Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Nuovo Tea

Tea Description:

Meant to delight your eyes as well as taste buds, these awe-inspiring ‘display teas’ unfurl when added to water, revealing delicate flowers hidden within. The practice of hand-sewing leaves into ‘blooming teas’ is an age-old Chinese art form that dates back centuries. Adagio has infused state-of-the-art packaging into this ancient delight, ensuring maximum freshness and superior flavor.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I really enjoy brewing “art teas” like this Jasmine Bloom Flowering Tea from Nuovo Tea.  It’s fun to watch the art reveal itself.  It starts out as a hand-sewn bulb of tea leaves, and as it brews, the leaves begin to unfurl, revealing a beautiful “blossom” tucked inside the tea leaves.

This particular art tea unfurls pretty quickly in comparison to some that I’ve encountered.  After my first infusion of 3 1/2 minutes, it was still a bulb, but I could see that quite a few of the leaves had begun to open up and away from the bulb to form the blossom.   I’m sure that with another minute, this art tea would have been unfurled and revealed to me the beauty inside.

But I didn’t want to oversteep the tea.  I don’t brew these art teas just for the art, after all … to me the true art is the beauty of the flavorful liquid so I’m always mindful of this and take care to brew each cup carefully – whether it’s an art tea like this, or a loose leaf tea or even a bagged tea.  I want the best flavor I can extract from any tea.

The first cup is delicate and sweet, with notes of jasmine and hints of buttery vegetables.  There is also a pleasing fruit note that is reminiscent of a sweet melon.

For the second cup, I infused the partially open bulb for 4 minutes, and within a minute, the bulb had opened and I could see the pretty white flower peeking from inside the tea leaf “blossom” that enveloped it only minutes ago.  Beautiful!

This cup had a stronger flavor than the first cup, but, I think I prefer the delicate quality of that first cup more than this stronger tasting cup.  Oh, it’s still tasty, don’t get me wrong!  But, I really liked the soft, buttery notes that I experienced in that first cup, and now, this is more like a grassy green tea with notes of jasmine.  I appreciate that the jasmine is soft and not tasting like soap.  It’s not a bitter tea, it’s a pleasing jasmine green.

A beautiful tea experience – these “art teas” make a great tea to serve when you have guests! Be sure to brew them in glass teacups (I don’t think that these little bulbs are quite large enough for a large teapot) so that everyone can watch the splendor as it unfolds!  They make a great conversation starter … not to mention produce a really tasty cup of tea.