Tea leaves and jasmine blossoms
by Lydia Kung
Many of us are wilting in summer’s heat, but jasmine thrives in southwestern China’s Guangxi province where summers are definitely not mild. Tea companies send their jasmine buyers to the flower market for several short stays over the summer months. The hub of jasmine work and transactions is in Hengxian County in Guangxi, and over three-quarters of the country’s jasmine flowers are planted and picked in that region.
As I’ve described before, the white buds are picked from late morning to early afternoon, and there is about a 3-hour window for buyers each late afternoon at the jasmine flower market (shown at right).
As the hours pass, prices go up. Knowledgeable buyers assess jasmine by rolling some of the buds in their hands, feeling for quality. They may offer a higher price at the outset as the bidding begins in order to secure a better lot. Scenting work ends in September and by late August, flower prices will climb steadily as the season wanes.
With magnolia, the fragrance is present in the flower once it is picked and lasts for a while. With jasmine, however, one must wait till evening when the plucked buds bloom and release their fragrance. Scenting work can only proceed on successive sunny dry days, and there have been periods of rain recently. The buds that can be picked after a rainy period are not considered the best and are used for scenting lower standards of teas, mostly for the domestic market. For export and especially for higher grades, fresh buds picked during a series of sunny days are used.
Each stage of scenting may last up to 10 to 12 hours, with a resting period of up to two days, and the tea leaves must be dried before another batch of flowers may be added. It is easy to understand why scenting requires a stretch of good days weather-wise, since higher standards are scented 3 or 4 times, sometimes more. There are night shift workers who must tend to the flower and leaf batches every two hours.
The last step of “elevating aroma” is an important one. Fewer jasmine blossoms are used because one does not want the moisture from the flowers increasing the moisture content in the leaves (that have been dried before), and only the best blossoms are saved for this final round of scenting. For very tippy teas, a thin layer of gauze may be used between the leaves and the flowers, so as to reduce any damage to the tips.
Behind the scenes is the daunting and formidable record keeping system that tracks all the various lots of teas that arrive for scenting, that matches tea lots with jasmine lots, and the tracking of deliveries. There are exporters whose orders for several standards – – leaf teas, pearls, fannings – reach several tons, so the scale of the scenting and correct allocation is impressive.
On the subject of jasmine pearls: some companies have encountered a late start this season. This is one specialty tea that is still hand-rolled, and a good portion of the primary green tea leaves are sent to Fujian for this hand crafted step – before the pearls are dispatched for scenting. Scenting pearls requires more rounds than for leaf teas because the latter (more open leafed) can absorb the jasmine fragrance more quickly.
This year, due to the continuing popularity of White tea Pearls (which are actually more the size of marbles rather than pearls), there are fewer workers available for rolling jasmine pearls, work that pays less than rolling White tea Pearls.
Another jasmine that is hand-rolled is the tea in Rings, shown here and note how the spent blossoms have been removed.
Another stunning tea visually, but in this instance, I think the processing makes for a tea that is too assertive, easily observe by the dark orange cup.
Past articles on jasmine teas:
July is jasmine season
Jasmine teas: the work of scenting
Jasmine teas: end of a season and a little known fact
July 26, 2019