Red Blossom Flower Tea

I have a lot of these flowering teas; a whole sample bag full, actually. They boggle my mind a bit and I don’t really know how to describe them. Most seem to be gentle, floral, and jasmine infused, and that’s about it.

This one a bit different from those because the vegetal, grassy tea really comes through strong here. It’s not unpleasant or bitter, and couples nicely with the overall nuttiness of the cup. The smell is in-your-face cut grass but the whole thing still manages to taste delicate and light in it’s own way. It’s a little astringent in a drying way.

The instructions for most of these flowering teas say to pour boiling water on the ball to let it unfurl, but once it’s done that I think it’s best to treat it like a typical green if your attempting a second steep. These guys seem to be two-faced between drooping petals and razor talons.

After waiting not so patiently for two weeks for this order to come, it’s finally here!
This tea is gorgeous! It blooms an amazing red color, and the green tea leaves expand beautifully. And it smells really good, too! Slightly floral when dry, with a really nice sweet, almost black tea scent (even though it’s a green). Once brewed the floral notes hit the background, and your left with delicious, sweet, almost wine-like honey notes.

Taste: So, taste wise, this tea isn’t as strong as I might have thought, given the strong, rich scent of the dry leaf and brewed tea. That’s ok, though. I’m still picking up some nice flavors. Some vegetal notes are present, with the nice sweet honey notes throughout. At the end of the sip is a light floral aspect. Overall, though light, this is quite yummy!
To be honest, I wasn’t holding out any high hopes for flowering teas…they looked too pretty to actually taste good. This one, however, has defied my expectations.
Also, I give this one a A for beauty. It’s not as out there as some of the other ones I’ve seen, but it’s simple and colorful. Nothing wrong with that. =)
Can’t wait to try the others!

NOTE: Second steep was a little more floral, but still had some nice honey-ish notes, as well as an earthy aspect I hadn’t caught before. Neat.

I like this one. The flavour is nutty and not flowery to me at all. The blossom is beautiful, and holds up well to resteeps. I would let it bloom over several steepings, otherwise the tea gets too strong and astringent for me.

This tea is a bit lighter tasting than traditional US/British teas. When I lived in Canada I used to visit a Chinese tea shop for blooming tea and this is reminiscent of the experience I had while living there. I brewed the water first, dropped in the tea, and watched it blossom. Not only was it beautiful it was very nice after being steeped for a while. It holds a light, soft floral flavor & the smell is sweet & calming to the nerves. This is quite possibly one of my favorite blooming teas.