flowering tea

Flowering teas, also called blooming teas, are a combination of 
tea leaves and various types of flowers such as Globe Amaranth, Marigold, 
Lily, Jasmine, Osmanhtus and Carnation Flower, skillfully tied together 
into bundles that are painstakingly designed to unfurl into beautiful, 
artful shapes when brewed. Given this, they should be brewed directly 
in a tall clear glass or glass teapot, so you can enjoy both the taste 
and the artistic display. 
While brewed, the flowers are very charming and attractive. 
You can not only enjoy the delicacy of tea and mellowness of flowers, 
but also can appreciate the sense of beauty. 

Although many teas are still flavoured directly with flowers, herbs, spices, or even smoke, teas with more specialized flavours are produced through the addition of flavourants or perfumes. This is particularly true for tea blends with pronounced fruit or flower aromas, which cannot be achieved with the original ingredients. Due to the number of scents that can be produced by the mentioned artificial methods, the section will concentrate on teas flavoured directly with the original scent materials.

Jasmine : Spread with jasmine flowers while oxidizing, and occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. Jasmine is most commonly used to flavour green teas to produce jasmine tea, although sometimes it is used to flavour light oolong teas such as baozhong teaA variety of flowers are used to flavor teas. Although flowers are used to scent teas directly, most flower-scented teas on the market use perfumes and aromas to augment or replace the use of flowers. The most popular of these teas include the flowers of the following:

• Osmanthus: In China, osmanthus tea (called guì huā chá, 桂花茶) is produced by combining dried sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) flowers (guì huā, 桂花) with black or green tea leaves in much the same manner the more familiar jasmine tea combines jasmine flowers with tea leaves. The flowers are spread while oxidizing, and occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. This flower gives the tea a mild peach flavor. It is the second most popular scented tea (after jasmine) in China.

Vietnamese lotus green tea

• Rose : Spread with rose flowers while oxidizing, occasionally some are left in the tea as a decoration. In China, roses are usually used to scent black tea and the resulting tea is called rose congou.
• Chrysanthemum: The flowers are often brewed alone as a chrysanthemum tisane, but it is also commonly mixed with pu-erh tea to make chrysanthemum pu-erh.
• Lotus: Vietnamese lotus tea is made by stuffing green tea leaves into the blossom of Nelumbo nucifera and allowing the scent to be absorbed overnight. Another common technique for making this tea is by jarring or baking the tea leaves with the fragrant stamens of the flower multiple times.