Jasmine Silver Needle Tea

Jasmine Silver Needle is built on a base of unopened tea buds covered in silver down, scented with fresh jasmine blossoms. The cup is light and silky, with jasmine, honey, white flowers and a hint of summer fruit. Brewed in a glass teapot at 80°C.

Origin & Story

This is jasmine tea made on one of the most delicate bases there is. The tea is a base of unopened buds covered in fine silver down, the look that gives silver needle teas their name, and it is layered with fresh jasmine blossoms and left until the buds have taken up the scent.

The flowers are the species Jasminum sambac, known for pure white petals and an intensely aromatic scent. The buds are layered with the blossoms, left for many hours while the flowers release their perfume, and then separated from the spent flowers and dried again. The finest grades repeat the whole process several times, as many as six or seven for top grades such as Yin Hao.

Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, is the most important city in making jasmine tea in China. Its scenting craft matured in the Ming dynasty and reached its height in the Qing, when its jasmine tea became tribute for the court, and in 2014 the FAO recognized the Jasmine and Tea Culture System of Fuzhou City as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System.

In the cup it is light and silky: jasmine, honey, white flowers and a hint of summer fruit, with a soft sweetness rather than a sharp edge. Use water at about 80°C and 3 g of buds for 240 ml, steep for two and a half to three and a half minutes, and infuse the same buds again.

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