November 7, 2025 • 29 mins
This fragrant beverage combines (usually green) tea leaves with jasmine flowers just as they bloom. Anney and Lauren dip into the science and history of jasmine tea.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Ree and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lauren Vocal bumb and today we have an episode for
you about jasmine tea.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes we do, Yeah, we do. Was there any particular
reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Uh, it was on the list, and I U it
was time in my cycle of topic genres to do
another drink related topic, and it seemed interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
And it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh yeah, Oh, and jasmine tea is delightful.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yes, I is it the one? Do they normally serve
jasmine tea? Dim sum? Oh? And my friend always says
jasmine tea, But now that I think about it, I'm
not sure she actually knew that. For fact, it's a
green tea of sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Usually a green tea. I don't strongly remember it being
a jasmine under normal circumstances, but it might very dim
sum to dim sum place.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's true. Yeah, Well, as listeners know, I can't generally
drink tea anymore, but I do make an exception for
when I go to dim sum. And so I've been
living under perhaps a delusion of from my friend that
I have been having jasmine tea and it is very lovely.
Whatever that tea was, it was, it's very nice, and
(01:33):
I suspect that even if it wasn't jasmine tea, I
would really enjoy jasmin tea.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh yeah, jasmine is one of my absolute favorite sense.
It's just oh, it's just really gorgeous. It just makes
me feel happy.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, it is a good it's a good sense. Mm. Well.
For past episodes, you can see the one we did
of broadly on tea chi Earl, gray tea bags, bubble tea.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Also other flowers, violets, rose water. We haven't done roses directly,
but here we are marigold, lavender. Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, I guess that brings us to our question. Sure
jasmine tea, what is it? Well, Jasmine tea is a
type of beverage made from tea leaves that have been
infused with the scent of jasmine flowers. To make the beverage,
(02:41):
you steep these scented tea leaves in water, usually very
hot water, but you can also do a cold brew
if you'd like. The type of bass tea leaves used
can vary. I mean, you can use any type that
you want, really, but green tea is the most common
and the steep will bring out flavor and color compounds
into the water, resulting in a beverage that's pale to
(03:03):
rich gold to golden brown in color, with a strong
scent and taste that's kind of floral, fruity, sweet and green.
It can be served hot or cold, often just plain,
though you can add sweetener, and especially if you're icing it,
you could do like a whole like tea cocktail kind
(03:23):
of thing. You can you can make it into a
milk tea, or add herbs or some kind of fruit
something like that. Jaine jasmine is really heady and green
teas tend to be a stringent and sort of woody,
and the combination is just like a spa in a cup,
(03:45):
like sharp and soft at the same time. It's like
it's like walking into a steam room, like a little
bit overwhelming, but in this enveloping, comforting, clarifying way, sounds
so lovely.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I've been busy the past couple days.
I have not even checked if I have jasmine tea
in the house, but I need some immediately.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Also because it's it's chilli.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, I am in my tea
and soup phase. I for When I was meal planning
last week for this week, I suddenly was like, I
have planned for nothing but soups.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yes, as is appropriate?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh yeah, okay, but yes so as we have discussed before,
tea comes from this type of evergreen shrub and or
small tree botanical name Camillia senensis. There are a couple
botanical varieties of this species, and like hundreds of cultivars
with various properties, but all types of tea come from
(04:55):
this one species of plant. The differences between white, green, black,
and other teas are in how the leaves are treated
after they're picked. Very basically, tea leaves all start out
looking a little bit like rose leaves, bright green, pointed
ovals with kind of serrated edges. You pick the leaves
either by hand for better quality, or more cheaply, by machine,
(05:20):
and then wither them by letting them dry down for
about half a day or so. As fresh tea leaves
are handled, and as they dry out, they'll begin oxidizing.
That is, molecules of oxygen in the air will start
mucking about with enzymes in the leaves, producing different flavors
and deeper colors. If you're making black tea, you want
(05:42):
that to happen in a controlled way, but for green tea,
you like really don't. So you destroy those enzymes right
off with either steam or dry heat, and this lets
the leaves retain their green color and their grassier and
fruitier and more or bitter, but overall more delicate flavor compounds.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You then roll and twist the leaves into little needles
or pearls if you're doing it by hand, or into
if you're doing it by machine, into smaller gravel type granules.
And yeah, green tea is usually what's going to go
into making jasmine tea, but you can use white or
black or ulung or.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Whatever you like.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Generally, tea is harvested and processed in the spring, and
any base teas that are earmarked for turning into jasmine
tea will be stored until the jasmine being used comes
into its best season, which is usually more summer ish,
but it can really vary on the region and the
exact production process. But let's talk about jasmine all right.
(06:49):
So jasmine is a genus of plants called jazz minum. Yeah, sure,
let's go with that. It's in the olive family. They
grow as shrubs or vines and across the like two
hundred sum species in the genus. They can look and
behave fairly differently, but they tend to bloom with these
like small star shaped flowers that are very fragrant. Different
(07:13):
varieties bloom at different times of the year. Many are
night blooming, which I always think is fun and gothy. Yeah,
and the flowers only have their full scent when they're
mid bloom, Like when a blossom dies and dries down.
