Jasmine Snow Bud (Mo Li Xue Ya) Green Tea

This tea is made of one bud with one leaf from Yunnan tea trees, which after rolling are scented with fresh budding jasmine flowers. Unlike other jasmine-scented teas, this one has a special step in which the flowers themselves are added to the tea following scenting, providing a lovely decoration and adding to the ornamental value of the tea. Because of this, this particular tea is well-suited to brewing in a glass cup: the aroma of the leaves and jasmine flowers flow up from the liquid, the leaves themselves dancing within the cup while the jasmine slowly floats to the surface, and gradually becomes transparent like melting snow.

Wu Yin Yi Ti

After the tea leaves are scented with the budding jasmine flowers, these flowers are sifted out for the process to be repeated another five times, each with new flowers. Following this, the flowers with the strongest fragrance are added to the tea, with the aim of further enhancing the aroma and increasing the tea’s freshness and richness; this process is called “Wu Yin Yi Ti”.

	Cup Method		Chinese Gongfu Method
	Teacup: 8.5oz / 250ml		Gaiwan: 3.8oz / 110ml
	185℉ / 85℃		185℉ / 85℃
	2 Teaspoons / 2g Tea		4g Tea
	Brewing time: 3 - 5 mins		7 steeps: rinse, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 40s, 50s
			Rinse time is around 5 seconds

Nanling Tea Garden is located along the eastern bank of Lancang River, with an average altitude of about 1500 meters. Around this garden are rolling mountains always enveloped in clouds and mist, with the perfect illumination, temperature, and rainfall for tea growth. In addition to this, only organic fertilizers are used, to ensure the safety and natural health of the tea.

Mr. Chen produces this Jasmine Snow Bud Green Tea. He has been learning how to craft tea since he was 15 years old, and specifically with jasmine tea for over 40 years. It has become very familiar to him, and he does it in his own special style, widely sought after by tea lovers.

Mr. Chen has told us “Jasmine tea is one of the most complicated varieties in all of tea-making. With more scenting steps, the process becomes more and more complex, and so too increases the risk of ruining the tea. But on the contrary, it also results in a higher grade of jasmine tea if the scenting is successful. The buds picked in spring will be immediately processed and then stored in the freezer until the jasmine starts to bloom in the summer; because the blooming and time of strongest aroma of the jasmine occurs during the night, it is important that the scenting is done overnight. This often makes the tea workers exhausted… the entire process of making tea is hard, but if you love it, the hardship is worth it.”

Yunnan - Green Tea

Simao is located in Puerh City, Yunnan, and has been praised as the “Chinese tea city”. It is also named Meng La (勐拉), which means it is a place where tea people lived. Simao is the beginning of the Tea Horse Road, or the southern Silk Road in history. It has beautiful mountain ranges and rivers with a pleasant climate, the weather warm in winter and cool in summer.

Guangxi - Jasmine Flower

Produced in Guangxi, China, the jasmine used to scent this tea has earned primacy nationwide. The most outstanding area of production is Hengxian in Guangxi, known as “the city of Chinese jasmine” for its ability to produce both high-yield and high-quality flowers.

Snow Bud No. 100 (Xue Ya 100) is a superior Yunnan large-leaf species, cultivated from the Jingdong group of plantation tea and largely grown in Simao. The tea bush is an arbor-type with an upright trunk and big, oval leaves, thick and soft. Typically, the buds are relatively long and covered with silver-white fuzz, very suitable for making high-grade green, yellow, and white teas.

Scented green teas have a history stretching back over a thousand years, to the first innovation of adding spices and flowers to tea during the Song Dynasty around 960 AD.

During the Ming Dynasty in the 1500s, the modern method of producing jasmine-scented tea, where the flowers are added to the tea during process prior to drying, was introduced - but at this time jasmine tea was rare, due to the complexities of the processing.

In the mid-1800s during the Qing Dynasty, production methods were perfected and the number of tea farms rapidly increased, which led to greater volumes and lowered prices. This in turn led to a surge in popularity, which the tea has maintained to this day.