A Cup of Jasmine Flower Tea and Its Benefits

Jasmine flower tea is usually made of green tea and is flavored with aromatic jasmine flowers. The full bodied floral scent and its combination with the flowers make them very attractive to tea enthusiasts. The savory taste makes it very satisfying to the person's palate. Jasmine teas are usually available in Chinese markets because it was the Chinese people who started the aromatic teas. When you visit some restaurants, you will find these jasmine teas being served hot.

Jasmine flowering tea has different varieties. The most common varieties are green tea and oolong tea. Oolong teas originated in China. They are flavorful and fragrant, and with a complex flavor. This tea is an herbal tea because it has the capacity to settle the stomach. They are perfect drinks after eating because it helps in the fast digestion of the food. This tea is a semi-fermented tea which crosses between green and black teas. The black tea's flavor has the ability to overcome the jasmine, but it tends to be tannic. It can be consumed plain, but others have the alternative of adding sugar to enjoy a sweeter tea.

There are many health benefits that jasmine teas offer. These are:

• Jasmine is good for digestion. Most people encounter digestion problems that may lead to constipation and diarrhea. With the help of this amazing tea, one can say goodbye to these digestion issues.
  Most green teas consist of polyphenols that are rich with antioxidants, and antiviral properties. This means it delays the process of aging, keeping a person look younger and vibrant.
  Jasmine flower tea reduces the risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol. 
• It is an effective prevention for respiratory problems like heart attacks, arterial sclerosis and strokes. 
• It helps maintain good intestine by blocking the growth of bad bacteria. 
• It then produces good bacteria that are good for the body. 
• Jasmine reduces the risk of blood clotting and aneurism. 
• It boosts the immune system, making the body free from any ailments or diseases. 
• It fights bacteria and viruses that could cause certain diseases. 
• It prevents different types of allergies 
• It protects the teeth from tooth decay and cavities. 
• It provides proper oral care that our teeth needed. 
• Jasmine tea is a wonderful anxiety and stress relief. 
• Lastly, jasmine tea is an effective treatment for food poisoning like cholera, piccolo and dysentery.

Jasmine flower tea is an amazing tea that offers many health benefits to people. It is also an effective anti-depressant that helps people to calm and relax. This tea is useful for pregnant women to relieve them from nausea during their pregnancy. They can also utilize it to fight post-natal depression. It also relieves muscle and back pains, so they could be use for body massages to relax the body.

Types of Herbal Teas

Herbal teas are dominating more and more space on supermarket shelves. This is obviously a fast growing trend. But why should we put away our bags of Fives Roses, our Darjeeling and our Earl Grey in favor of something that just looks like a pile of leaves in a pretty pack?

The most obvious answer is the health benefits that all of these teas bring, doing far more for the body and mind than you would get from the more traditional leaf.

People from around the world have being using different leaves and plants to heal their bodies since time eternal but now we have the modern day consumer benefits of being able to take a bag of our desired herb, popping it into a mug and just adding boiling water. Eh voilá!

Here's a quick guide to some of the teas you can find in your local supermarket and how they can benefit you:

Chamomile
Well known for its calming and soothing effects. Chamomile has been used since the time of the ancient Egyptians and was worshipped as being the flower of the sun god Ra. It has been used as a medicinal plant as well as a tea throughout the world's history.

Today it is considered to be one of the most effective healing herbs and as a tea can be used to calm jittery nerves and as a remedy for those who suffer from mild insomnia.

Fennel
A soothing, calming digestive aid and appetite stimulant Fennel tea is made from the seeds of the fennel plant and has a wide range of medicinal uses. It is a wonderful tea for those with stomach complaints as it has anti-spasmodic properties, relieves intestinal cramps and soothes general stomach pains. There is also evidence that it helps in the digesting of fats and can take away hunger pangs.

Fennel tea needs no sweetening.

Green Tea
A natural stimulant, the perfect replacement wake-up brew. This tea is a great stimulant for the mind and although it also contains lots of caffeine the experience is far more natural and gentle than drinking coffee or black tea. It also contains plenty of fluoride and catechins (antioxidants) which in turn helps to.

Green tea can have quite a bitter taste so is often mixed and packed together with mint to improve the flavor. It's also good idea to add a dash of honey to your cup if you like it a little bit sweeter.

Jasmine
A wonderfully calming and relaxing drink. Jasmine Tea can be considered to be China's national drink and you'll get it if you ever ask for tea in a Chinese restaurant. It's made by mixing the leaves from the Tea Shrub (fermented at a slightly higher temperature than green tea) with the flowers of the jasmine plant.

Jasmine tea has a very delicate and subtle taste, it needs brewing for only a short amount of time and needs nothing added to it. It also contains a much smaller amount of caffeine than most teas.

This is a great tea to uplift your mood and ease digestion problems.