It's pretty neutral scented, which makes the tea production process
(07:35):
a little bit of a thing. Jasmine is a culturally
significant flower in China, where jasmine tea is originally from.
Jasmine is the subject of folk music there. It's connected
to Buddhism. It's part of traditional Chinese medicine practices. So yeah,
but okay, to make jasmine tea, the flowers will be
(07:57):
picked in like the morning to afternoon when they are
large and just about ready to bloom. In some areas,
individual farmers like bring their daily harvests to markets for
teamakers to purchase to go and make that night. Because okay,
to scent your base tea, you take your flowers and
(08:18):
spread them out on racks or screens for a few
hours until they open up in the evening, and when
they're about it ninety percent full bloom, they'll be layered
or mixed in with the base tea leaves to allow
the leaves to absorb the scent, and producers use really
specific like blend ratios and temperatures, humidity, air circulation, manual
(08:43):
mixing over the course of the next few hours and
time frames how many hours this all goes on for,
but after whatever period of time, the flowers and the
leaves are separated again these days with a sorting machine.
And yeah, this process can be done a number of times,
just once or twice for inexpensive teas, but like six
(09:06):
to seven rounds for higher quality teas, sometimes using like
a one to one ratio of fresh flowers to tea
leaves each time. At the end of the scenting process, though,
the leaves are separated out again and dried down and packaged.
Sometimes jasmine petals are added back into the finished tea,
(09:28):
but usually just for like visual aesthetics, because again it's
not really gonna do anything for you there, but of
course this is the traditional method. Based teas can also
be flavored with jasmine extracts, either natural or synthesized. And yeah,
one note, one science y note. If you're brewing jasmine
tea at home, don't pour like rapidly boiling water over
(09:52):
your jasmine tea leaves or bag or what have you like.
Let it cool off of boiling, just tad before steeping
to preserve those those delicate flavors.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, good note goodness. Yeah wow. What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Okay, there is a lot of buzz about jasmine tea
being good for you, especially green tea based jasmine, and
generally speaking, green tea does have a higher amount of
polyphenols than black tea due to those lower oxidation levels
during processing, and polyphenols can act as antioxidants in your body,
(10:31):
which can have various protective and or preventative benefits. Lots
of research is being done, but like basically, you know
save or motto. Nutrition is complicated, Our bodies are complicated.
More research is necessary before ingesting a medicinal amount of anything.
(10:53):
You should consult a healthcare provider who is not us.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
We are not that thing.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
But you know, like if you have like a cup
a day or a cup of week because you enjoy it, great,
that sounds nice with the idea that also, caffeine is
a drug, and drugs can be fun, but you know,
use them responsibly.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yes, indeed, responsible listeners. That's we all know. Yeah, that's
who you are.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yes, oh my goodness, yes.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, we do have some numbers for you. Yes, okay. So,
jasmine and green tea individually contain hundreds of volatile compounds,
each volatile compounds being smelly stuff essentially, and the production
process of jasmine tea develops more other different volatile compounds.
(11:48):
In scientific studies, eight hundred and eighty seven volatile compounds
have been identified in jasmine tea, including ones that smell
and or tape specifically like orchids, snap dragons, rows, grapes,
green apples, wood, and roastiness.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Roastiness yep, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yep, and that is such a short list yea. As
of twenty twenty, China alone was producing over one hundred
thousand metric tons of jasmine tea per year, worth some
three point seven billion dollars I read I read it
(12:38):
was up to four billion dollars as of twenty twenty four,
and a good quality jasmine tea can go for around
like twenty to thirty bucks per ounce, an ounce being
about thirty grams or so, and jasmine itself is a
real big business in parts of China. As of this
(13:00):
year twenty twenty five, over three hundred and forty thousand
people in the Greater Hungzhou City area were involved in
jasmine production, which is a lot of people, but the
area does produced, to be fair, some eighty percent of
China's jasmine and some sixty percent of the world's supply.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
So wow, okay, yep, yeah, oh well, uh it's a
big deal, yeah, i'd say, and it has for a
long while been a big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, absolutely, And we are going to get into that
history as soon as we get back from a quick
break for a word from our.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, so as men in
previous Tea episodes, tea is thousands of years old. Archaeological
evidence suggest flavored teas were being brewed in China as
far back as two thousand years ago, though they probably
weren't what we think of today when we think of tea.
While it was, tea was first considered largely medicinal. By
(14:18):
the six hundreds to eight hundred CE, people were drinking
tea for pleasure in China. This is also when merchants
started oxidizing green tea leaves to make black tea, which
held up better to travel and helped spread tea around
the world. And on top of that, this is when
more and more flavorings and scents got added into the mix.
The history of tea is such a big thing that
(14:40):
it's kind of hard to pin down specific dates, but yeah, yeah,
thereabouts thereabouts. Meanwhile, jasmine, which is going to have to
be its own separate thing, but briefly, jasmine originated in
Persia and was first introduced to China somewhere between two
hundred BCE and two hundred CE wide range where cultivation
(15:01):
really took off in the province of Fujian and its
capital Fujo because of the climate there.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, Fujian is a mountainous region with areas that are
also in addition to being good for growing jasmine, it's
got different areas that are good for growing tea.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So right, so now we've got our tea in our jasmine.
