Jasmine Tea
 |
|
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 3 reviews
50 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 4/5Trailesque (156 reviews) on Sep. 15th, 2023
I have been seeing this tea around for years, its mustard-colored tins are commonly available in Chinese food shops. My most recent container of it seemed fairly dry and grassy, with less jasmine flavor than it had in the past. Or perhaps my tastebuds may have changed a bit over time. As a budget priced jasmine tea, it is pretty good, but as you might expect, nothing special.
65 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5Tchuggin' Okie (397 reviews) on Jan. 4th, 2020
One of my kids gave me this for Christmas, having bought it at an Asian food store for an unknown price, so I'm basing the value rating off the mostly reasonable online costs for a 120g tin. The packaging of this tea confused me a bit at first, as it was branded just like one of the same title on RateTea, but in a tin that looked a lot different. Fortunately the prior reviewer offers a great explanation of the discrepancy. For the record, I've added a photo of the opened, Sunflower 2060 "red tin" version of this tea I received, so folks can see either of them.
The dry leaves are very dark green to nearly black, but become much more classically green during steeping, as they unfurl. This tea also has a lot of stems in it, and an occasional white petal piece, which I only can assume is jasmine that didn't get sifted out. Both indicate lackadaisical processing. Aromatically and flavor-wise, this is a pleasant but not outstanding jasmine tea, nothing very out of the ordinary in my experience for either bagged or loose. I'll finish the tin, but won't seek out more.
The dry-leaf smell was a little grassy as well as "jasminey". The in-cup and wet-leaf smells offered slightly more of the base tea in a sweet, faintly musty form, reminiscent of moist old wood timbers in an abandoned house. [I've photographed a lot of abandoned houses, so it's a familiar aroma.]
In the cups I've had so far, I brewed this tea three different ways: 1) boiling hot for 4-5 minutes as with black tea, 2) a couple minutes of cooling of boiled water, then 3 minutes as with most greens, and 3) accidentally cooled water left in a thermos for a few hours to "somewhat hot" level, then soaking leaves for 8-9 minutes. I didn't notice a lot of difference between these disparate steeping tactics, but felt the jasmine was strongest with the long brew in slightly hot water, and could taste the base tea quite well with each method. All yielded about the same (high) level of astringency and moderate bitterness.
59 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 3/5Difflugia (170 reviews) on Aug. 7th, 2019
I'm not entirely sure how to understand Chinese branding, but "Fujian Tea Import & Export Co., Ltd.," itself a subsidiary of "China Tea Co., Ltd." seems to be a state-run company that handles international trade for a number of smaller Chinese tea companies in the Fujian province. This jasmine tea is further branded with the "Sunflower" brand with the number 1030. There's a similar tea, number 2060, in a red tin that appears to differ only in the address of the specific producer or business unit.
The tin says that it's a green tea, but the leaves are quite dark. The steel tin has a double closure with a round inner lid made of plastic and a steel outer lid. Dry, the tea is mostly dark green with a few light green or grey pieces. It smells strongly of jasmine and only slightly of tea.
I've brewed this tea both with boiling and cooler (170°F) water. Brewed hotter, the jasmine is strong, astringent, and moderately bitter. The flavor of the tea is mostly overpowered by the jasmine, but a bit of fruity melon comes through. The astringency gives it a dry quality that's thirst-quenching. I tried the cooler water to temper the bitterness a bit, which it did, but I also completely lost the flavor of the tea under the jasmine. The jasmine is more mellow and itself slightly fruity with the cooler water, but the tea itself becomes rather insipid. I prefer the hotter water and the stronger flavor.
Overall, this tea tastes OK, but is rather mediocre. There are better jasmine teas, but they're more expensive. I paid $4.79 for the 120g can, so about $1.20 per ounce. It's probably worth that, but certainly not a bargain.
Page 1 of 1 page with 3 reviews
