What’s in Basilur Jasmine Green Tea

Classic jasmine green tea is made with Chinese green tea leaves, scented with fresh jasmine flowers. This process is repeated until the tea is fragrant enough, and all flowers are removed. Today, there are different ways of making jasmine green tea. Some blends may contain dried jasmin blossoms, other are flavoured with natural flavourings. Scenting and flavouring are different processes that result in different flavours as well.

So what’s in Basilur Jasmine green tea? First, it’s made with Ceylon (Sri Lankan) green tea, rather than Chinese tea. Next, this tea is flavoured with a natural jasmine flavour, rather than scented. And you’ll see both things immediately upon opening the pouch.

The first thing you’ll notice is an intense sweet jasmine scent. There’s no deep smokiness like with many other jasmine green teas. Instead, it’s very sweet and floral, on the verge of being perfumy. As it is extremely strong, this scent may not be for everyone. However, it’s also extremely pleasant and inviting.

How does it taste?

To make a cup of jasmine green tea, bring fresh water to a boil and let it cool down to 80-85 degrees Celsius. Use 1 heaped teaspoon or 1 tea bag per cup of water and steep for 2-3 minutes.

This tea has a very perfumy flavour that feels sweet. There’s absolutely no bitterness at all in this tea. It feels very delicate, which is quite uncommon for jasmine green tea, especially tea bags. Classic tea bags contain dust and small leaf particles and often result in a bitter and strong infusion.

Green tea in this blend is light, and the jasmine flavour is lighter than the scent might suggest. However, it’s strong enough to serve it iced. It would be a perfect treat for spring and summer afternoon tea parties.

If you love the scent of jasmine, especially jasmine essential oils, rather than classic jasmine teas, you will love this tea, too. In fact, even if you don’t like classic jasmine teas, you may find this tea inviting. This tea would appeal to those that like strong flavours, but don’t like the bitterness common in jasmine green teas. It’s quite surprising for a jasmine green tea in a traditional tea bag not to have any bitterness at all. However, if you don’t like perfumy blends, you won’t like Basilur’s jasmine green tea, either.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water

Day or night? Day

Hot or iced? Hot or iced

Sweetened or pure? Pure or with honey

Caffeine? Yes

Where to buy? Get it from Amazon.

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Safflower has its own story to tell.

What is safflower?

Safflower or Carthamus tinctorius L. is a small flowering plant from the daisy botanical family. It has a beautiful yellow, orange or red colour that looks incredibly beautiful in tea blends. It’s much more popular and used in Eastern countries than it’s in the West.

This flower is grown in over 60 countries, with India and China being some of the largest producers. It’s used mostly for making safflower oil, as a dye, flavouring, and as an herbal medicine (1).

You have probably heard of safflower before. Maybe you haven’t used it on its own, but it was undoubtedly a part of some tea blend you tried. In fact, safflower is one of the most popular and the most common floral ingredients in tea blends today. You will easily recognise it by small needle like intense orange-red petals. At first, it may seem like this tea is not doing much in a tea blend except making it look pretty.

But safflower has an appealing flavour and many potential benefits that make this flower more than just a beautiful addition to a tea blend.

Since petals are edible, you can also use them for decorating desserts, cookies and other dishes.

Is safflower the same as saffron?

If you aren’t familiar with both saffron and safflower, these two flowers may look very similar. However, if you take a closer look, you will immediately see the difference. Saffron (spice) is made from dried a dried stigma of the saffron flower, not from the petals. It will always look like a long, dark and intense red thread. In fact, saffron flowers are purple, not red.

Safflower is sometimes called a fake saffron or bastard saffron, and can be used as a spice too, as a replacement for saffron. However, it’s made from whole petals and while they also have a needle-like shape, they don’t look like threads. Besides, saffron is very strong and aromatic, and safflower is much lighter. Their flavour profile and scents are different too. Saffron has a beautiful complex and intense scent, while the scent of safflower may not be as inviting, although it’s strong as well. It has a much stronger herbal note that’s closer to floral teas than it is to spices.  

And last, saffron is one of the most expensive spices. Thankfully, you will only need a tiny amount to add lots of flavour and colour to your tea. With safflower, you’ll need to add much more to achieve a strong flavour. However, it’s also much more affordable.

Safflower health benefits

Safflower may provide many potential health benefits. Surprisingly, it shares many of them with saffron, even though they are two completely different plants.

