Flowering Teas ---- LOVE TEAS

THE LEGEND BEHIND LOVE TEA

When negotiating the purchase of this tea with our Supplier, he told me the legend that sits behind it.  The story goes that around 150 years ago, a small tea farmer's daughter fell in love with a young boy.  She wanted to give him something very special as a present, but couldn't think of what to give.  One day, when hand strewing tea with her parents, she thought about making a heart shaped tea - the 'Love Tea' that we are talking about today. After several failed attempts, she got the perfect heart shape.

The boy loved the tea and they were soon married and lived happily ever after. The legend lives on in the form of the Love Tea. Today, the tea is very popular with young people in China, particularly around Valentine's Day.

The Love Tea Blooming http://twinings.co.uk/about-our-tea/love-tea-twinings-flowering-teas#Images

What is it

Flowering tea or blooming tea (Chinese: 香片 , 工艺茶 , or 开花茶 ) consist each of a bundle of dried tea leaves wrapped around one or more dried flowers.  These are made by binding tea leaves and flowers together into a bulb and are then set to dry.  

How they work

When steeped, the bundle expands and unfurls in a process that emulates a blooming flower,  while the flowers inside emerge as the centerpiece. Typically they are sourced from the Yunnan province of China.  Flowers commonly used in flowering teas include globeamaranth, chrysanthemum,jasmine lily, hibiscus, and osmanthus

History

It remains uncertain whether flowering tea was a modern creation or was a much older invention of China.

Flowering tea is generally served in containers made of glass, or other transparent material, so that the flowering effect can be seen. The bundles can usually be reused two or three times without the tea becoming bitter.

Globe Amaranth

In Trinidad the flowers are boiled to make a tea which is used for baby gripe, oliguria, cough and diabetes; cooling.[1]

In Hawaii, it is commonly used in long-lasting leis since it retains its shape and color after drying.

This flower is used to make a garland for Brother's Day in Nepal. The garland is put around the brother's neck by their sister for Protection.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum tea has many purported medicinal uses, including an aid in recovery from influenza, acne and as a "cooling" herb. According to traditional Chinese medicine the tea can aid in the prevention of sore throat and promote the reduction of fever. In Korea, it is known well for its medicinal use for making people more alert and is often used as a pick-me-up to render the drinker more awake. In western herbal medicine, Chrysanthemum tea is drunk or used as a compress to treat circulatory disorders such as varicose veins andatherosclerosis.

Jasmine Tea

Jasmine tea (Chinese:  茉莉 花 茶 ; pinyin: mòlìhuā chá) is tea scented with aroma from jasmine blossoms to make a scented tea. Typically, jasmine tea has green tea as the tea base; however, white tea and black tea are also used. The resulting flavour of jasmine tea is subtly sweet and highly fragrant. It is the most famous scented tea in China

Lily Herbs

Lilium bulbs are starchy and edible as root vegetables, although bulbs of some species may be very bitter. The non-bitter bulbs of L. lancifolium, L. pumilum, and especially L. brownii(Chinese:  百合   干 ; pinyin: bǎihé gān) and Lilium davidii var unicolor are grown on a large scale in China as a luxury or health food, and are most often sold in dry form for herb, the fresh form often appears with other vegetables. The dried bulbs are commonly used in the south to flavor soup. Lily flowers are also said to be efficacious in pulmonary affections, and to have tonic properties.[42]

 Lily flowers and bulbs are eaten especially in the summer, for their perceived ability to reduce internal heat.[43] They may be reconstituted and stir-fried, grated and used to thicken soup, or processed to extract starch. Their texture and taste draw comparisons with the potato, although the individual bulb scales are much smaller. There are also species which are meant to be suitable for culinary and/or herb uses

Hibiscus Teas

Preliminary study has shown that drinking hibiscus tea may lower blood pressure in people with type 2 diabetes,[3]

 prehypertension, or mild hypertension.[7][8][9] However, there is no reliable evidence to support recommending hibiscus tea in the treatment of primary hypertension.[10][11] The average systolic blood pressure for diabetics drinking hibiscus tea decreased from 134.8 mmHg (17.97 kPa) at the beginning of one study to 112.7 mmHg (15.03 kPa) at the end of the study, one month later.[3] Drinking 3 cups of hibiscus tea daily for 6 weeks reduced systolic blood pressure by 7 mm Hg in prehypertensive and mildly hypertensive participants. In those with mean systolic blood pressure over 129 mm Hg, the reduction was nearly 14 mm Hg. Hibiscus flowers contain anthocyanins, which are believed to be active antihypertensive compounds, acting as angiotensin-converting enzyme(ACE) inhibitors.