So when it comes to jasmine, green tea, sources suggest
that it traces back around one thousand years in China,
around the same time that tea scenting was first coming
onto the scene.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
And Fujian is said to be the birthplace. And it
certainly makes sense that, you know, an area that had
both products would think to combine them. They say that
to this day. From a mountaintop in the region, any
given mountaintop, like you can see everything from the farms,
to the production facilities, to the merchants that make the
(15:58):
jasmine tea industry work.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yes, and as Lauren mentioned in terms of teas, this
was a bit of a fussier tea at the time
and could only be made about four months of the
year when local jasmine was blooming. The merchants would harvest
thousands of the blossoms in really labor intensive and skillful
(16:21):
processes because you didn't want to break the flowers. It
was just a very careful process.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah. Yeah, you have to know when they're ready to bloom.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yes, it was a whole thing. And then the blossoms
were placed in alternating layers of tea leaves to scent
the tea depending on the quality. Sometimes this process was
replicated over seven times, and because of the work and
skill involved in the early days of its inception, it
was often reserved for royalty and the rich, and served
(16:54):
at special occasions. Chinese diplomats sometimes presented it as a gift.
Those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
During the Qing dynasty, which was the mid sixteen hundreds
to early nineteen hundreds, some producers introduced machinery to their
methods of scenting tea. With the expansion of trade routes
and new technology, jasmine tea spread throughout Asia and the
Middle East. When tea from China was introduced to the
UK via trade in the sixteen sixties, the export of
(17:24):
jasmine tea to the West expanded exponentially.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Jasmine tea and jasmine flowers in general were a favorite
of the dowager Empress Shichi in the late eighteen hundreds,
which worked to elevate their status and popularity.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes, and towards the end of the nineteenth century, Taiwan
started growing jasmine forte.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The industry in Hangzhou, meanwhile, really got going in the
nineteen seventies. Like I've read that jasmine had been growing
there for centuries, back to the fifteen hundreds at least,
but it wasn't really being cultivated until more recently.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Jasmin green tea grew in popularity outside of China in
the early twentieth century, and in twenty fourteen, the planting
and process of Fujo jasmine tea and the culture around
it was nominated for the UN's Food and Agriculture's Globally
Important Agricultural Heritage System. Yeah quite a name, it is.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It is, but yeah, yeah, it's on their list of
cool stuff that people do.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and I think they just celebrated, they had a
kind of anniversary celebration for it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, this is one of those things that, again, we
run into this sometimes. It's perhaps because a lot of
the sources are in Mandarin, are Cantonese, but also because
it's maybe so ubiquitous. I don't know, but it was
hard to find some like solid sources. But yeah, yeah,
(19:06):
clearly it's had a huge impact that oh yeah this happened.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean, and it's also kind of mixed up, like
I mean, like, we do absolutely need to do an
episode about jasmine, but because I was kind of going like,
is this more related to a different thing that we're
not really talking about today? But yeah, you know, and
these days, certainly people are taking this tradition of jasmine tea,
which I think for a little while right around the
(19:34):
turn of the twenty first century, I think for a
little while there it was considered a little bit old fashioned,
but people are kind of coming back to it now
with these new like like with milk tea or bubble
tea or something like that, incorporating it into other different
drinks and having fun.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, yeah, and it's just nice. As you said, it's
just nice, and I'm yeah, I'm sure a lot of
you listeners have some thoughts, opinions memory. Yeah, yes, we
would love to hear from you, but I think that's
what we have to say about Jasmine t for now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I think it is. We do already have some listener
mail for you, though, and we're going to get into
that as soon as we get back from one more
quick break for a word from our sponsors, and we're
back Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back
(20:33):
with Man.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It is chillily, turn on my radiator. You know what
it takes for me.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
To turn Yeah, I mean, and this is so okay.
So Annie is one of the coldest running people I
think I've ever met in my life, but also very thrifty,
stubborn and determined. I was going to say, but stubborn
(21:10):
is a way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yes, it's loud.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Also, Oh, I see you, I see you. Yeah, I
know my heat, My my heat's been on for like
a couple of weeks. Now, yeah, I broke, I broke yesterday,
I wrote yesterday.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But anyway, yes, then warm cup of something would be
wonderful right now? Okay, we have two notes about traveling.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Oh yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
We're wonderful to get Diana wrote, last weekend, a friend
and I went to Vegas for a concert and we
had zero meals planned. I remembered that you did a
couple of episodes on Vegas, and we decided to head
to Hugo Cellar aka the Steak Basement. It was delightfully
old fashioned and exactly what we were looking for. I
(21:59):
never would have found that place if it weren't for
your episode.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh yay, so good.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I hope you had a wonderful time concert and steak
Basement all of the package.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Absolutely. Oh that's so fun. Yeah, I oh, I love
that place.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It's such a fun you like, go into a basement,
it's like got a castle dungeon vibe.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, because the place that it's under is like royalty themed. Yes,
kind of so yeah, and they give you a rose
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And the food portions are huge ridiculous. Lauren and I
split a prime rib which I still think about, and
it was.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It was way too big for either of us to
finish halo of because it was like a twenty eight
out steak or something.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm convinced they gave us too full, too full servings.