This unique flower is used as a home remedy for treating anxiety and depression. (2) It may provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties and improve cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease. Seeds may provide benefits too, such as improving osteoporosis (3) and they are mostly used for making safflower oil, not the tea. However, it’s important to note that more studies are needed to confirm safflower’s potential. One of the primary uses besides helping with anxiety and depression is promoting blood circulation (4).

Safflower side-effects

Since safflower may act as a blood thinner, avoid it if you are taking blood thinners and similar medicine.

Interestingly, saffron may provide the same benefits – help with anxiety and depression and could have the same blood thinning side-effects as safflower. Avoid both of them during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

In rare cases, there’s also a possibility of an allergic reaction. If you are allergic to daisies or chrysanthemums, which belong to the same botanical family as safflower, you may be allergic to safflower too.

Can you make tea with safflower?

Absolutely! Both petals and seeds are edible, but it’s the petals that are used for making the tea. You can make a pure safflower herbal tea or blend it with other ingredients. This flower is great for making caffeine-free floral iced tea too.

Safflower tea is easy to make. You will need a freshly boiled water, an infuser or a disposable paper filter, and a cup. If you are using a teapot, choose the one with a removable fine-mesh strainer as safflower petals may be tiny and could easily slip through.

How to make safflower tea?

To make safflower tea, you will need pure dried petals and hot water. Bring fresh water to a boil and steep one teaspoon of dried flowers in a cup of water for 5 minutes. Strain and serve. This tea doesn’t need any condiments, but goes well with a teaspoon of honey. You can serve it hot or iced, both will taste delicious.

It blends well with:

• chamomile, another calming and soothing flower with sweet flavour
• rooibos tea, caffeine-free herbal tea with sweet and earthy flavour
• orange, try brewing it with fresh or dried orange slices
• green tea, usually slightly stronger teas

What is safflower tea good for?

How much you can benefit from any herbal and real tea will depend on many factors, including the quality of the tea, the way you make it, how you store it, what you consume it with, etc.

While it’s difficult to control all these factors, you can choose how you store the tea and how you are making it. If you are looking to enjoy the benefits of one herb, then pure tea may often be a better option than blends. Teas blended with only a few safflower petals will not provide strong (or any) benefits. With most blends, you likely don’t need to worry about side-effects either. However, some blends have more than just a few dried petals.

Pure safflower tea may be extremely refreshing. It’s great for slow sipping too. When introducing any new herb into your diet, it’s important to do it slowly, especially if you are drinking it purely for its potential benefits. In that case, always consult your doctor and make an informed decision.

What does safflower tea taste like?

Safflower tea is very easy to drink. The flavour is slightly floral and sweet, without any heavy or bitter notes. It has the honey-like sweetness of chamomile tea, with light aromatic saffron-like notes. Flavour is different from the scent, which may appear overpowering, so don’t let that prevent you from trying it. It doesn’t need any sweeteners or condiments either. This tea will taste great even when it cools down, so you don’t need to worry about drinking it immediately.

A very light and non-intrusive flavour make it a brilliant choice for many tea drinkers, even if you are very specific about which flavours you like. If you love chamomile, you’ll love this tea too.

Which condiments to add?

Safflower tea is not bitter. However, if you want to add some condiments, try honey. Honey is a wonderful choice for floral teas. You can serve safflower tea with a splash of milk too or use it for making floral lattes.  

Does safflower tea have caffeine?

No, this tea is caffeine free. However, since it’s often used in different tea blends, check the list of ingredients to see if any of them contain caffeine. If you are using pure safflower tea, you don’t need to worry about the caffeine content. This tea is suitable for any time of the day.

You can blend it with other calming herbs, such as hop flower and chamomile.

Final thoughts

With a beautiful orange-red colour, safflower is one of the prettiest edible flowers in the world. It’s also one of the prettiest ingredients for tea blending. But these flowers are much more than just pretty – they taste absolutely delicious and may provide antianxiety properties too.

Sources

(1) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244486074_Safflower_Carthamus_tinctorius_L

(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8853973/

(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7344433/

(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7344433/

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What makes Blue Lady Grey tea special?

Earl Grey is one of the most popular scented/flavoured teas in the world and there are so many types to choose from a whole life wouldn’t be enough to try them all. Most Earl Greys are strong, and very aromatic, and that’s a part of their charm. But modern Earl Grey teas need to follow only one rule – have a recognizable bergamot flavour. Flowers, fruits and even spices may all be a part of an Earl Grey blend to make it either stronger or gentler.

