Reading the Tea Leaves

I’ve made several references to China’s Rose Congou, a naturally scented Black tea that not only tastes good but represents great value at around $10-15/lb (about a dime or 15cents a cup).  Like Jasmine scented teas (usually Green but sometimes Oolong and occasionally even Black tea), any blossoms or petals remaining in the tea have already done their job.  In high grades of Jasmine, these spent flowers are removed, another task in a series of laborious steps.

A few rose petals, on the other hand, are left in Rose Congou Black, and the subdued pink shades make for a pretty contrast against the dark leaves.

Rose Congou Black

There is also a China Rose Green, harder to find, and I’ve always found it curious that this tea came to us without any visible evidence of the roses.  The scent is unmistakable, nicely rounding out the vegetal taste of a standard Green tea.  I had asked suppliers if a better quality Green tea could be used, but unfortunately the demand we could assure them was never large enough to justify the production of such a tea.

I compromised by adding rose buds to the standard Rose Green; the leaves may not have been the loveliest but red and pink roses were eye-popping.  But at this point the addition did little to enhance the rose flavor; the tea leaves had been dried and really could not absorb any fragrance the flowers, also dried, might hold.  Dried rose buds are sold at tea shops, and I had wondered what our customers, and their customers, did with these.

Dried rose buds; prices range from $28 to $50/lb.

In the cup

Undeniably attractive and tempting, the taste of these buds does not measure up to their beauty.  The brew is a beige color with the slightest tinge of pink, yet the familiar rose fragrance is barely there.  I find that wild rose buds impart a better flavor whereas the brew from cultivated rose buds holds a sour note that I find off-putting.  The wild rose buds are smaller, usually about 1 cm, and are costlier.

Rose buds are sometimes used as the centerpiece of hand-tied “blooming” teas.  The single red closed bud draws the eye immediately.  One artisan tea, for instance, anchored one rose bud in the center of an array of silvery needles that fanned out in starburst fashion.  Again, the rose lent almost no flavor to the finished tea, but then the whole point of this class of teas is visual rather than flavor.

Roes petals are an important ingredient in artificially flavored teas, although the reason for using these is often for color rather than for flavor.  In most cases the flavor of the finished tea may not be related to roses at all.  Even in tisanes where not tea is used and where one might expect a stronger rose character, the taste is created by the use of essences.  So there may be plenty of rose buds or rose petals visible but the color of the infusion may likely come from hibiscus, and any rose flavor is

A rose-based tisane (from Germany); brew is cranberry-fuschia colored.

attributable to artificial sources.

So if it’s roses you want to taste in your tea and if you want to taste the tea as well, better to stay with a naturally scented China Rose Black or Rose Green, both of which may be found for well under $15/lb.  These are traditional, authentic “flower teas” (hua cha) inasmuch as there is a proper balance between the scent of the flower and the tea’s original flavor.