Your favourite Jasmine? Where to from here?
Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 1:55 pm
Hello all. I've started a serious tea hobby over the past 6 months due to discovering Jasmine pearls at a local tea shop and exploring from there. I checked local Chinese shops and found smaller, expensive zip bags which were nice, but very pricey and not always fresh. I moved on-line and tried to start with 'cheap' ones and ended up wasting the money. I've since discovered several very good quality brands and am beginning to develop my brewing skills and develop opinions on which I like best and why. I now own and prefer a Gaiwan and small cups, I enjoy the control over the intensity of the steep and riding the arc of flavors the tea can produce over a period of time.
In my experience thus far I have found an interesting variety of flavors and aromas all from "Jasmine" green tea so I wanted to learn from others opinions as well. I've also just taken an order of some 2018 non-Jasmine greens to see where I might branch out my hobby into new flavor destinations - I'd love to hear where you found another way to connect to tea after Jasmine!
First - my favorites and why:
Teavivre Award winning superfine Downy Jasmine dragon pearls. My first scent of Jasmine pearls months before discovering these sent me to bliss and I knew I needed to try this tea. When I received my first bag of these downy pearls, cutting it open almost knocked me over - like fresh flowers right under my nose, the most aromatic I've found so far. The taste of the tea itself is delicate, yet present and nicely balanced, but the Jasmine is so intense and wonderful. This is a true aromatherapy tea, I have enjoyed inhaling the liquid as much as drinking it. These pearls are also the ones I've achieved the most full flavor steeps from and the only ones I don't oversteep for the reason it's actually possible to have too much Jasmine. Another bonus is I can brew these at 185F so they open more fully and they've never shown a hint of bitterness. 10/10 - so far!
Teavivre Award winning premium Jasmine Pearls. I received these as a sample with the Downy type and these are 'normal sized' where the downy pearls are actually quite small. They have the same rich, fresh Jasmine fragrance and balanced taste and there isn't much between them. I think I may have been able to get an extra steep from the downy type based on the sample I received, but these would make a excellent go-to as well.
There are several varieties I've tried that would suffice to satisfy my Jasmine cravings after the Teavivre, but none are it's equal. Tea-Ren King's Grade Jasmine Pearls where very good, but very expensive (note, their Imperial dragon pearls that I also tried where good, but less aromatic). David's Tea Jasmine Dragon Pearls were where it began for me and are also quite good. Being that these were my first experience with loose leaf green tea, I was able to make them bitter a few times before I ironed out my skills. Tealyra is another on-line site with decent pricing and their Imperial Jasmine Pearls stay at my office as a back-up in case I forget my Teavivre pearls or crave beyond one batch of pearls in a day. They are less aromatic than the Teavivre (but everything is so far) and get less steeps, but they are still very tasty with a nice aroma coming off the tea.
Honorable mention goes to Yunnan Sourcing Imperial Jasmine Pearls for having the most unique I've tried so far. The initial aroma is a bit more laid back than the Teavivre, but is notably fruity. It is unlike any other Jasmine I've smelled so far. The aroma doesn't really carry into the brewed tea I've found, but rather sits in the backseat to the tea itself, which has a little more body than other pearls I've tried. Still a bright yellow soup, but more tea taste with a Jasmine hint. Still very nice, I'll keep these in rotation as a way to change the backdrop on the usual. Note, I brew these at recommended temperatures as brewing hotter as I've tried successfully with other pearls made these a bit bitter.
I've just recently ordered a Honey Orchid Oolong and look forward to seeing if there are other ways to love tea as much as I love Jasmine. What are your experiences?
In my experience thus far I have found an interesting variety of flavors and aromas all from "Jasmine" green tea so I wanted to learn from others opinions as well. I've also just taken an order of some 2018 non-Jasmine greens to see where I might branch out my hobby into new flavor destinations - I'd love to hear where you found another way to connect to tea after Jasmine!
First - my favorites and why:
Teavivre Award winning superfine Downy Jasmine dragon pearls. My first scent of Jasmine pearls months before discovering these sent me to bliss and I knew I needed to try this tea. When I received my first bag of these downy pearls, cutting it open almost knocked me over - like fresh flowers right under my nose, the most aromatic I've found so far. The taste of the tea itself is delicate, yet present and nicely balanced, but the Jasmine is so intense and wonderful. This is a true aromatherapy tea, I have enjoyed inhaling the liquid as much as drinking it. These pearls are also the ones I've achieved the most full flavor steeps from and the only ones I don't oversteep for the reason it's actually possible to have too much Jasmine. Another bonus is I can brew these at 185F so they open more fully and they've never shown a hint of bitterness. 10/10 - so far!
Teavivre Award winning premium Jasmine Pearls. I received these as a sample with the Downy type and these are 'normal sized' where the downy pearls are actually quite small. They have the same rich, fresh Jasmine fragrance and balanced taste and there isn't much between them. I think I may have been able to get an extra steep from the downy type based on the sample I received, but these would make a excellent go-to as well.
There are several varieties I've tried that would suffice to satisfy my Jasmine cravings after the Teavivre, but none are it's equal. Tea-Ren King's Grade Jasmine Pearls where very good, but very expensive (note, their Imperial dragon pearls that I also tried where good, but less aromatic). David's Tea Jasmine Dragon Pearls were where it began for me and are also quite good. Being that these were my first experience with loose leaf green tea, I was able to make them bitter a few times before I ironed out my skills. Tealyra is another on-line site with decent pricing and their Imperial Jasmine Pearls stay at my office as a back-up in case I forget my Teavivre pearls or crave beyond one batch of pearls in a day. They are less aromatic than the Teavivre (but everything is so far) and get less steeps, but they are still very tasty with a nice aroma coming off the tea.
Honorable mention goes to Yunnan Sourcing Imperial Jasmine Pearls for having the most unique I've tried so far. The initial aroma is a bit more laid back than the Teavivre, but is notably fruity. It is unlike any other Jasmine I've smelled so far. The aroma doesn't really carry into the brewed tea I've found, but rather sits in the backseat to the tea itself, which has a little more body than other pearls I've tried. Still a bright yellow soup, but more tea taste with a Jasmine hint. Still very nice, I'll keep these in rotation as a way to change the backdrop on the usual. Note, I brew these at recommended temperatures as brewing hotter as I've tried successfully with other pearls made these a bit bitter.
I've just recently ordered a Honey Orchid Oolong and look forward to seeing if there are other ways to love tea as much as I love Jasmine. What are your experiences?