Sweet Jasmine

This is a milk station in Darstetten, where the farmers would bring their milk to be collected for
transport to the dairy.

Yesterday was a beautiful Fall day. Today we have the flip side -
cold, dreary, gray. A perfect day for tea. But then, any day is, although some just seem to cry out for warm drinks.

Boston Tea Company has been very generous in sending me samples to review. Today's is Jasmine and I am really looking forward to it. The leaves are a very pretty green, filled with Jasmine blossoms. They are like silk as I run them through my fingers and smell sweetly of Jasmine. Just the right touch, too, not overwhelming or cloying.

Jasmine tea is almost always a green tea, this one is a Chun Mee. After the leaves are dried, they are layered with fresh Jasmine blossoms anywhere from 3-7 days. Usually the flowers are removed each day and a new batch added. Generally the flowers are not included in the final presentation, but these were.

I brewed the tea at about 180 degrees for about 1.5 minutes, happily sniffing the lovely aroma. The liquor is a beautiful pale green. The tea is very pleasant, well-balanced, sweet. You can taste both the green tea and the flowery Jasmine. While it is not the very best I have ever had, it is very good in its own right. I thought perhaps the leaves and flowers could be ground and added to a good vanilla ice cream. I was also thinking about cooking a delicate sweet with it, but I don't think it would stand up to the high temperatures of baking. However, it might make a very nice jasmine custard to pour over pound cake or poached peaches.