase of scenting times.
On the basis of scenting, a small amount of fresh flowers are used for re-scenting. After the flowers are out, they are no longer re-fired. After cooling, they can be evenly stacked and packed in boxes, which is called jacquard. The purpose is to improve the freshness of the aroma of the product. The fresh flowers used for jacquard should be large and full high-quality flowers picked on a sunny day, and the degree of opening of the fresh flowers should be slightly larger.
After a series of technological processes such as mixing tea base and fresh flowers, scenting, opening, taking out, and drying, it becomes scented tea, called scented flowers, or one-scented scented tea, single-scented scented tea. Some need to be scented again to increase the concentration of floral fragrance, which is called two-scented scented tea or double-scented scented tea. The tea that has been scented twice is called three-scented flower tea, and so on. Special jasmine tea has six scents per basket and seven scents per basket.
The flower residue of jasmine flowers after scenting or weaving still has a lingering fragrance, which can be reused in the harm of medium and low-grade tea blanks, so the flower residue used for scenting is called embossing. Embossing can remove the coarse and old taste of tea. Heavy embossing refers to increasing the amount of flower residue. Extending the embossing time can also remove various foreign tastes such as stale taste, smoke smell, sun-dried taste, and green taste. Practice has shown that light embossing can eliminate less odor, while heavy embossing can eliminate more odor, and its effect is significant. The embossing process is similar to fresh flower scenting. The scenting pile should be lower and the scenting time can be longer, usually about 10 hours, and the flowers must be purged once in the middle. Some places do not purge the flowers. However, experiments have shown that purging is better than not purging. The flower residue separated from the flowers after embossing is called residual flower residue. The flower residue is treated in other ways. Sometimes, if it is treated well, it can be reused once.
When scenting or weaving, a small amount of the second fresh flower is used together, which is called primer. The purpose is to blend the fragrance, set off the dominant flower fragrance, and make high-quality scented tea. In the scenting process, in addition to paying attention to the selection of tea bases that can set off the flower fragrance and the fragrant flowers that can produce the tea flavor and flower fragrance, it is also necessary to pay attention to the combination of the two fragrant flowers, so that the dominant flower fragrance has a more fresh, rich and elegant feeling. For example, when scenting jasmine tea, 1-1.5 kg of white orchid flowers are used for scenting and weaving in batches, and the rich fragrance of white orchid flowers is used to set off the fragrance of jasmine flowers. There are also pearl orchid flowers or grapefruit flowers. The primer flowers must not only pay attention to the coordination with the dominant flower fragrance, but also control the amount and usage. If you use white jasmine flowers as the base for scenting jasmine tea, if you use too much or cut the white jasmine flowers into pieces, the scent of the white jasmine flowers will be visible, which is commonly known as "see through the base" or "see through the orchid". Jasmine seeping through the orchid will affect the value of jasmine tea and will not be welcomed by the market. Therefore, jasmine tea above grade 3 cannot be cut into pieces for scenting with white jasmine flowers as the base.
The scenting flowers must go through the re-firing process to reduce the scent of the white jasmine flowers and make it softer. Fresh flowers are easy to be exposed to orchid flavor without re-firing. Therefore, when using white jasmine flowers as the base in production, the principle of "using more scenting flowers and less jacquard flowers" should be followed.
