Good morning, dear tea friends! Another week has gone by, we’re into November now and Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away. Do you feel like time seems to speed up as we approach the end of the year? I’ve been feeling that way lately. Ok, on to our tea…

Well, I think I was longing for the warm, fragrant days in my garden when I reached for this tea selection from China, called Jasmine Silver Tips. To create this lovely tea, tea masters took a Silvertip green tea from Fujian province, and scented it with jasmine blossoms.

The tea leaves are plucked in the springtime, processed as green tea and then stored until the jasmine plants get ready to bloom in the summer. The flower buds are plucked in the early morning and kept cool all day. As early evening approaches, the flower buds are mixed with the tea leaves. As the night blooming jasmine flowers open, the tea leaves absorb their scent. This process is repeated every day over the course of a week. Quite a bit of dedicated work goes into creating this unique tea!

This tea is called “Silver Tips” because the tea itself has the silvery-white new growth, or tip, from the tea plant mixed in with the green leaf. After steeping, I found mostly large, broken leaf pieces but I did manage to find one of the tips, which you can see in the photo above.

I steeped the leaf for 3 minutes in 180 degree water (F).

The tea liquor is a beautiful pale amber color with a tinge of pink. As I lifted the infuser out of my glass teapot, the floral scent was quite pronounced and I felt as if I had placed my nose into a large, fragrant bouquet of flowers.

The flavor is silky smooth and very sweet with just enough jasmine flavor to enjoy without it being cloying. I can also taste the green tea in the clean, fresh vegetal undertone.

We had snow in our area from the storm mid-week, which then changed into a cold rain, so nothing is left of our first snowfall of the season. This weekend is supposed to be filled with warmer temps and glorious sunshine. I’m headed out for another hike in the woods with a dear friend. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a cuppa with me!

“And the day came when the risk [it took] to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” 

~Anais Nin