Me too.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I think that they were trying to do us a
favor and I'm like, no, actually, I will, I will
have it in the hotel. Only eat about four ounces
of protein at any time.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
But it is definitely like a place that is it's
an old Vegas. It's fun when you know where it's
where it is because you're just wandering about in a
very brightly lit hotel and if you know where to go, oh.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, and you could otherwise totally miss it.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Mm hmm. Such a gym. That's such a gym.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Well, God, you enjoys.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Gosh, I love him. Mary wrote, we had a wonderful
time in Atlanta. On our way to Mary max tea room,
we passed the spoken of Krispy Kream and could see
how you almost got into an accident because it almost
happened to us as we went by. I pointed it
out to the Krispy Kreme lover who was navigating, but
we didn't need to pull a very questionable turn because
(23:55):
the light wasn't on. We just continued to Mary Max
for amazing fried chicken, collared greens and drinks. We rolled
out of there. I feel like Atlanta needs a warning
about how every day at four pm and June it
will be a torrential downpour. We got rained out of
an evening tour of Oakland Cemetery. We came back for
a tour during the day, only to watch the tour
(24:17):
guide be attacked by fire ants who knew something so
small could hurt so much. We did get to see
both whale sharks before one passed over the summer. Thank
you for all of your recommendations. Attached is pet tax
of Dante the Fluffy One and Lynn the Calico. They
are currently trying to get along, but Lynn thinks Dante
(24:37):
is annoying and tells him all about it. And attached
is a photograph of oh my gosh, look at these
fluffy buddies of one very fluffy like longish hair tabby
(24:59):
with a little white belly and white paws and a
little white bib and then a very comfy calico with
also a little white belly and pause, and I just
love it. I love that they've got their fall socks on.
I love that you've got a Halloween tree set up.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yes, this is all wonderful. Listen. We just discussed in
a previous lister male from Japan about the Halloween Halloween tree,
and I'm starting to think, yeah, you yeah, where have
I been? Like?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
This is very you codd Yeah, I don't think I
could do this because my cats would not be as
chill as your cats are being in front of this tree,
or my older cat would be.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
But the kitten I've seen this kitten calls chaos listeners,
and I agree.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Oh she's a danger cat. But but no, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, And I like that's cute that they're annoyed at
each other. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
At least one of them is. That's usually the way.
One of them is like, don't you want to be
my friend? And the other one is like, no.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Leave me alone. So I'm glad that you had a
good time in Atlanta. Yeah, we always love to share
our city with people and if listeners don't remember. The
story that Mary is referencing is the story I told about.
There's a Krispy Kream on a popular road near me,
(26:36):
a busy road, and it's near like an intersection, and
it's just people see that hot sign and they make
the wildest turns.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, So, but I'm sad and glad at the same
time that the light was not on.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So I think back when we recorded that it was
always on. But it recently, it's been subject to several fires.
I don't know, they've had to like rebuild it, yeah,
parts of it. So I don't know. Maybe it's not
always on anymore, but I remember at one point it
was always on, and that was kind of the joke. Yeah,
(27:15):
it was like, you don't need to make this stuff special.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean it is special anytime you go. But
it's not you know, it's not right.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You can just turn around. It's not going to go off.
It's gonna be okay, you will get your hot donuts.
But I'll say, yeah, Mary Max. Mary Max is celebrating
like they're celebrating some kind of anniversary. They've been around
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh, I want to say, it's many multiple decades. Yes, definitely,
something like a hundred years. But yeah, they are always delightful. Oh,
I'm sorry that you had a hard time at Oakland though,
I love I love the cemetery so much. And for
sure Atlanta has started doing the Florida thing. We're at
(28:00):
four pm sharp in the summer, we get a brief
trenchill down.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
For yeah, and I'm on the forecast at all.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah. But and the fire ants. The fire ants thing, though,
that's just a that I couldn't have predicted that. I've
been going there a long time and I've never witnessed
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
No, but fire ants don't miss around, they do not.
