The Taste of Osmanthus

January 18, 2019 3675 view(s)
The Taste of Osmanthus

From all the flower teas that exist, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers may be the most compatible to enjoy with other leaf tea types. In this article, we'll share some tips and advice on how to blend and brew osmanthus with other teas!

Pure Osmanthus Tea Taste

While this herbal tea is great to blend with other teas, it's good to know that Osmanthus tea in itself is a great herbal tea to enjoy pure. Besides, it's important to first experience the taste of pure osmanthus tea, so that the blending ideas will make more sense to you.

If you just want to make a mug of Osmanthus, then drop 2 gram of dried flowers in your mug and add water at full temperature. After 4-5 minutes, all the flavor will be drown out.

Once done, drink the tea and you'll experience a sweet savory flavor that reminds you of rock sugar and rice cakes. Now you're ready to blend osmanthus with other teas!

Green, white, raw puerh, and light oolong

Osmanthus tea is particularly good to brew with light teas such as green, raw pu erh, white and lightly oxidized oolong tea. The intensity of such teas balance the aroma of osmanthus perfectly. To make a mug of such tea, go for 2-3 gram of leaf tea and 1-2 gram of dried osmanthus flowers. Depending on the tea type you use, you can steep it at the following temperature and time:

  • Green: 80 ºC (175 ºF), 5 minutes
  • Oolong: 100 ºC (212 ºF), 4 minutes

Especially, with green teas and young raw pu erh teas, you'll discover that osmanthus flowers have the ability to cancel out some of the astringency and vegetal notes, while adding additional floral aroma and sweetness.

Dark oolong & ripe pu erh

Blending the taste of osmanthus with the flavor dark oolong and ripe pu erh can be tricky. The problem is that the thick and dark liquor of those teas will be overwhelming. Besides, the earthiness of the first brew doesn't match the floral aroma of osmanthus at all.

This however doesn't mean that you shouldn't blend. The trick is to first enjoy those teas pure until the infusions become somewhat more clear. When you steep 3 gram of ripe pu erh or dark oolong in a mug, then enjoy the first 2 brew pure, then add 2 grams of osmanthus flowers starting from the 3rd infusion and steep for 5 minutes.

When you're brewing those teas the traditional way (6-8 gram in a gaiwan/yixing teapot), you should at least wait 6 steeps, before you add the osmanthus flowers.

You'll find out that this will work beautifully. The osmanthus flowers kind of reactivate the taste of the leaf teas. As a result, you'll easily be able to steep another 6 sessions with a gaiwan.

Conclusion

We hope this helps. The above at advice is not all science. But it's the result of us immersing ourselves in the world of tea. Understanding the pure flavours and how the work when they meet each other. To end this post, we would like to share a poem which you can enjoy when following our guide above:

"As you travel through life, offer good wishes to each being you meet."

Buddha

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