gurdymonkey | Tea time: Classic Jasmine Pearls from Yunnan Sourcing

Yeah, I ordered more tea, this time from Yunnan Sourcing in China, because I didn't realize it was their US branch until I'd pulled the trigger on paying for it. Takes longer to get here (about 3 weeks), but they have a better selection. I discovered that they had a bunch of white tea and floral infused "dragon balls", and the fact that the in-laws are handmaking them and getting a cut didn't hurt their sales pitch. Plus you could buy a small amount at reasonable prices, which is good when you're not sure if you're going to like what you buy. I picked out several, then figured while I was at it, I'll look for a jasmine tea.

Now, the only previous time I'd ever had a jasmine tea, it was made from a teabag and served iced at a bookstore in Annapolis. It was ok, I drank the whole thing, thought it was interesting, but I definitely knew at some point I would want to try something a bit better. Today was that day.

From the seller's website: "Entirely fresh spring green tea and jasmine from the highest quality sources. Fujian green tea and Guangxi jasmine flowers. Nice small pearls that open up gradually when brewed. Balanced green tea and jasmine flavor and aroma. Very premium tippy jasmine pearls." The pearls are slightly smaller than a pea and the whitish strands are the jasmine petals.

Unfortunately the seller did not give brewing suggestions, so I figured I'd go for 190F with a 20 second steep to start as other websites were recommending much higher temps and I'm sitting here thinking, "But it's a GREEN!"

On the first steep, the floral scent and flavor were extremely delicate. The color of the tea looked almost peach, though it's reading very yellow on my monitor. (Or I could have some weird side effect from my Moderna booster that's affecting my color perception. Nah, probably not.)

This may not be for you if you like strongly flavored teas. It's all about the jasmine, but not in a cloying, overpowering way.

Second steep (40 seconds), the leaf unfurled all the way and the entire kitchen now smells like jasmine from the leaves just sitting in an open gaiwan. The tea color is still that peachy golden green. The jasmine flavor is more pronounced on the longer steep, but the green tea notes are more pronounced.

I'm going to stop on two cups and maybe fire up the kettle and do another steep or two later on, just because I don't want this session to turn into, "Ew, I'm drinking potpourri." Because this is a nice sipping tea, particularly on an overcast December day.

In other tea news, a birthday present from my sister just arrived. Elaine, being wise in the way of Amazon Wish Lists, sent me the tea travel flask I had wanted. There are tons of so-called travel tea flasks with infusers out there, but I specifically wanted one you can drink directly out of. I don't care if Oprah endorsed it, if I have to faff about pouring into the lid and using that as a teacup, I cannot use it at my desk! There will inevitably be a spill. Anyway, now I can take some of my nicer teas into work and enjoy them there.