Floral & flavored teas

[Wholemeal Crank]

I enjoy floral teas for variety, but find a lot of the commercially available blends are too strong--for example, I usually cut rishi's peach blossom white tea about 1:2 with a nice white or yellow tea to get a pleasingly floral but not cloying brew--or start with poorer quality base teas, so have been adding flowers myself.

For example, while reading up on the pouchong tea I recently rediscovered in the back of my cupboard, I encountered several times a note that it is often drunk with the addition of rose.

So, when I bought some more of it, I asked about adding rose, and got a bag of little dried rose buds. I added about 8 of them to the amount of tea that I steeped 3 times to fill my quart thermos (about 1 tablespoon of large loose leaves), and was disappointed to find no real difference in the flavor.

I've also tried to work with some dried osmanthus flowers, which are often called 'orchid flowers' when used to flavor teas, and not been very satisfied with the results when trying to reproduce a nice 'orchid oolong' tea I was given as a gift.

Simply adding flowers or petals until the flavor seems right isn't working so well, and I'm wondering: are the flowers I have too old/worn out to add flavor? Do the rose buds need to be separated into rose petals? Do the flowers change the best brewing temperatures? Are resteepings drawing undesireable flavor from the petals? Are there ways to tell, without opening the bag/jar/box/can, whether the flowers are likely to have much flavor to give?

[Richard Kilgore]

I have started accumulating some herbs, rose buds and such for making tisanes, but have not done much of anything with them yet. Can anyone else help WMC?

[Reignking]

Lavender.

[andiesenji]

I have used Republic of Teas Rose tea - small buds with loose petals with China black tea. It has a distinctive rose aroma and flavor.

and have also purchased the "pure" rose product from Culinary Teas and from other vendors and at my local health food store.

I just checked the last batch I ordered online and found I got it from enjoyingtea.com

Frankly, I do not mix the latter with black or green tea for brewing. I prefer to brew this type of product - edible flowers and certain delicate herbs - separately and combine the resultant "tisane" with whatever tea I have brewed.

This gives one better control over the end product. The tisane can be brewed ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to a day. You can also use it to make a flavored syrup. Rose syrup is very popular in middle eastern homes.

I don't think that 8 buds would be sufficient for the amount indicated. For two cups (one pint) I use two rounded tablespoons and I crush the buds and petals.

I can prepare a batch later and take a photo to show the color that would indicate a proper infusion.

Lavender is much stronger and can be mixed with loose leaf tea and one doesn't need much.

Orange blossoms are also stronger and can be mixed with tea. Same with chamomile.

Rose, violet and others are more delicate and perhaps some of the "tannins" may inhibit them from infusing fully. Many of the commercial products that contain the flowers will, in many instances, also contain added "flavoring" to enhance the taste.

Read the label.

Edited July 28, 2009 by andiesenji (log)

[Yajna Patni]

I found a green tea with Lavender in an Asian grocery store in Fort Worth on a trip a while ago, I really liked it. The lavender however was very strong, and you couldnt really taste the green tea. This worked for me!

[Wholemeal Crank]

I prefer to brew this type of product - edible flowers and certain delicate herbs - separately and combine the resultant "tisane" with whatever tea I have brewed.   

I don't think that 8 buds would be sufficient for the amount indicated.  For two cups (one pint) I use two rounded tablespoons and I crush the buds and petals.

Rose, violet and others are more delicate and perhaps some of the "tannins" may inhibit them from infusing fully. 

Many of the commercial products that contain the flowers will, in many instances, also contain added "flavoring" to enhance the taste. 

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Thanks for the thoughtful comments.

I am surprised that it would take so much more rose than I started with to give a hint of rose flavor to the tea, but it makes sense that crushing the buds--which did not open up much at all, unlike the tea leaves--will help to get more flavor out of what I did use. I guess I forget that when I'm looking at the tiny bit of jasmine sometimes left in a jasmine tea, that I'm only looking at a small fraction of the jasmine flowers that were used to scent the tea, and the dried rose buds are probably a lot less potent than fresh jasmine.