Hibiscus Teas

The drink is called roselle (a name for the flower) or rosella (Australia), agua de Jamaica and/or flor de Jamaica in Latin America, Arhul ka phool in India, karkadé in Levant, Egypt, Sudan, Italy and Russia, Chai Kujarat in Iraq, Chai Torsh in Iran, gumamela in thePhilippines, bissap, tsoborodo or wonjo in West Africa, sorrel in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, red sorrel in the widerCaribbean, and other names in other regions, including the U.S., where it is sometimes known as simply Jamaica.

Hibiscus Applications

In Thailand, most commonly, roselle is prepared as a cold beverage, heavily sweetened and poured over ice, similar to sweetened fruit juices. Plastic bags filled with ice and sweetened 'grajeab' can be found outside of most schools and in local markets. Roselle is also drunk as a tea, believed to reduce cholesterol.

It is less commonly made into a wine, sometimes combined with Chinese tea leaves, in the ratio of 4:1 by weight (1/5 Chinese tea). The beverage is popular in Malaysia and Indonesia as well.

In China, candied flower petals are occasionally available. In Mandarin Chinese, it is called luòshénhuā (洛神花).

Osmanthus Teas

Osmanthus /ɒzˈmænθəs/[2] is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Indochina, the Himalayas, etc.) with a few species from the Caucasus, New Caledonia, Sumatra, and North America (Mexico, Central America, southeastern United States)

Where to Source Flowering Teas From

Numi Organic Tea http://shop.numitea.com/Flowering-T

ea/c/NumiTeaStore@ Primula Blloming and FloweringTea http://primulaproducts.com/flowering

-teas.html Mountain Rose Herbs https://

www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/teas/flowering

Source of Flowering Teas

Twinings Love Teas

Twinings Love Teas http://twinings.co.uk/about-our-tea/love-

tea-twinings-flowering-teas Love Tea is a fascinating tea that comes

from the Fujian province of China.  It's a hugely famous tea growing region, the largest in China and is the producer of a fifth of all teas in China.  As well as being China's largest tea producing region, Fujian is home to an amazing range of white, black and green teas.

How to make Love Teas

The 'Love Tea' is an extension of the Treasure Teas of China, also referred to as the Blooming teas.  These teas are almost 100% handmade, using a very bespoke production process which involves a huge amount of manual dexterity.  Because it is so time intensive to produce, it is done so in very nominal quantities, making it a real work of art.

The tea is made using only the finest quality teas picked in springtime and it takes 2 to 3 days to make just a couple of cubes of this beautiful tea. The speciality of this production of this tea is amazing and in a year, we'll be lucky if more than 20-30kgs of this tea is produced.

The aroma and taste of 'Love Tea' The first aroma you get from this tea is slightly herbaceous

followed by a slightly toasty note - a really soothing smell; really light and soft.

On first taste, again you will get that herbaceous not but as you let it linger on the palette, it has a slight honey note to it; some people even like to enhance this sweetness with the addition of a little honey or sugar.

This is one of the few teas that doesn't become bitter.  Even after 4 or more minutes of brewing, it becomes almost sweeter in flavour as the flavanoids from the flowers such as the Jasmine start to come out. 

The beauty of this tea is that you can use the flower 3-4 times, continuing to brew more of this decadent tea.

It is absolutely perfect with something sweet to compliment it; perhaps a couple of chocolates - ideal on Valentine's Day.  It is also such an beautiful sight to watch this tea brew that it is a great experience to share with your loved one

Ayoma Flower Market Tea House

Few cafés in Omotesando can rival the atmosphere at this verdant tea shop, which sits inside the Aoyama Flower Market shop on the corner of Aoyama-dori. Flowers and plants crowd the greenhouse-like interior, where customers can sample herbal teas alongside a menu of food including open sandwiches, parfaits and French toast.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_tea Gold, Cynthia; Stern, Lisë (2010). 

Culinary tea: More than 150 recipes steeped in tradition from around the world. Philadelphia: Running Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-7624-3773-3.

^ Jump up to:a b c "On Food: Stop and savor the flowering teas", Hsiao-Ching Chou, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 1, 2007.

Jump up^ Richardson, Lisa Boalt (2009). Tea with a twist: Entertaining and cooking with tea. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-7369-2579-2.

Jump up^ "The Cup that Still Cheers", Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 20 October 2005.

^ Jump up to:a b "What is Flowering Tea?", WiseGEEK. http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/11832/Aoyama-Flower-

Market-Tea-House