Jasmine Flower and Jasmine Tea

Jasmine Flower and Jasmine Tea in Fuzhou City

From spring to autumn, Fuzhou city is filled with flower fragrance, because from June to October every year, it is the season for the blooming of jasmine flower, the city of Fuzhou.

The peddlers walking in the street and alleys in Fuzhou with jasmine flower strings in hands for sales are visible here and there. The aged Fuzhou people are living here for a long time like handing these jasmine flower strings on their bodies, carrying flower fragrance as the wind blows.

Fuzhou flower farmers today plant jasmine in large scale, but they don't grow jasmine simply for appreciation and fragrance, but more importantly, selling jasmine flowers to the tea plants for fumigating scented tea.

Scented tea, also called a fragrant the piece, is a kind of tea unique in China, which makes use of the characteristic that tea is good at absorbing peculiar smells. It is made by mixing the fresh flowers releasing fragrance with the finely baked green tea in special fumigating technique to make the tea absorb the scent of flowers.

According to the types of the used fragrant flowers, scented tea can be classified into jasmine tea, magnolia tea, rose tea and so on.

The scented tea having the largest market share is jasmine tea. One jin (500 grams) superior jasmine tea can be sold at the market price not less than that of new Longjing tea.

In an auction several years ago, 100 grams of jasmine needles were auctioned at the price of 86 thousand yuan. Jasmine tea, which was called as low-price tea and the tea for the masses, became the hot point attracting public attention again.

The effect of Jasmine Tea

Fuzhou people think that jasmine tea is the healthiest tea drink. Many teas have a pharmacological effect, and all are the effect of tea. Jasmine tea has not only the effect of tea but also the effect of the flower.

Jasmine flower itself has the effects of heat-clearing and detoxifying, antiphlogistic as well as soothing the nerves. Since the scent of jasmine flower, in ancient times, many medical works recorded the special effects of jasmine flower. In the prescription of powder for anesthetic, stramonium was the first herb; jasmine flower was the second one dosage.

The root of the jasmine flower was recorded in "Compendium of Materia Medica 本草纲目" written by Li Shizhen, which said that one Cun (1 Cun=3.33cm) of jasmine flower's root could make a person sleep for one day, and seven cun of jasmine root could result in permanent sleep of a person.

Therefore, it was a very important medicine with a soothing effect. Since the Song Dynasty, Jasmine had been widely planted in Fuzhou. This is also the pride of Fuzhou people.

The history of Jasmine Flower in Fuzhou

As the city flower of Fuzhou, jasmine has a history almost as long as that of the ancient city Fuzhou.

But according to the historical record, the jasmine flower is not the flower native in China. It originated from about India and was mainly used as a holy flower in Buddhism.

About more than 2,000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty, it was introduced into China along the Silk Road. Some folk records and unofficial European notes recorded that this flower was unique in Fuzhou and extremely fragrant. That is since it was introduced to China, the fittest place for its growth is Fuzhou.

1, The location of Fuzhou

Fuzhou is situated in the coastal area in the east of Fujian Province and in the lower reaches of Minjiang River, which runs through the city and brings a large amount of sand sediment to Fuzhou. Such soil with silt and hummus is very suitable for the growth of jasmine flower.

In ancient times, jasmine flower could only be cultivated in the open, and Fuzhou is the northernmost place for the cultivation of jasmine flower in the Northern Hemisphere of the world because it falls into the division between southern subtropical and mid- subtropical zones in the Northern Hemisphere. Fuzhou has a nearly 360-day frostless period per year, and since Jasmine flower is most vulnerable to frost attack. So Fuzhou is the northernmost place for the cultivation of jasmine flower in the open in the Northern Hemisphere in China.

2, History record about the Jasmine Flower

In the kingdom of flowers, jasmine is not famous for its beautiful color but succeeds in its scent. Its scent is sweet, thick, elegant and far-reaching.

After appreciating jasmine, Jiang Kui, a poem in the Yuan Dynasty praised it, "If I am required to write the history of flowers, I will list jasmine as the No.1".

In the Song Dynasty, Jasmine had been planted in the palace.

At the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, he placed a jasmine flower in his garden and listed it as one of the top eight fragrant kinds of grass.

Afterward, Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty made a hall called Verdant Cold Hall to store jasmine flower, which refers that the air was blown into it with the wind wheel and the fans so that it could be cool in the summer.

3, Jasmine Flower and Jasmine Tea

Fuzhou is situated in the 26 degrees north latitude, and also is one of the places most suitable for growing tea in China, and was called as the best place for the baked tea since ancient times. In the Tang Dynasty, Fuzhou produced two tribute teas, Fangshan Tea and Gushan Tea. Fuzhou people have a long history of drinking tea.

Sometimes, at the season for the full bloom of jasmine flowers, some aged persons surround an ancient tree, making the flower strings, on the one hand, drinking tea and chatting on the other hand. Flower scent enters the tea to produce a unique flavor. The people guess that presumably just in this accidental moment, jasmine flower and tea come together.

Fuzhou is a place with tea, and Fuzhou is also the place abundant with flowers. Flower and tea appear in the same place and grow in the same place, then probably a very skillful agricultural woman or the tea planter or farmer happens to combine the tea with flower fumigating.

Then the scent of the flowers is infused into tea, making the tea produce the scent, which became the unique skill of his family. Then it was imitated by other families.

The original jasmine tea was just the drink made in the common families.

It became the merchandise and was fumigated on large scale since the Qing Dynasty. This was also the skillful creation of tea merchants in Fuzhou.

4, The unique taste of Fuzhou Jasmine Tea

With the popularity of jasmine tea, the cultivation of jasmine flower and the fumigating technique of scented tea have been widely broadcasted from Fuzhou.

