Jasmine Silver Tip Tea Tin by Rare Tea Company 25g

A Chinese White tea, also known as Jasmine Silver Needle, made entirely from the first tender leaf buds of Spring. Not flavoured but carefully scented over six consecutive nights with fresh jasmine flowers. Once the preserve of the Chinese Imperial family. A deep and heady aroma with a light, gentle flavour and a natural sweetness.

This tea is not flavoured and contains no additives or oils. The delicate leaf buds (silver tips) are laid out on bamboo trays with fresh blossom over six consecutive nights. Through the night the downy buds absorb the scent of the jasmine. Each morning the flowers are discarded, and each night fresh jasmine is layered through the tea in a sealed room to impart their fragrance.

This is done in the summer months when the jasmine flowers are at their peak and the blossoms are picked as ripe buds. Each afternoon the pickers go out into the jasmine fields. The harvest requires incredible skill to select only the flowers just at the point of opening – too soon and they will remain tight shut, too late and they will have already released their scent. In the sealed scenting rooms, the heat and humidity unfurls the buds, releasing their aroma directly into the tea