Jasmine Tea
Jasmine Tea
Jasmine tea is a scented tea made from jasmine scented oolong tea, green tea leaves or Pouchong tea leaves. Among the different base teas oolong tea is very popular as it is mild and rich in flavor.
Black tea is rarely used for making jasmine tea as it has more tannin and may overwhelm the flavor of jasmine. Jasmine tea is very popular in China. This highly aromatic tea is made by flavoring tea leaves with jasmine flowers.
Preparation of Jasmine Tea
For making jasmine tea you need to harvest jasmine flowers at the peek of their blooming period during day time and store it in cool area up to night. During night these flowers will bloom and release all its fragrance. Hence at night these flowers are layered over the green tea leaves. In order to attain high quality tea you have to make six alternative layers of jasmine flowers and tea leaves. Once the scent of jasmine is merged with tea leaves, then you can discard the jasmine flowers.
In certain other cases the jasmine flowers are cured with tea leaves in controlled atmosphere like temperature, humidity etc. When the jasmine flowers gets dried they will add their flavor to the tea leaves. In order to have strong flavor, multiple curing is necessary. Once the curing is completed, the tea leaves are then fired to get rid of the excess moisture before packing. Some times the jasmine flowers are allowed to be in the tea packs as on re hydrating these flowers looks so pretty.
Benefits of Jasmine Tea
Prevention of Cancer
Jasmine tea is found to be very beneficial for preventing and slow down cancer. Jasmonate which is a component obtained from jasmine helps to prevent cancer. Jasmine can also inhibit an enzyme called hexokinase which helps the cancer cells to multiply.
Anxiety
Jasmine tea can help you to calm down and may produce a sedative like effect.
Lower Cholesterol Levels
Jasmine tea also lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels
Anti bacterial
Jasmine tea is found to have good antibacterial property and it may inhibit the growth of certain food poisoning bacteria like listeria, salmonella etc.
