Scented tea is a unique tea category that involves blending dried tea leaves with natural aromas from fresh flowers, herbs, or fruits. The tea leaves still retain their unique essence while they absorb subtle fragrances through a slow scenting process. The added scent helps improve the overall sensory experience, creating a more refreshing and pleasant drink.
1. What Is Scented Tea?
Scented tea is a combination of loose tea and various types of flowers, herbs, or fruits. The tea types bring many health benefits and a comfortable feeling for tea drinkers. Because tea can absorb other flavors and aromas, scented tea is made by scenting tea leaves with real flowers, herbs, or fruits. During the scenting process, tea leaves are layered with aromatic ingredients under controlled conditions. The scenting process might be done several times until the tea leaves take over the floral essence and other natural aromas. After that, the scenting materials are removed, and the finished products are only scented tea leaves.
2. The Production Process of Scented Tea
Harvesting and classifying ingredients
Tea leaves are harvested and well selected to ensure consistent quality. They are then processed into a finished base tea, typically green tea, before scenting. This process is similar to when making green tea.
Besides, flowers, herbs, or fruits are picked at specific times to maximize their fragrance. Then, they are screened, classified, and cleaned to achieve uniformity. The desired tea leaves and flowers, or herbs, are not crushed and have a strong aroma profile.
Scenting process
Manufacturers have to ensure a cool, dry, and clean environment for the scenting process. The dried tea leaves are layered with fresh flowers or herbs in specific ratios, depending on the types of ingredients. The combination is left to sit for several hours or overnight for aroma absorption. During the process, it might generate heat and moisture. Therefore, workers have to occasionally aerate to lower the temperature and provide oxygen for the scenting.
Separation and drying
After several hours, the fresh flowers and herbs will become withered. They are then sorted out from the tea leaves to avoid an odd smell. Besides, the tea leaves might absorb the moisture from the flowers. Therefore, after removing the scented ingredients, tea leaves are gently dried to lower the moisture back to about 4 – 5% and stabilize the newly absorbed fragrance.
The process of scenting and drying is repeated several times to achieve the desired aroma and build a complicated flavor depth.
3. Key Characteristics of Scented Tea
Natural, pure ingredients
One of the outstanding characteristics of scented tea is the use of natural ingredients. The finished products usually contain only the tea leaves. Sometimes, they might have some leftover dried flower petals. It may be used for visual purposes.
Subtle and delicate aroma
Unlike other teas that use artificial flavors, scented tea includes a natural aroma absorption process from fresh flowers, herbs, or even fruits. Therefore, it often has a subtle, natural, and refined aroma that harmoniously combines with the tea base without overpowering it.
Aroma persistence
The more times the tea is scented, the deeper and more intense the aroma it absorbs. High-quality tea’s fragrance is believed to last for multiple infusions, rather than disappearing after the first brewing.
4. Typical Scented Tea Types
Scented tea increases the flavor of the tea but also does not lose the tea’s quality. Following are some of the most typical scented tea types.
4.1. Lotus scented tea
Lotus tea has become a salient feature in Vietnamese tea culture, contributing to the world’s tea culture. Vietnamese Lotus tea is different from Lotus teas in other countries, as it is a combination of green tea and lotus flower or lotus flavor.
Lotus tea has a unique taste, green liquor, and a special aroma from lotus. A cup of lotus scented tea will bring you a slight astringency, fresh mellow taste, sweet after taste, combined with the gentle flowery and pure aroma of the lotus flower. The great combination of green tea and lotus flower brings many health benefits, such as reducing cholesterol, reducing stress, stabilizing blood pressure, preventing cancer, heart attack, and stroke.
4.2. Jasmine flower scented tea
Jasmine flowers bring a delicate flavor and an unforgettable impression to tea lovers who have ever enjoyed them. Their characteristics are yellow liquor, sweet and delicate tea aroma, a light acrid taste carrying a gentle jasmine scent, leaving a sweet after tea.
4.3. Pandan tea
Pandan tea is a familiar drink on hot summer days. This cool drink is the favorite beverage of many people at any age due to its delicious taste and unique herbal flavor. Green tea, pandan leaves, and jasmine flowers are well combined together to become a drink. As a result, it has a delightful floral and herbal scent, a clear green-yellow liquid, a mild tea flavor, and a sweet aftertaste.
4.4. Earl Grey tea
Earl Grey tea is a mixture of dried black tea leaves and bergamot oil, a citrus fruit that commonly grows in southern Italy and parts of Europe. As a result, it has a comparable flavor and taste to traditional British Earl Grey tea. The tea liquor has a brilliant orange hue and a distinct flavor after brewing. Earl Grey tea can bring natural relaxants and anti-depression because of its distinct flavor.
4.5. Chrysanthemum flower scented tea
Chrysanthemum is the second most popular flower in the world, just after the rose. These flowering plants come in a wide variety. Chrysanthemum flowers for making tea, for drinking water, are like yellow chrysanthemums and small white chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemum flower-scented tea has a bitter taste and is slightly spicy but cool. The delicate and gentle aroma makes tea drinkers fall in love at their first taste. With many well-known benefits, chamomile tea is recommended to add to the daily beverage menu by nutritionists. Some of these benefits include improved sleep, calming the nervous system, preventing cancer, and so on.