They swarm and they hurt. Yeah no, and nope.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh yeah no, I puff up like the stay puffed
marshmallow man when I get a bit it's bad.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah. Yeah, uh. I believe we mentioned this the previous
time we recommended going there. But Lauren and I, if
you haven't seen the video we did about making gin,
we did go to.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
And like harvest to Juniper Berry's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
For the gin, which is really cool. Yeah, It's one
of the cooler things I've done in my life. And
I'm glad you got to see the well sharks.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Oh yeah, Oh they're so beautiful. Yeah yeah, I'm sad
about the one passing.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah me too, me too, But yeah, we love hearing
about all of your travels listeners. Thank you so much
to both of these listeners for writing in. I'm glad
you had such good times. If you would like to
write to us, you can. You can email us at
hello atsavorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(29:48):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your
way
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Ree and I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lauren Vocal bumb and today we have an episode for
you about jasmine tea.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes we do, Yeah, we do. Was there any particular
reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Uh, it was on the list, and I U it
was time in my cycle of topic genres to do
another drink related topic, and it seemed interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
And it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh yeah, Oh, and jasmine tea is delightful.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yes, I is it the one? Do they normally serve
jasmine tea? Dim sum? Oh? And my friend always says
jasmine tea, But now that I think about it, I'm
not sure she actually knew that. For fact, it's a
green tea of sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Usually a green tea. I don't strongly remember it being
a jasmine under normal circumstances, but it might very dim
sum to dim sum place.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's true. Yeah, Well, as listeners know, I can't generally
drink tea anymore, but I do make an exception for
when I go to dim sum. And so I've been
living under perhaps a delusion of from my friend that
I have been having jasmine tea and it is very lovely.
Whatever that tea was, it was, it's very nice, and
(01:33):
I suspect that even if it wasn't jasmine tea, I
would really enjoy jasmin tea.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh yeah, jasmine is one of my absolute favorite sense.
It's just oh, it's just really gorgeous. It just makes
me feel happy.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, it is a good it's a good sense. Mm. Well.
For past episodes, you can see the one we did
of broadly on tea chi Earl, gray tea bags, bubble tea.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Also other flowers, violets, rose water. We haven't done roses directly,
but here we are marigold, lavender. Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, I guess that brings us to our question. Sure
jasmine tea, what is it? Well, Jasmine tea is a
type of beverage made from tea leaves that have been
infused with the scent of jasmine flowers. To make the beverage,
(02:41):
you steep these scented tea leaves in water, usually very
hot water, but you can also do a cold brew
if you'd like. The type of bass tea leaves used
can vary. I mean, you can use any type that
you want, really, but green tea is the most common
and the steep will bring out flavor and color compounds
into the water, resulting in a beverage that's pale to
(03:03):
rich gold to golden brown in color, with a strong
scent and taste that's kind of floral, fruity, sweet and green.
It can be served hot or cold, often just plain,
though you can add sweetener, and especially if you're icing it,
you could do like a whole like tea cocktail kind
(03:23):
of thing. You can you can make it into a
milk tea, or add herbs or some kind of fruit
something like that. Jaine jasmine is really heady and green
teas tend to be a stringent and sort of woody,
and the combination is just like a spa in a cup,
(03:45):
like sharp and soft at the same time. It's like
it's like walking into a steam room, like a little
bit overwhelming, but in this enveloping, comforting, clarifying way, sounds
so lovely.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I've been busy the past couple days.
I have not even checked if I have jasmine tea
in the house, but I need some immediately.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Also because it's it's chilli.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, I am in my tea
and soup phase. I for When I was meal planning
last week for this week, I suddenly was like, I
have planned for nothing but soups.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yes, as is appropriate?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh yeah, okay, but yes so as we have discussed before,
tea comes from this type of evergreen shrub and or
small tree botanical name Camillia senensis. There are a couple
botanical varieties of this species, and like hundreds of cultivars
with various properties, but all types of tea come from
(04:55):
this one species of plant. The differences between white, green, black,
and other teas are in how the leaves are treated
after they're picked. Very basically, tea leaves all start out
looking a little bit like rose leaves, bright green, pointed
ovals with kind of serrated edges. You pick the leaves
either by hand for better quality, or more cheaply, by machine,
(05:20):
and then wither them by letting them dry down for
about half a day or so. As fresh tea leaves
are handled, and as they dry out, they'll begin oxidizing.
That is, molecules of oxygen in the air will start
mucking about with enzymes in the leaves, producing different flavors
and deeper colors. If you're making black tea, you want
(05:42):
that to happen in a controlled way, but for green tea,
you like really don't. So you destroy those enzymes right
off with either steam or dry heat, and this lets
the leaves retain their green color and their grassier and
fruitier and more or bitter, but overall more delicate flavor compounds.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
You then roll and twist the leaves into little needles
or pearls if you're doing it by hand, or into
if you're doing it by machine, into smaller gravel type granules.
And yeah, green tea is usually what's going to go
into making jasmine tea, but you can use white or
black or ulung or.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Whatever you like.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Generally, tea is harvested and processed in the spring, and
any base teas that are earmarked for turning into jasmine
tea will be stored until the jasmine being used comes
into its best season, which is usually more summer ish,
but it can really vary on the region and the
exact production process. But let's talk about jasmine all right.
(06:49):
So jasmine is a genus of plants called jazz minum. Yeah, sure,
let's go with that. It's in the olive family. They
grow as shrubs or vines and across the like two
hundred sum species in the genus. They can look and
behave fairly differently, but they tend to bloom with these
like small star shaped flowers that are very fragrant. Different
(07:13):
varieties bloom at different times of the year. Many are
night blooming, which I always think is fun and gothy. Yeah,
and the flowers only have their full scent when they're
mid bloom, Like when a blossom dies and dries down.
