I was lucky to receive a Primula Layla Teapot and flowering tea set from a friend The Primula teapot features all-glass construction, even the brewing basket is clear. It has an impressive capacity, making it perfect for sharing a blooming tea session with a few friends.
The flowering tea set came with blooming tea balls, which make good use of the transparent, glass-bodied teapot. I’m not sure which flavor of blooming tea was included, as it lacked a label, but I suspect it is their house blend jasmine bloom.
This is the first blooming tea I’ve actually conducted myself. Previously I’ve always been viewing at someone else’s tea party. Now that I have a teapot so suited for blooming teas, I’ll have to try this type of tea more often.
On an afternoon where I needed some zen, I brewed up a pot of hot water and dropped in the tea ball. As the water soaked into the leaves, they slowly peeled back, like a hand opening its fingers. The process did take a few minutes and I found myself impatient at first. As I relaxed, I found I was surprised how much the bloom was changing in each moment, until we finally reached the unfurling of the pink, center blossoms.
I poured a small cup of the tea to sip on while the bloom continued to relax its leaves. The tea brewed up a golden color, clear and bright, making the blossom look sunlit from every angle. The tea tasted mainly of jasmine, but had a surprisingly earthy undertone almost like the sweet-floral notes of cacao or dark chocolate. I like jasmine pearls, but it was nice to have a deeper flavor balance to the light, flowery notes.
I sipped on the tea all afternoon and watched the leaves continue to soak until they were saturated with tea. It was a lovely experience and the Primula flowering tea set would make a great gift. I can’t wait to brew more tea in this lovely teapot!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green tea/TeaPot
Where to Buy: Primula
Description:
Create an unforgettable and extraordinary tea experience with this crystal clear glass teapot and accompanying flowering tea blossoms. The Layla glass teapot and tea set offers a generous 36 oz capacity. Serve up to 9 cups of tea in this stunning clear glass tea set, which offers the perfect window from which to watch the included tea flowers begin to bloom in colorful profusion as they steep. After tea, cleanup is easy because this BPA free borosilicate glass teapot is both microwave and dishwasher safe.
Each tea flower has been exceptionally crafted by artisans in China to create the hand-sewn green tea with all natural tea flowers. The green tea is blended five times with jasmine to emanate an ambrosial floral fragrance. Each package contains 12 different flowering teas along with an illustrated picture and health benefit guide. Choose a pot of Floral Passion, Noble Madam, Oriental Beauty or Camellia Joy. Or watch your cup erupt with Wild Flowers, Gilded Lotus, Lover’s Blossom or Juliet’s Kiss. Other popular flavors like London Fog, Butterfly Floret, Fairy Lily and Summer Bouquet complete your choices in the taste sensation. Try all twelve green tea blends and be amazed at how each bud delivers a delectable cup of tea and an optical sensation. Each tea blend is packed with healthy anti-oxidants and can be steeped three times giving you over 250 cups in each canister. These tea flowers make an excellent gift for special occasions and are something any tea lover would enjoy.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Love Game Flowering Tea from Dragon Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Dragon Tea House
Tea Description:
A delicate flower blooms inside this ball tea just before tiny flowers slowly cascade upward like Champagne bubbles. The flowers add their enlivening fragrance and strong taste to this delectably smooth green tea. Our Ball offers one of the most artful spectacles in tea. This blooming tea has an original shape of an tiny ball and when put in boiling water a bouquet of tea leaves and flower. The aromas of both flowers and tea leaves are very well preserved and these exceptional teas develop a wonderful flavor and create at the same time a beautiful “table decoration”.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Every once in a while, I like to take a moment to simply watch a tea steep. There is something so wonderfully relaxing about it. I think my favorite teas to watch steep are blooming teas, like this Love Game Flowering Tea from Dragon Tea House. I like blooming teas because they open slowly, taking their time to reveal their splendor, and when they’ve finally fully unfurled, what a breathtaking display!
I infused this tea for six full minutes in 180°F water, and it still had not opened fully … which means MORE INFUSIONS! Yay! This first cup is tasty. The mouthfeel is soft and silky. The taste is sweet and floral with notes of jasmine, and a slight nutty flavor. It is very smooth tasting, with very little astringency and no bitterness.
For my second infusion, I set the timer for ten minutes, although it had fully unfurled after about 90 seconds (taking seven and a half minutes total to completely open), but I infused it for the full ten minutes to achieve full flavor for the infusion, and that ten minutes delivered! The second infusion was even tastier than the first. The flavor is more focused on the nutty flavors, with hints of jasmine, and a sweet, fresh, slightly grassy tone.
Overall, a very pleasant experience!