Blue Lady Grey is made with a South Indian black tea and contains lavender flowers, bergamot and vanilla flavour. It’s a bergamot scented black tea with a gentler profile than regular Earl Grey. Not only is this blend pretty, but it has a delicious scent too. It’s one of those scents that will make you want to brew it immediately. It’s intense, deep, sweet and floral with light bergamot notes.

How to brew this tea?

Earl Grey teas are usually strong, so 1 teaspoon of tea leaves per cup of water will be enough to make a delicious cup. Most Earl Grey teas also have smaller leaves that will infuse into a stronger tea. You can use boiling water for this tea, and steep it for 3-5 minutes.

Blue Lady Grey won’t get bitter. It’s a delicious, gentle tea with a delightful light citrusy and floral taste. If the classic Earl Grey is bold and sharp, Blue Lady Grey is sophisticated, cheerful, and relaxing. Even though it contains lavender, Blue Lady Grey is not a lavender tea. Lavender, vanilla and bergamot create a wonderfully balanced flavour, and none of them is overpowering or dominating.

This tea tastes great with no condiments, but you can also use it for making a variety of drinks – from a proper iced or sweet tea to London fog, or even a tea syrup. Although this tea is gentler than regular Earl Greys, it’s still intense and deep with no bitterness, which makes it a perfect choice for adding to cocktails, cakes and making milk teas.

Get Inspired – Try making a Tea Syrup with Blue Lady Grey tea.

Who would like this tea? Blue Lady Grey is great for both tea traditionalists and tea drinkers that enjoy flavoured teas. It’s a tea for daily pampering that’s easy to brew and you can use it in so many ways you will always want to have some at home.

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What is osmanthus?

Camellia sinensis tea leaves and flowers go extremely well together. Just take a sip of a perfectly blended rose or jasmine tea, and you’ll see what a harmonious match they are. With highly aromatic, floral and fruity notes, osmanthus flowers take this bond to another level. Never heard of osmanthus flowers? You are not alone. They are common in Asia, but much less common in western countries.

Osmanthus flowers are edible flowers from Osmanthus fragrans tree originating in Asia. These small, beautiful yellow flowers are extremely fragrant and flavourful, and unlike any other flower in the world. Because of their unique sweet peach/apricot flavour, they are often used for scenting pure teas and even for making desserts. Osmanthus teas are not as common as jasmine teas, but they are equally aromatic. While jasmine teas usually have a green tea base, osmanthus flowers can be added to other types of tea too – white, oolong, green, black and dark.

Base of Osmanthus Baozhong tea from Tea Repertoire is a Taiwanese Baozhong oolong tea from a biological tea farm in Nangang.

What is baozhong tea?

Baozhong tea is a unique green oolong tea from Taiwan. Taiwan is famous for its high mountain oolong teas, which makes Baozhong really stand out. It has bigger twisted leaves, and is light, floral and green, with no bitterness. This tea makes for a delicious cuppa on its own, without the need for any condiments. It’s lighter than many common green teas, with a unique flavour profile that’s perhaps the best described as a link between Taiwanese green teas and high mountain teas.

How to brew Osmanthus Baozhong tea?

The best way to enjoy any great tea is to preheat your tea ware first. In a preheated teapot, Osmanthus Baozhong is a genuine delight with sweet, deep, intense floral and apricot notes.

Use about 2.5 grams of tea leaves per cup of water, and steep for 4-5 minutes at 85 degrees Celsius. You can steep oolong teas at higher temperatures than green tea, but lower than black.

Brewed tea has a bright yellow-green colour with light, fresh, sweet apricot and milky, beautifully balanced flavour. You can re-steep the same tea leaves a couple of time. If you want to use a re-steeping method, you can use more tea leaves, less water and shorter steeping time. The second infusion will offer lighter and fresher notes of Baozhong tea, with osmanthus slowly fading with each subsequent infusion.

If you are looking for a gentle, but extremely flavourful fruity and floral gentle tea with no added flavourings, Osmanthus Baozhong is a perfect tea. Natural floral notes and incredible lightness make this tea a great daily tea. But perhaps, the best way to enjoy it is when you need some time out and want to pamper yourself with delightful flavours and scents.

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