What on blooming earth is Blooming Tea?

You may have seen it and thought what is a flower doing in a teapot…I’m not drinking that! But don’t be fooled – these beautiful flowering creations are indeed tea and they are drinkable!

Known to some as Flowering Tea, Flowerball tea or simply Flower Tea these wonderful balls of tea will blow your mind!

Fall of Fragrance – Blooming Tea

So what are they? Well to being with you are presented with something actually a little uninspiring – confusing even. It’s a big ball of green tea. The magic only begins once it has been immersed in boiled water (let the water cool for a minute or two first so that you don’t damage the green tea.  So you’ve let the water cool, pop the ball in a glass teapot (you can use anything glass or transparent here, a wine glass can look nice!) and add the water. Continue reading

How Jasmine Dragon Pearls are made…

In a recent blog entry, I mentioned witnessing how our Jasmine Dragon Pearls were made. I had the pleasure of seeing it all in action during a trip to Fujian in China in August of last year. It really is amazing how much effort goes in to making these little balls of tasty tea.

It all begins in the spring when the tea for the Jasmine Pearls has to be picked and processed. Green tea is used so once the tea leaves have been picked they are pan fried and then rolled into their pearl shape by picking up a few leaves at a time and rolling then into ball using paper. The pearls are dried and stored until summer.

Summer in Fujian Continue reading

My First Trip to China!

In August this year, Hans and I travelled the many miles from York to Shanghai. After travelling for 24 hours we arrived at Pu Dong Airport in Shanghai at 1am. It was my first trip to China and although Hans had been many times before he was still as shocked as I was when we left the airport building to be hit by hot humid air despite it being in the wee hours.

I can tell you that the heat and humidity of that first night in China Continue reading