When it comes to drinking tea, there is a history of appreciating it in Asia, especially Japan and China, in way that just is not done in the West. However, if you are going to try blooming tea, you really need to take your time and sip it. It is a not a tea to just gulp down with breakfast.
Blooming tea does exactly what the name implies. It blooms. It does this because it is a ball of tea with dried flowers hand sewn inside it. When you pour on hot water, the flowers expand with the liquid, and break out of the ball. The flowers then bloom into gorgeous displays reminiscent of sea anemones.
Besides being gorgeous to look at, blooming tea has a truly exquisite taste. It is a flavor that is meant to be savored and contemplated. When you drink tea like this, you understand why it seems to go hand and hand with more meditative pastimes. It also has a light fragrance that is truly unique.
No one is entirely sure how many years the Chinese have been making and drinking blooming tea. It is at least decades but may well be for centuries. Every springtime, the finest of the young tea buds and leaves are picked for blooming tea balls. The variety of tea used may be either white or green.
Different flowers are used for blooming tea. Some of the varieties used are jasmine, osmanthus, lilies, hibiscus and chrysanthemum. The flowers used, as with the tealeaves, are picked when young. This is because the taste and fragrance will be more delicate.
It is truly an art that goes into creating blooming tea. It starts with the selection of the best leaves and flowers. But it is the combination of those elements by an artist in sewing the blooming tea balls that leads to the object of beauty in your teacup at home.
In brewing blooming tea, it is best to use a glass container, either a cup or a pot, so you can see the flower as it unfolds. Pour the boiling water into the cup over the tea ball. It should steep for approximately five minutes. You can later reuse the ball a few times, to your taste. When done reusing, put it into a glass container with cold water so that you can display it.
Once only a drink of the elite in China, blooming tea has been gradually becoming more and more popular across the world. A quick search on the Internet will yield many sites selling this drink. Do be careful, and make sure that what you buy is truly authentic blooming tea.
Blooming tea is more expensive than your average cup of tea. But the results speak for themselves. If you just want a caffeine jolt in the morning, this is not the tea for you. But if you want an experience that will invoke all your senses and instantly remove the stress from your day, blooming tea is definitely something to try.
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