Jasmine pearl tea

Perles de jasmin

What it is

Jasminum sambac blossoms are picked closed in the afternoon and laid over the tea at night as they open, then screened out and replaced with fresh flowers; a good pearl is scented across five to seven nights, and the flowers left visible in cheap versions are a sign of the opposite. The pearls themselves are rolled by hand from a bud and a leaf, which is why they sink and unfurl slowly.

In the kitchen

Three or four pearls per 150 ml is enough; they double in volume. To flavour a cream, steep at 70 °C for ten minutes and stop — jasmine turns soapy with heat and time, and once it has there is no fixing it.

Goes with

Cream Lychee Peach Coconut milk Glutinous rice White chocolate

Same species

Assam tea Ceylon tea Da Hong Pao Darjeeling tea Earl Grey Genmaicha

In season alongside

Lemon verbena Sweetfish (ayu) Borage Brousse du Rove Courgette flower Cucumber

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