It's pretty neutral scented, which makes the tea production process
(07:35):
a little bit of a thing. Jasmine is a culturally
significant flower in China, where jasmine tea is originally from.
Jasmine is the subject of folk music there. It's connected
to Buddhism. It's part of traditional Chinese medicine practices. So yeah,
but okay, to make jasmine tea, the flowers will be
(07:57):
picked in like the morning to afternoon when they are
large and just about ready to bloom. In some areas,
individual farmers like bring their daily harvests to markets for
teamakers to purchase to go and make that night. Because okay,
to scent your base tea, you take your flowers and
(08:18):
spread them out on racks or screens for a few
hours until they open up in the evening, and when
they're about it ninety percent full bloom, they'll be layered
or mixed in with the base tea leaves to allow
the leaves to absorb the scent, and producers use really
specific like blend ratios and temperatures, humidity, air circulation, manual
(08:43):
mixing over the course of the next few hours and
time frames how many hours this all goes on for,
but after whatever period of time, the flowers and the
leaves are separated again these days with a sorting machine.
And yeah, this process can be done a number of times,
just once or twice for inexpensive teas, but like six
(09:06):
to seven rounds for higher quality teas, sometimes using like
a one to one ratio of fresh flowers to tea
leaves each time. At the end of the scenting process, though,
the leaves are separated out again and dried down and packaged.
Sometimes jasmine petals are added back into the finished tea,
(09:28):
but usually just for like visual aesthetics, because again it's
not really gonna do anything for you there, but of
course this is the traditional method. Based teas can also
be flavored with jasmine extracts, either natural or synthesized. And yeah,
one note, one science y note. If you're brewing jasmine
tea at home, don't pour like rapidly boiling water over
(09:52):
your jasmine tea leaves or bag or what have you like.
Let it cool off of boiling, just tad before steeping
to preserve those those delicate flavors.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, good note goodness. Yeah wow. What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Okay, there is a lot of buzz about jasmine tea
being good for you, especially green tea based jasmine, and
generally speaking, green tea does have a higher amount of
polyphenols than black tea due to those lower oxidation levels
during processing, and polyphenols can act as antioxidants in your body,
(10:31):
which can have various protective and or preventative benefits. Lots
of research is being done, but like basically, you know
save or motto. Nutrition is complicated, Our bodies are complicated.
More research is necessary before ingesting a medicinal amount of anything.
(10:53):
You should consult a healthcare provider who is not us.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
We are not that thing.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
But you know, like if you have like a cup
a day or a cup of week because you enjoy it, great,
that sounds nice with the idea that also, caffeine is
a drug, and drugs can be fun, but you know,
use them responsibly.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yes, indeed, responsible listeners. That's we all know. Yeah, that's
who you are.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yes, oh my goodness, yes.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, we do have some numbers for you. Yes, okay. So,
jasmine and green tea individually contain hundreds of volatile compounds,
each volatile compounds being smelly stuff essentially, and the production
process of jasmine tea develops more other different volatile compounds.
(11:48):
In scientific studies, eight hundred and eighty seven volatile compounds
have been identified in jasmine tea, including ones that smell
and or tape specifically like orchids, snap dragons, rows, grapes,
green apples, wood, and roastiness.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Roastiness yep, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yep, and that is such a short list yea. As
of twenty twenty, China alone was producing over one hundred
thousand metric tons of jasmine tea per year, worth some
three point seven billion dollars I read I read it
(12:38):
was up to four billion dollars as of twenty twenty four,
and a good quality jasmine tea can go for around
like twenty to thirty bucks per ounce, an ounce being
about thirty grams or so, and jasmine itself is a
real big business in parts of China. As of this
(13:00):
year twenty twenty five, over three hundred and forty thousand
people in the Greater Hungzhou City area were involved in
jasmine production, which is a lot of people, but the
area does produced, to be fair, some eighty percent of
China's jasmine and some sixty percent of the world's supply.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
So wow, okay, yep, yeah, oh well, uh it's a
big deal, yeah, i'd say, and it has for a
long while been a big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Yeah, absolutely, And we are going to get into that
history as soon as we get back from a quick
break for a word from our.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, so as men in
previous Tea episodes, tea is thousands of years old. Archaeological
evidence suggest flavored teas were being brewed in China as
far back as two thousand years ago, though they probably
weren't what we think of today when we think of tea.
While it was, tea was first considered largely medicinal. By
(14:18):
the six hundreds to eight hundred CE, people were drinking
tea for pleasure in China. This is also when merchants
started oxidizing green tea leaves to make black tea, which
held up better to travel and helped spread tea around
the world. And on top of that, this is when
more and more flavorings and scents got added into the mix.
The history of tea is such a big thing that
(14:40):
it's kind of hard to pin down specific dates, but yeah, yeah,
thereabouts thereabouts. Meanwhile, jasmine, which is going to have to
be its own separate thing, but briefly, jasmine originated in
Persia and was first introduced to China somewhere between two
hundred BCE and two hundred CE wide range where cultivation
(15:01):
really took off in the province of Fujian and its
capital Fujo because of the climate there.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, Fujian is a mountainous region with areas that are
also in addition to being good for growing jasmine, it's
got different areas that are good for growing tea.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So right, so now we've got our tea in our jasmine.