Love Goddess Flowering Tea from Dragon Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Flowering)
Where to Buy: Dragon Tea House
Tea Description:
A delicate flower blooms inside this ball tea just before tiny flowers slowly cascade upward like Champagne bubbles. The flowers add their enlivening fragrance and strong taste to this delectably smooth green tea. Our Ball offers one of the most artful spectacles in tea. This blooming tea has an original shape of an tiny ball and when put in boiling water a bouquet of tea leaves and flower. The aromas of both flowers and tea leaves are very well preserved and these exceptional teas develop a wonderful flavor and create at the same time a beautiful “table decoration”.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is really beautiful, and I am thrilled at how quickly the leaves opened to reveal the display of flowers inside. Sometimes, with blossoming teas like this, it takes two or sometimes even three infusions before the tea bulb fully opens, but, I got a beautiful show after steeping for just four minutes.
The flavor is a little less impressive. It tastes alright, don’t get me wrong, and I was able to drink not just the first cup but a second infusion as well, and I enjoyed them both.
This has a stronger green tea taste than some of the other blooming teas, and that may have something to do with it. It has a stronger vegetal taste, and a very faint jasmine note. It’s pleasant enough, and as I continued to drink, a soft buttery tone developed that I liked.
While these pictures are really lovely, I have to say that I think it’s even more breathtaking in person. If you’ve not yet brewed a blooming tea, what are you waiting for? You should get yourself a glass teapot or mug, and try some blooming teas! I have a mug with a glass infuser, which makes it very easy to enjoy the unfurling of the leaves, the finished display, and it is also very easy to remove the tea from the mug to enjoy the tea. I don’t drink blooming teas very often, I would say that I try to have one at least once a week, if for no other reason than the release of stress that I get from watching the unfurling process.
And while this isn’t my favorite blooming tea that I’ve ever had, I will say that I’m really impressed with Dragon Tea House’s vast selection of teas, including some Yellow teas. Fair prices too!
Jasmine Fairy Blooming Tea from Alice’s Fine Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White (Blooming Tea)
Where to Buy: Alice’s Fine Teas
Tea Description:
Our Jasmine Fairy starts out as a ‘mushroom’ shape ball. White jasmine and beautiful lily hide inside the silver needle tea. Pouring boiled water causes the red lily petals to rise up trying to follow the white jasmine dancing light-footed like a fairy flying in the sky. This fragrant tea tastes smooth and sweet. Ingredients: Jasmine (sweet fragrance, said to moisten the skin, ease anxiety and anti-inflammatory), Lily (said to enhance energy and to have a cooling effect), Silver Needle Tea
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a while since I’ve had a blooming tea, so I decided that now was the time. I have really enjoyed the blooming teas that Alice’s Fine Teas offers, so I was pretty confident I’d enjoy this one too.
After steeping for six minutes in 175°F water, the bloom was open, but, I fear that my glass cup was not quite tall enough to see the full effect of the white floral extension (as shown in the photo above). To the right, you’ll see what the bloom appeared like with a slightly shorter glass. Still beautiful, even though the extension was not fully visible.
But even more important (at least to me) is the flavor of the tea, and I am not at all disappointed with the flavor of this blooming tea. It is light, sweet, and even a little creamy! The floral notes are present but in keeping with the overall lightness of the tea, and they do not overwhelm the flavor of the silver needle tea.
The floral is not entirely jasmine here, as I can taste the lily flavor too. I like that even though it is a combination of flowery flavors, it doesn’t taste like perfume or soap. It tastes more like … spring. Like the freshness of spring: crisp air, full of life as the flowers begin to bloom after winter’s frosty chill.
A very fun and delicious tea!
Riches and Honor Blooming Flower Tea from Alice’s Fine Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Alice’s Fine Teas
Product Description:
The shape of Blooming Flower Brings Riches and Honor is like an orb made of strips of silk. It is made of tea needles and fresh camellia. It opens in the water just as the flower opens in slow motion – delicate and charming. Under the water’s moistening the camellia is natural and graceful. The tea has a wonderful buttery fragrance and tastes very smooth, sweet (like honey) and fresh. Ingredients: Camellia (flower of the tea plant is high in antioxidants) and Silver Needle Tea
Taster’s Review:
In the past, I’ve steeped blooming tea bulbs for just a few minutes, and would stop the process before the bloom had completely opened for fear that I’d over-steep the tea. This time, just for experimentation’s sake, I decided to try steeping it until the bulb had completely blossomed, and see how the tea tasted.
The bloom is gorgeous! It is a creamy white color, and it looks so graceful and elegant as the petals move slowly in the liquid. And surprisingly, the tea is not rendered too bitter to drink after the long steep (it took about ten minutes for this bulb to completely unfurl in 160 ° F water).
The liquor is a pale, clear amber-ish color and has a thick, soft mouthfeel. The flavor is sweet and is not quite as delicate as a typical silver needle tea (of course, this probably has something to do with the length of time it was steeped). There is some cleansing astringency to this tea, but it is not overly dry. Overall, the taste is lightly grassy and has a distinct floral taste to it that is somewhat pollen-y with a honey-like sweetness that lingers in the aftertaste.
This is a beautiful tea with a very pleasant sweet-yet-savory taste to it. One that would be a pleasure to serve to guests … and it makes a beautiful (and unique) conversation piece as well!