How Is Jasmine Tea Made? (And Why Some Cost More Than Others)

Open a bag of our jasmine tea and you’re greeted by a rich burst of floral fragrance.

Then you look inside, and there may be hardly a flower in sight.

So where does all that fragrance come from?

It comes from the way the tea is made.

Fresh jasmine blossoms are layered with the tea leaves, again and again, until the leaves have soaked up their scent. No flavourings, no fragrance oils.

We use 3 kg of fresh flowers to scent every 1 kg of tea. Our Exclusive-grade Snow White Bouquet goes through nine rounds of scenting.

Why Do Some Jasmine Teas Cost More Than Others?

Jasmine has always been our best seller.

So I’d love to show you what actually goes into it, and why one jasmine tea can cost noticeably more than another.

First, the Tea Underneath

Jasmine brings the fragrance. The tea brings everything else: the flavour, the texture, the way it feels in your mouth.

A beautiful smell sitting on a thin, flat tea is a bit of a letdown. You need both.

Most jasmine tea is jasmine green tea, and for good reason.

The fresh, light character of green tea sits really nicely with the flowers. Ours comes from Hengxian in Guangxi, the town known across China as its jasmine capital.

Green tea can take quite different shapes, too.

Our Jasmine Dragon Pearl and Snow White Bouquet are both rolled. Dragon Pearl is hand-rolled into little pearls, while Snow White Bouquet is made from young, downy buds rolled up tight.

Our Snow White is different. The leaves stay open and natural, and it’s blended with dried jasmine flowers, so you can actually see the jasmine in the bag.

And if green tea isn’t really your thing? Jasmine works on black tea too. Our Jasmine Black Tea puts the same fresh floral scent on a fuller, rounder base. There’s more on each of these teas below.

How Fresh Jasmine Flowers Scent the Tea

This is the part most people never get to see, and it’s my favourite part of the story.

The traditional process is called 窨制 (yìn zhì), and most of it happens at night.

Jasmine buds open in the evening, and that’s when they release their scent. So the whole process runs on the flowers’ schedule, not the maker’s.

Here’s what one round looks like.

1. Pick the buds, then wait

The buds are picked in the afternoon, while they’re still closed. They’re spread out and looked after until evening, when they’re ready to open. Get the timing wrong and you miss the best of the fragrance.

2. Layer the flowers with the tea

Tea, flowers, tea, flowers, piled up together with plenty of blossoms around the leaves. As the flowers open, the leaves take in their scent.

The pile also starts to warm up on its own, so someone has to keep a close eye on it.

3. Spread it out to cool (通花 tōng huā)

Too much heat and the flowers suffer, and so does the fragrance. The maker spreads everything out to let the heat escape, then gathers it back up so the scenting can carry on.

The maker watches the temperature and checks the flowers and their fragrance throughout.

4. Sift out the spent flowers (起花 qǐ huā)

Once the blossoms have given everything they’ve got, they’re sifted out.

And that’s the answer to our opening question. The flowers were there all along. They just did their work before the tea ever reached your bag.

5. Dry the tea gently

The leaves pick up moisture along with the fragrance, so they’re carefully dried before the next round.

Then it starts again with fresh flowers. For our nine-round teas, that’s nine rounds of picking, layering, cooling and sifting.

Why Do Jasmine Tea Prices Vary So Much?

Once you know how it’s made, the price differences make a lot more sense. You’re really paying for four things: the tea base, the fresh flowers, the maker’s skill, and how many rounds of scenting the tea gets.

Here’s how our jasmine green teas compare:

Every extra round means another batch of fresh flowers and another night of careful work. That’s where the price jump comes from.

But the number isn’t everything. Good leaves and a skilled maker matter just as much.

So when you taste, don’t stop at the first sniff:

• Is it still pleasant as it cools?
• Is the finish smooth, or a bit harsh?
• Would you happily pour a second cup?
• Underneath the jasmine, do you actually like the tea?

If the answer’s yes, that’s your tea, whatever the number on the label says.

Which of Our Jasmine Teas Should You Try?

It really comes down to what kind of cup you like.

Jasmine Dragon Pearl: the everyday favourite

If you want a lovely jasmine tea you can drink every day without thinking twice about the price, start here. Tender green tea leaves are hand-rolled into little pearls. Drop a few into hot water and watch them slowly unfurl. It never gets old.

• High grade: scented 7 times
• Premium grade: scented 9 times

Snow White Bouquet: delicate and bud-based

Snow White Bouquet is made entirely from young, downy buds. Their fine, pale hairs give the dry tea a silvery look, which is where the name comes from. Despite the name, it’s a jasmine green tea, not a white tea.

If you already love jasmine and want to taste it at its finest, this is the one.

• Premium grade: scented 7 times
• Exclusive grade: scented 9 times

Snow White: the one where you can see the flowers

Our Snow White is the easy, everyday sister of Jasmine Dragon Pearl. The leaves are left open and natural rather than rolled.

You’ll also see dried jasmine flowers in this tea. We blend dried jasmine blossoms through the finished tea. They look lovely in a glass, but the fragrance itself comes from seven rounds of scenting.

Jasmine Black Tea: for black tea lovers

Love the smell of jasmine but always reach for black tea?

This one’s for you. It’s a Chinese black tea base scented with fresh jasmine, with a fuller, rounder body under the floral notes.

It’s a less common style, and a great way in if green tea isn’t usually your first choice.

Keeping the Fragrance Fresh at Home

We vacuum-seal our jasmine tea so it reaches you smelling the way it should.

Once it’s open, it’s over to you:

• Reseal the bag tightly after each use.
• Keep it dry, at room temperature and away from heat.
• Keep it away from strong smells like coffee and spices.

The same thing that lets tea soak up jasmine scent will let it soak up your spice cupboard too.

A Few Questions Before Your First Cup

Is jasmine tea always green tea?

No. “Jasmine” describes the scenting, not the type of tea.

You’ll find both green and black tea bases in our Jasmine Tea Collection.

Why are there almost no flowers in my jasmine tea?

The flowers did their job during production, then they were removed. How many petals you can see tells you very little about how good the tea is.

How do I stop my jasmine tea turning bitter?

Each product page has its own detailed brewing guide, so start with the instructions for your tea.

Tightly rolled pearls and loose black tea need slightly different handling.

Generally speaking, if your cup comes out too strong, try:

• A shorter steep
• A little less leaf
• Taking the leaves out as soon as it tastes right

For jasmine green tea, slightly cooler water helps too. Change one thing at a time and you’ll find your sweet spot quickly.

For gongfu-style brewing, we recommend using a Tea Infuser or Gaiwan so you can separate the leaves from the water between infusions.

Find the Jasmine Tea for You

We’ve been bringing Chinese tea to Australian tea lovers since 2008.

Over the years, we’ve realised what our job really is.

It isn’t to find you the best tea in the world. The very best tea usually comes with a very big price tag, and that’s not how most of us drink tea day to day.

Our job is to find tea that’s genuinely good for what you pay. Everyone deserves a lovely cup, wherever they are on their tea journey.

Every tea you see in our range has been tasted, tested and chosen by us before it ever makes it onto our shelves. So there’s no need to second-guess.

Just pick the cup that sounds like you:

• Jasmine Dragon Pearl for everyday drinking
• Snow White Bouquet for something delicate
• Snow White if you’d like to see the flowers in your cup
• Jasmine Black Tea if you like a fuller cup

Explore our Jasmine Tea Collection →