So when it comes to jasmine, green tea, sources suggest
that it traces back around one thousand years in China,
around the same time that tea scenting was first coming
onto the scene.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
And Fujian is said to be the birthplace. And it
certainly makes sense that, you know, an area that had
both products would think to combine them. They say that
to this day. From a mountaintop in the region, any
given mountaintop, like you can see everything from the farms,
to the production facilities, to the merchants that make the
(15:58):
jasmine tea industry work.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yes, and as Lauren mentioned in terms of teas, this
was a bit of a fussier tea at the time
and could only be made about four months of the
year when local jasmine was blooming. The merchants would harvest
thousands of the blossoms in really labor intensive and skillful
(16:21):
processes because you didn't want to break the flowers. It
was just a very careful process.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah. Yeah, you have to know when they're ready to bloom.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yes, it was a whole thing. And then the blossoms
were placed in alternating layers of tea leaves to scent
the tea depending on the quality. Sometimes this process was
replicated over seven times, and because of the work and
skill involved in the early days of its inception, it
was often reserved for royalty and the rich, and served
(16:54):
at special occasions. Chinese diplomats sometimes presented it as a gift.
Those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
During the Qing dynasty, which was the mid sixteen hundreds
to early nineteen hundreds, some producers introduced machinery to their
methods of scenting tea. With the expansion of trade routes
and new technology, jasmine tea spread throughout Asia and the
Middle East. When tea from China was introduced to the
UK via trade in the sixteen sixties, the export of
(17:24):
jasmine tea to the West expanded exponentially.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Jasmine tea and jasmine flowers in general were a favorite
of the dowager Empress Shichi in the late eighteen hundreds,
which worked to elevate their status and popularity.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes, and towards the end of the nineteenth century, Taiwan
started growing jasmine forte.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The industry in Hangzhou, meanwhile, really got going in the
nineteen seventies. Like I've read that jasmine had been growing
there for centuries, back to the fifteen hundreds at least,
but it wasn't really being cultivated until more recently.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Jasmin green tea grew in popularity outside of China in
the early twentieth century, and in twenty fourteen, the planting
and process of Fujo jasmine tea and the culture around
it was nominated for the UN's Food and Agriculture's Globally
Important Agricultural Heritage System. Yeah quite a name, it is.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It is, but yeah, yeah, it's on their list of
cool stuff that people do.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, and I think they just celebrated, they had a
kind of anniversary celebration for it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, this is one of those things that, again, we
run into this sometimes. It's perhaps because a lot of
the sources are in Mandarin, are Cantonese, but also because
it's maybe so ubiquitous. I don't know, but it was
hard to find some like solid sources. But yeah, yeah,
(19:06):
clearly it's had a huge impact that oh yeah this happened.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I mean, and it's also kind of mixed up, like
I mean, like, we do absolutely need to do an
episode about jasmine, but because I was kind of going like,
is this more related to a different thing that we're
not really talking about today? But yeah, you know, and
these days, certainly people are taking this tradition of jasmine tea,
which I think for a little while right around the
(19:34):
turn of the twenty first century, I think for a
little while there it was considered a little bit old fashioned,
but people are kind of coming back to it now
with these new like like with milk tea or bubble
tea or something like that, incorporating it into other different
drinks and having fun.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, yeah, and it's just nice. As you said, it's
just nice, and I'm yeah, I'm sure a lot of
you listeners have some thoughts, opinions memory. Yeah, yes, we
would love to hear from you, but I think that's
what we have to say about Jasmine t for now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I think it is. We do already have some listener
mail for you, though, and we're going to get into
that as soon as we get back from one more
quick break for a word from our sponsors, and we're
back Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back
(20:33):
with Man.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It is chillily, turn on my radiator. You know what
it takes for me.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
To turn Yeah, I mean, and this is so okay.
So Annie is one of the coldest running people I
think I've ever met in my life, but also very thrifty,
stubborn and determined. I was going to say, but stubborn
(21:10):
is a way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yes, it's loud.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Also, Oh, I see you, I see you. Yeah, I
know my heat, My my heat's been on for like
a couple of weeks. Now, yeah, I broke, I broke yesterday,
I wrote yesterday.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But anyway, yes, then warm cup of something would be
wonderful right now? Okay, we have two notes about traveling.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Oh yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
We're wonderful to get Diana wrote, last weekend, a friend
and I went to Vegas for a concert and we
had zero meals planned. I remembered that you did a
couple of episodes on Vegas, and we decided to head
to Hugo Cellar aka the Steak Basement. It was delightfully
old fashioned and exactly what we were looking for. I
(21:59):
never would have found that place if it weren't for
your episode.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh yay, so good.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I hope you had a wonderful time concert and steak
Basement all of the package.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Absolutely. Oh that's so fun. Yeah, I oh, I love
that place.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It's such a fun you like, go into a basement,
it's like got a castle dungeon vibe.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, because the place that it's under is like royalty themed. Yes,
kind of so yeah, and they give you a rose
and yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And the food portions are huge ridiculous. Lauren and I
split a prime rib which I still think about, and
it was.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It was way too big for either of us to
finish halo of because it was like a twenty eight
out steak or something.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm convinced they gave us too full, too full servings.
