Chinese Jasmine Tea - Where To Find A Good One?

by Anonymous
(Canada)

I purchased tea from you in the past. It's excellent!! I just recently was introduced to chinese Jasmine tea. I am looking for information about this tea. Is it a green tea? What are the benefits of this tea? Are there different grades? and I noticed that you do not carry this type of tea.

Please also inform me if there is a safe and reputable place that I could purchase this tea from. Thank you.

Answer:

I will be writing on Jasmine tea later this year. It means the tea is infused with jasmine, can be either white, green, oolong even pu-erh tea. Health benefits will depend on the quality of tea leaves used.

Most jasmine teas sold either in China or the West are mass-produced, simply because they are jasmine scented there is no incentive to use high quality leaves. Still they are very popular. You can do a search online to find them, or your local Chinese store (they sell Long Zhu Cha or dragon balls which have been heavily scented).

Higher grades will use higher quality leaves, i.e. tea buds and not leaves. A friend of mine is based in Sweden and carries a high quality Jasmine tea that has been infused 7 to 9 times. If you are interested, I can get a price quotation and further details for you.

Julian