But the people accustomed to drinking Fuzhou tea always feel that the scented teas in other places seem to lack a little Fuzhou taste. After the experimental study for years, people finally found the secret in it.

In 1988, the Journal of Peking University published an experiment by a study topic team of Professor Pu Xin of Peking University and Tsinghua University, which compared the top scent constituents of jasmine flowers in Fuzhou and Guangzhou.

It was measured that Fuzhou jasmine flower had 13 ingredients which cannot be measured in that of Guangzhou. This is the reason why the taste of the Fuzhou jasmine flower is different from that in other places.

This resulted in the unique, quiet, light and elegant flavor in Fuzhou jasmine tea.

How to make the Jasmine Flower

The choice of fresh flowers is critically important for the quality of jasmine tea. A well-made jasmine tea requires good baked green tea, fresh jasmine flowers, and a good process.

In this case, this baked green tea made is generally made with the raw materials collected in March and April. Once the raw materials are obtained, they are processed into the baked green tea there. Till July and August, this hot summer flowers will be fumigated, which are very important for processing jasmine flowers into jasmine tea.

The freshness of jasmine flowers will have a direct influence on the quality of jasmine tea, thus on the price of the tea.

1, Collecting standard

The collecting standard for the flower farmers both has a very significant influence on the quantity and quality of jasmine flower.

The flower farmers collect not the blooming flowers, but the buds are going to bloom. The blooming flowers are useless because their scent disappeared. Therefore, the flower was vitality; that is, the collected flower is still living. These flowers will be fumigated in the factory for scent exposing, which is quite important.

2, Preparation for blooming

When the buds are purchased, they should be timely maintained, that is, flower serving. If they are not well served, these flowers will not bloom as expected in the evening.

Firstly, we should spread out these flowers because jasmine will become sweltering during transportation, and after that, the sweltering smell is removed. And we need to constantly spread out and piled up the buds 4~5 hours, to keep the temperature and ensure full contact with oxygen.

Secondly, we will remove off the flower leaves starting becoming red, which is called red flower. Without pure fresh jasmine flowers, the authentic jasmine tea cannot be fumigated.

Only in this way, can there be a wonderful phenomenon that the flowers bloom in the evening.

3, Blooming and screening

After waiting for nearly 6 hours, the buds in the bamboo baskets finally start blooming. The air is gradually infused with the light scent of the flowers.

Now we need to take the time to screen the flowers.

That is, screen off the buds that don't bloom, which are also called as green buds. Since green buds don't give, but the scent, but will release the bad smell. If they are not removed, green buds will bring this bad smell into the tea, which will influence the flavor of scented tea.

4, Mix and fumigate the green tea

At this moment, the ready-made baked green tea will be mixed with fresh flowers in a fixed proportion. This delicious fragrance of the flowers and clear freshness of the tea are sublimated in the fusion of this mixing.

5, Screening

After the fumigating for more than ten hours in the previous evening, the scent of fresh flowers has been absorbed by the tea. The dilapidated jasmine flower produces a souring smell and has to be removed from the tea. Therefore in traditional jasmine tea, jasmine flower cannot be seen.

6, Repeat the fumigating 3-10 times

For some teas, from tea picking to market circulation, it can be completed within two or three days.

While jasmine tea will be fumigated for 3 days for one time, high-quality jasmine tea will be fumigated for seven, eight or even ten times, with the duration up to one month.

Therefore, the scented teas drunk by the people are far from precious than imagination.

The spread of Jasmine Tea

In 1844, Fuzhou was open to the world. Depending on its convenient transporting port and excellent tea quality, Fuzhou started taking the leading role in the tea trade.

During the short 5 or 6 years, the quantity of tea exported from Fuzhou had accounted for two-thirds of the total export from Guangzhou and Shanghai.

And only in the tea export, Fuzhou accounted for about 20% of national export in total.

Till now, Fuzhou jumped as the largest tea port in China and even in the world.

During the long-distance transportation of tea, only the box in that period, the wooden box was used. During long-distance transportation, tea would be easily tainted. That is, the smell of wood would be tainted into the tea.

Because the tea is very dry and can absorb this smell, the clever merchants in Fuzhou made this tea by fumigating jasmine flowers, so that the tea could be filled with fragrance.

During transportation, it could counteract the bad smell and tainted odor from the wood. Thus the tea could still have such scent even when it was transported to the north and Russia.

Not only keeping natural thick and refreshing flavors of green tea but also infusing the fairy scent of jasmine flower.

When jasmine tea was sold to the north, it immediately was aspired by the people in the northern regions, such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong.

The north is a droughty area; the south is a place full of greenness.

The northern people said that in the south, anything being planted in the soil could live.

Such green and such moisture are much aspired by the people living on the droughty land.

Numerous northern people praised the water and mountains in the south, which could be well transmitted with the tea, particularly jasmine follower tea as the best carrier so that the houses of northern people are filled with the green sense and flower scent from the south.

In 1972, US President Nixon visited China, and Fuzhou jasmine tea luckily played an important role in this historical moment about Sino-US relations.

Chairman Mao Zedong just used Fuzhou jasmine tea to entertain the distinguished guests.

In fact, before the opening up and reform, in the foreign exchange in China,100% of jasmine tea was manufactured in Fuzhou.

And 100% of jasmine tea exported from China was manufactured in Fuzhou.

Therefore, in the 1970s and 1980s, Fuzhou became the jasmine flower sea covering 100 thousand mu.

Tea merchants from various places nationwide in one time were settled in Fuzhou, and there were more than one thousand factories for fumigated scented tea in the prime time.

The sales of Fuzhou jasmine tea has occupied half of the teas in China.

Concluding remarks

Jasmine flower and Fuzhou city have created a strange fate for one thousand years, and it makes the scent of Fuzhou jasmine tea flow to the world.