Ethel gave me this flowering tea earlier this year and I finally found some time to try it!

This tea is from Wu Tsang in Taiwan! I love flowering teas so I was really looking forward to this. Apparently it’s from Fujian and you just need to steep it for 2 – 3 minutes. The tea can be steeped for up to 2 times. According to the card in the tin, this is how the tea is supposed to look like:

The flower bud:

However, the tea didn’t really turn out the way I thought it would. Somehow, something went wrong with the blooming.

As you can see, the flower wouldn’t float up, no matter how much time (or water) I gave it.

View from the top of the glass:

Taste-wise, this was like a sweet jasmine tea. There was also a little bit of mustiness to the tea, which was present even when it was dry.

But I’ve actually been having some trouble with the blooming teas that I have, so seeing this was pretty worrying. So far, all the teas I’ve tried are from Chinese brands, but I do have some The Mari that I got last year. It’s been some time, so I wasn’t sure if all my blooming teas failed to bloom because of the brand or because they were all pretty old. I did some googling, but couldn’t find anything on what happens if (when?) blooming teas expire. But I imagine that since they are made by stitching flowers into green tea, the flowers and tea must remain supple to be able to unfold beautifully. Older teas might have a problem blooming if that’s the case.

Since I was worried, I borrowed a glass and went home to make my second blooming tea of the day.

I got this from the Lupicia Marche last year – it’s a 優悠花 (yuuyuuka). According to the description on the box, this flower tea is supposed to resemble the sun (chrysanthemum flower) with a cloud on top of it (the white flower).

This one smelled a lot more fragrant than the Wu Tsang blooming tea, so I was a lot more hopeful about it.

However, it didn’t seem to fully bloom at first. But after lots of time (and after I drank about half the cup and topped it up with more hot water), it bloomed beautifully!

I’m so glad that not all my flowering teas are spoiled! This tea tasted like jasmine tea, pretty much how my previous Lupicia blooming tea was.

View from the top of the glass:

There’s going to be a Dayre Tea Party next month, so I’ll probably bring another one of my blooming teas over. While I’m glad that these are still in good condition, I think I should probably finish these soon.