A flavor celebrated as far back as the Song dynasty, and maybe even as far back as the Tang…
Sounds proud, doesn’t it? Chicken, that seems awfully long…
It’s only going to be now because jasmine green tea is a romantic subject!
It owes its beautiful (we write it that way because it is) fragrance to fresh jasmine flowers, harvested before dawn – that’s when it smells the most intense. Tea leaves are interleaved with fresh jasmine flowers, and their aroma becomes part of the tea. This is done fresh, not after drying – nice isn’t it?
The Chinese tea tradition is said to be generally fond of such flavoring games with panache. Jasmine came to China from Persia as early as the 3rd century AD(i.e. during the Tang Dynasty), and in the 5th century(that’s still the Song Dynasty) it began to be combined with tea.