Me too.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I think that they were trying to do us a
favor and I'm like, no, actually, I will, I will
have it in the hotel. Only eat about four ounces
of protein at any time.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
But it is definitely like a place that is it's
an old Vegas. It's fun when you know where it's
where it is because you're just wandering about in a
very brightly lit hotel and if you know where to go, oh.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, and you could otherwise totally miss it.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Mm hmm. Such a gym. That's such a gym.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Well, God, you enjoys.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Gosh, I love him. Mary wrote, we had a wonderful
time in Atlanta. On our way to Mary max tea room,
we passed the spoken of Krispy Kream and could see
how you almost got into an accident because it almost
happened to us as we went by. I pointed it
out to the Krispy Kreme lover who was navigating, but
we didn't need to pull a very questionable turn because
(23:55):
the light wasn't on. We just continued to Mary Max
for amazing fried chicken, collared greens and drinks. We rolled
out of there. I feel like Atlanta needs a warning
about how every day at four pm and June it
will be a torrential downpour. We got rained out of
an evening tour of Oakland Cemetery. We came back for
a tour during the day, only to watch the tour
(24:17):
guide be attacked by fire ants who knew something so
small could hurt so much. We did get to see
both whale sharks before one passed over the summer. Thank
you for all of your recommendations. Attached is pet tax
of Dante the Fluffy One and Lynn the Calico. They
are currently trying to get along, but Lynn thinks Dante
(24:37):
is annoying and tells him all about it. And attached
is a photograph of oh my gosh, look at these
fluffy buddies of one very fluffy like longish hair tabby
(24:59):
with a little white belly and white paws and a
little white bib and then a very comfy calico with
also a little white belly and pause, and I just
love it. I love that they've got their fall socks on.
I love that you've got a Halloween tree set up.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yes, this is all wonderful. Listen. We just discussed in
a previous lister male from Japan about the Halloween Halloween tree,
and I'm starting to think, yeah, you yeah, where have
I been? Like?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
This is very you codd Yeah, I don't think I
could do this because my cats would not be as
chill as your cats are being in front of this tree,
or my older cat would be.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
But the kitten I've seen this kitten calls chaos listeners,
and I agree.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Oh she's a danger cat. But but no, it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, And I like that's cute that they're annoyed at
each other. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
At least one of them is. That's usually the way.
One of them is like, don't you want to be
my friend? And the other one is like, no.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Leave me alone. So I'm glad that you had a
good time in Atlanta. Yeah, we always love to share
our city with people and if listeners don't remember. The
story that Mary is referencing is the story I told about.
There's a Krispy Kream on a popular road near me,
(26:36):
a busy road, and it's near like an intersection, and
it's just people see that hot sign and they make
the wildest turns.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, So, but I'm sad and glad at the same
time that the light was not on.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So I think back when we recorded that it was
always on. But it recently, it's been subject to several fires.
I don't know, they've had to like rebuild it, yeah,
parts of it. So I don't know. Maybe it's not
always on anymore, but I remember at one point it
was always on, and that was kind of the joke. Yeah,
(27:15):
it was like, you don't need to make this stuff special.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean it is special anytime you go. But
it's not you know, it's not right.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You can just turn around. It's not going to go off.
It's gonna be okay, you will get your hot donuts.
But I'll say, yeah, Mary Max. Mary Max is celebrating
like they're celebrating some kind of anniversary. They've been around
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh, I want to say, it's many multiple decades. Yes, definitely,
something like a hundred years. But yeah, they are always delightful. Oh,
I'm sorry that you had a hard time at Oakland though,
I love I love the cemetery so much. And for
sure Atlanta has started doing the Florida thing. We're at
(28:00):
four pm sharp in the summer, we get a brief
trenchill down.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
For yeah, and I'm on the forecast at all.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah. But and the fire ants. The fire ants thing, though,
that's just a that I couldn't have predicted that. I've
been going there a long time and I've never witnessed
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
No, but fire ants don't miss around, they do not.
They swarm and they hurt. Yeah no, and nope.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh yeah no, I puff up like the stay puffed
marshmallow man when I get a bit it's bad.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah. Yeah, uh. I believe we mentioned this the previous
time we recommended going there. But Lauren and I, if
you haven't seen the video we did about making gin,
we did go to.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
And like harvest to Juniper Berry's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
For the gin, which is really cool. Yeah, It's one
of the cooler things I've done in my life. And
I'm glad you got to see the well sharks.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Oh yeah, Oh they're so beautiful. Yeah yeah, I'm sad
about the one passing.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah me too, me too, But yeah, we love hearing
about all of your travels listeners. Thank you so much
to both of these listeners for writing in. I'm glad
you had such good times. If you would like to
write to us, you can. You can email us at
hello atsavorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(29:48):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your
way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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