Delight Your Senses with the Heavenly Essence of Jasmine Tea

Jasmine tea is an odd duck among teas, in that it is sometimes a green tea and sometimes a black tea. Sometimes even white tea is used. The base of jasmine tea is in the flowers of a version of the jasmine plant found in southwest and southeast Asia.

The flower petals of the jasmine plant are "mated" with either green tea leaves or oolong tea leaves, oolong tea being more green than black. This is done inside machines that control the temperature and humidity, with the minimum "cooking" time being four hours.

Higher quality tea may be "cooked" several times, to fully absorb the aroma of the jasmine petals. At the end of the process, the petals are essentially spent and may or may not be discarded. If they are kept, the jasmine petals are there strictly for visual aesthetics, as the tea leaves have absorbed all of the scent and flavor.

The end product is a cup of tea with a light, delicate flavor that is fine on its own, it blends especially well with honey.Since jasmine tea uses oolong, green and white tea as a base, the health benefits for drinking jasmine tea are identical to the base tea used.

Most jasmine tea uses green tea as a base, so it too has antioxidant properties, less caffeine than black tea, and is believed to help prevent cancer and "bad" cholesterol. The latter two remain to be proven, but the anti-oxidant value is proven, so any health claim made for antioxidants applies to some extent to jasmine tea.

The main benefit of antioxidants is the elimination of free radicals, a byproduct of our metabolism that damages our cells. Free radicals have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis and aging in general.Jasmine tea is widely available. Anyone who has ever shopped in a Chinese market is familiar with the cheap, big Sunflower yellow tins of good quality, Chinese jasmine tea.

On the mass market, Twining sells jasmine tea in looseleaf and bagged formats, while Lipton sells a variety of blends with jasmine tea in them. On the other end of the spectrum, companies like Numi and Rishi sell organic jasmine tea.

Jasmine is a pleasant twist on green, white and oolong tea, and as previously mentioned the jasmine flavor blends very well with honey.

A box of jasmine tea belongs on the shelf right next to the black breakfast tea and the herbal nighttime tea.