Osmanthus Green

What Is It?

Osmanthus Green is an infused green tea from the South East provinces of China. It's associated with love, weddings and marriage - so it's no mistake that we've picked it on the most romantic day of the year: Valentine's Day. Another reason why we're enjoying this special tea is because the Chinese have just celebrated their New Year - so we'll raise our cups to that too!

Osmanthus is a very sweet and abundantly aromatic flower. It's very beautiful too - bright gold and yellow. With its appearance and powerful scent, it's a firm favourite for drinking and giving as a gift at weddings.  

The Origins of Osmanthus Green

Using flowers in tea dates back to the Ming Dynasty in China. During this time, Osmanthus flowers would have been used with white, green, black and Oolong tea. It's probably one of the finest examples you'll ever see of flowers and tea leaves being used together. And lucky for us, this tea was introduced to Europe in the mid 1800s...

Brewing, Serving and Tasting Your Tea

Let's take a look at the loose tea before we have a little taste. Looking at the dry tea, you can see that it's a very attractive pan-fried green tea. And within it are the beautiful Osmanthus flowers.

We're going to pop one teaspoon in our crockery. And then pour on the water, which shouldn't be scalding hot - let it cool for a few minutes so that it's somewhere between 85° to 90°C. Then give it about four minutes to infuse. We know that's a little longer than normal, but it's worth the extra bit of time.

Once you've left it for the full time you'll see how the Osmanthus flower has dissolved in the water and that the leaves have exploded into life. It's fascinating to see. We're sure you're going to enjoy looking at it as much as you enjoy drinking it.

Let's pour our tea straight into the bowl and give it a taste. You'll see that the liquor is quite striking to look at - and there's a really powerful floral aroma too. It has a perfect apricot character that gives this great tea a real sweetness. And it's got a good length and a good aftertaste as well.

Assam tea is characteristic of the area in which it’s grown. These tea bushes love to grow at sea level, where temperatures range from about 35 to 38 degrees in the summer, and regulated by monsoon rains which keeps everything nice and cool. What most people don’t realise about this region of India,  is that in the winter months, temperatures drop way down into single digits.

If you're a fan of jasmine tea, Osmanthus Green will make a really nice change for you. And, of course, if you fancy a very special cup of green tea, you won't get much better than this.