Osmanthus Tea

Many people are familiar with Jasmine Tea but most do not know what Osmanthus Tea is or have ever tasted it. In class, we talked about osmanthus blended with oolong tea and I myself don't recollect drinking this type of tea. But, I have tried some food infused with osmanthus tea at Ten Ren's in Richmond Hill (Canada) (which actually was not strong in aroma) and any tea flavour didn't really stand out unfortunately although the food tasted good.

Osmanthus Tea is popular in Asia, it is similar to Jasmine tea in that the Osmanthus fragrans flower is used to add aroma and flavour to the tea. The flowers are small white (or yellow) clusters that bloom in late summer/autumn according to Wikipedia but can also still be in bloom throughout the winter. The fragrance of the flower is supposed to resemble peaches or apricots. Recently, (and another reason I'm blogging on this) a post from one of my favourite blogs from Taiwan highlighting the town of Nanzhuang also made reference to the osmanthus flower or as it is called in Mandarin "gui hua" or "gwai fa" (Cantonese). Here is where I learned it is also referred to as the "sweet tea olive" plant, I really like this name. The fruit produced by this plant is olive shaped but is dark purple/black in colour and is produced in the spring.

So, after doing a bit of reading, I set out to find some dried osmanthus to blend my own tea or if I can find it, the dried fruit maybe to pair with tea.

I purchased some dried osmanthus flowers from a Chinese dried seafood and herb store as I have read that it is used in Chinese medicine and some believe osmanthus tea is good for the skin. For about $2, I got 35 grams but realized when I got home that it did not have a floral or fruity aroma, but one that smelled like Chinese medicine and herbs. Darn.

Despite the smell, I decided to brew a cup and used 1 tsp in about 5oz of water. It wasn't very nice. Were these flowers past their prime and this is what happens? I tried other stores and found the flowers had the same smell, so I think right now Chinese dried seafood and herb stores are probably not the way to go. From the supermarket, I purchased some osmanthus green tea just to taste a general blend.

Dry osmanthus green tea (above). Small rolled lengthwise leaves, not all uniform, dark green/grayish in colour. Some sprinkles of yellow osmanthus flowers.

Dried Osmanthus flowers. Yellow tiny flowers with some darker yellow/orange flowers within the mix.

I brewed 1 tsp of each. The osmanthus green tea on the left have an amber colour and was not as clear. The aroma was slightly floral. The taste, basic green tea but didn't have much character or sweetness, only mildly bitter. No aftertaste. It was light to medium bodied.

The osmanthus flower tea, on the right, had a greenish-yellow colour to it. Aroma was not floral but had a Chinese medicinal aroma. Taste, slightly bitter and got a little more bitter has it cooled.

The wet leaves of the osmanthus green tea, as you can see, not full leaves but they are green even though the dry leaves indicated they might not be.

The wet osmanthus flowers.

So overall, my experiment didn't go too well. The osmanthus green tea I bought from the supermarket is ok as an everyday tea, something to drink while busy I think. But, the osmanthus flowers I bought will have to mixed in with something else or not used again.

Next on my list, to purchase some osmanthus tea from an actual tea shop, I presume the quality will be much better.