I have a really weird relationship with jasmine. Depending on the quality or type, it can smell beautiful or like moth balls. Depending on which other essential oils it’s blended with, it can create a symphony of gorgeousness or an olfactory train wreck. Up until now, every single jasmine tea that I have tried has smelled (and tasted, if you know what I mean) like moth balls. Lush has a shower gel called Flying Fox. It’s a love or hate kind of product, chock-full of jasmine and honeysuckle. Yeah, it’s moth balls for me. And almost every jasmine tea smells like Flying Fox.
This tea is no exception. Actually, to be entirely fair, the smell of the steeped tea isn’t nearly as potent as others I have tried in the past.
The first time I tried this, I steeped the bag for about two minutes in approximately 95°C, and the result was a heady jasmine aroma and flavour. Slight bitterness too due to the fact that I didn’t let the water cool enough before steeping.
But this time, I’ve steeped the bag for not quite two minutes, but allowed the water to cool longer, like maybe a good ten degrees cooler. The result is a much more delicate green tea with barely any heady jasmine at all. The green base is more evident too. Slightly vegetal and zero bitterness. The jasmine barely makes itself known. Cool beans.
Olfactory train wreck, that’s good. I may have to steal that someday.Funny stuff.