And it also makes sense that I might have better results treating the flowers separately. I will try this and see what happens.

i also have some rose water at home--I believe it is just the scented water, and not a syrup--which I can play with. That might be a lot simpler than making a separate tisane, although probably more prone to the overdone effect I have not liked in some of the commercial blends.

[helenjp]

Wow, I had come to the conclusion that rosebuds were not mature enough for significant aroma, and were strictly for decoration. You can sometimes buy them in Chinese tea shops.

Violet goes well with almost any kind of citrus, even grapefruit, if you want to add some dried peel or a twist of fresh.

Strawberry leaves add a faint aroma to black tea (and make a very mild tea by themselves).

I've been meaning to experiment with nutmeg geranium flowers (thinking that they may be less overpowering than the leaves).

[Tom Gengo]

This past spring I was the beneficary of about 100 Pink Grapefruits grown here in Charleston. I candied the zest and it is a great addition to the teas that I have brewed. Also, lemongrass from my yard

[andiesenji]

Wow, I had come to the conclusion that rosebuds were not mature enough for significant aroma, and were strictly for decoration. You can sometimes buy them in Chinese tea shops.

Violet goes well with almost any kind of citrus, even grapefruit, if you want to add some dried peel or a twist of fresh.

Strawberry leaves add a faint aroma to black tea (and make a very mild tea by themselves).

I've been meaning to experiment with nutmeg geranium flowers (thinking that they may be less overpowering than the leaves).

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One of my friends who does not drink any kind of real tea, grows an astonishing variety of geraniums, including rose geranium (Pelargonium 'Graveolens') on her Santa Barbara "ranch."

The tisane (she is adamant that these infusions are in no way "tea") she brews from rose geranium leaves, fresh or dried, is far more rose-flavored than any I have tasted brewed from actual roses.

She also brews vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, mint, apple, lemon, and several other flavors from her various "flavored" geraniums, makes jelly and also uses the flavored brews in cakes, puddings, etc.

She probably has a nutmeg geranium - I can't recall all of them. I know she does have one that has a distinct marshmallow aroma, although I have never tasted it.

She sent me this link a while ago: Scented geraniums

It might have some helpful info.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Wow, I had come to the conclusion that rosebuds were not mature enough for significant aroma, and were strictly for decoration. You can sometimes buy them in Chinese tea shops.

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Tried again with the rosebuds, because they're what I have already on hand, and used a higher proportion of buds to tea, crushed this time--

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and it worked better: a very mild floral edge to the tea that complemented it quite nicely.

[v. gautam]

Re: Roses, for dried petals, the Rose of Provins, Rosa gallica officinale, is supposed to retain its fragrance when dried better than most [and is thus valued in potpourris]. You may be able to purchase the dried petals of this type by name, because certainly in France, this is no stranger.

Rose oils of the Euroasiatic roses are rich in geraniols(!!) that are more soluble in alcohol than in water: a 50:50 water: alcohol mix will bring out more of the fragrance from fresh petals. You could add a few drops of this tincture to your infusion, with dry rose petals added for their charm and psychological benefits.

http://www.hobbsfarmgreenery.com/onlinecatalog.html

This specialist in scented "geraniums" may already have been listed upthread. "True Rose" & "Rober's Lemon Rose' are just 2 of the many to be found, including slow-growing, dimunitive types just right for small apartments. At $5/ea. they are a source of endless delight.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I may be lucky enough to be in France in a few weeks, and if there, will try to pick up some proper rose petal from this sort of rose, if they're an agricultural product I can bring back to California.....do dried rose petals carry any pathogens, and are customs people going to yank them away if I buy them?

And another most unrelated post, from a series of pent-up tea musings from when the forums were down....

A few days ago, I made a pot of a fine jasmine tea, which reminded me of how lovely the good jasmine can be. I've been so much preocuppied with the lighter oolongs and puerhs recently that I neglected this former favorite. There remained a mild astringence underneath the jasmine flavor, and I found myself trying to figure out if the jasmine actively counteracts that in some way, or just covers it over.