Mint
A Digestive Aid The peppermint herb is used to make mint tea, it contains no caffeine. This is a wonderful tea to drink after meals as it helps calm the digestive system, relieving indigestion, heatburn, stomach ache and nausea. Mint tea is also reputed to sweeten the breath.

Add honey or sugar to sweeten the taste.

Jasmine Tea, the Organic Green Tea

Jasmine tea is a tea blend made up of green tea based leaves and jasmine flowers. It is the flowers that give this blend its distinct aroma and taste. These flowers are plucked out during the day and stored away overnight wherein they bloom and accumulate their fragrance within the confines of their storage area.

To impart their scent to the tea, the flowers are sandwiched between tea leaves and stored in cool and dry places. Dry places are least susceptible to the growth of mold and mildew. They should also be kept away from direct sunlight, which can Over time, the scent of jasmine will be absorbed by the green tea.

The drink is prepared by initially warming up the tea pot with freshly boiled water. The tea leaves are then placed inside and boiled water is poured after. The mixture is then set aside for 3 minutes for the juice to be drawn out of the leaves. The leaves can be re-used up to 4 times within the day. Make sure you don't over cook the tea. Otherwise, it may lose its flavor and aroma.

Among organic green tea offshoots, jasmine tea is undoubtedly the most popular. Well-loved by the Chinese for its fragrance and lively taste, the clamor for it has spread to other nations where tea enthusiasts abound. Japan, North America, as well as a number of countries in Europe are among the top consumers of this product.

Interest in jasmine tea has recently been given a boost these days due to the scientific findings that jasmine has a high potency in its chemopreventive qualities. And since jasmine can be easily grown, it would be relatively easy to amass a big volume of it.

Other therapeutic and medicinal properties of jasmine are related to the autonomic nerve activity. Their scents are believed to heighten the senses and thus are good in promoting work efficiency and prolonging productivity hours. As such, entrepreneurial individuals are constantly trying to find the right mix between this flower, green tea, and a few more additives to come up with refreshing and tasty bottled beverages.

Chinese Jasmine Tea

Jasmine teas are usually made using Green tea as a base, to which the flowers are added. The floral aroma of a good quality variety is exquisite and as you drink the pale yellow, almost colourless brew, you can just lose yourself in a timeless bubble. This is quite often the most appealing Chinese tea to those of you who are traditional Indian Black tea drinkers. The taste is a subtle sweetness with a persistent floral aftertaste and the aroma is gorgeous. Loose leaf Jasmine is the best. The leaves are an art form in themselves; the makers will twist, curl, roll or even tie the leaves together in a small bunch. In China, tea drinking is done with all of the senses, not just taste, which is why the producers go to such extraordinary lengths.

The very best Jasmine teas are made using leaves that are picked between the middle of March and the end of May and combined with blossom that is picked exclusively during May as that is the time when they are at their most fragrant. Traditional production methods involve layering the leaves and the blossoms so that the flavour and aroma permeates the leaves. Nowadays, the blossoms are usually placed in a stream of hot air to extract the essential taste; the aromatic hot air is then passes through and over the leaves in order to give an intense flavour. The blossoms are then simply added as decoration.

Jasmine tea has been documented for over 800 years and in common with most tea types, has its origins in China. How it was invented is not known, it may have been by accident or design. Unlike most of the other tea types, I have not come across any legends that explain why and how it was created - I am sure there must be some out there!

Since it is normally based on Green tea, Jasmine tea has much the same health benefits as the latter. Green tea is claimed to be good for digestion. It has high levels of antioxidants such as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). This is one of a group of chemicals called flavonoids which are known to destroy the reactive molecules called free radicals (oxidants) that are created in the body. It is not a magic cure-all as some tea sellers would have you believe but when included as part of a healthy lifestyle, it may help. Judging by the research, which really needs to be more extensive and controlled in order to be clinically reliable in my opinion, it is not going to hinder. So for those who are not keen on the sometimes 'grassy' taste of green tea, jasmine is a potentially healthy and tastier alternative.

Here in the west, many other flavoured teas have been developed, for example mint tea. These are not authentically Chinese and often disguise the fact that the tea is stale. That is fine if you are not serious about tea however to experience this beverage in its full glory, buy it loose, fresh and unadulterated. It can be difficult to find top quality brands if you live outside of a big city, but that is where the internet comes in. There are many retailers of this wonderful product online, however choose carefully. Pure, loose and organic is the best but not the cheapest. If you do buy the cheapest that you find, you really will be missing out.

Jasmine Tea

Tea can be infused with many fragrances. Chrysanthemum, Gardenia, Osmanthus, Rose, Magnolia are just some of the few floral scents. By far, Jasmine is the most popular fragrance of them all. It is also my favorite tea. Jasmine teas are produced in Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Zhejiang Provinces. The best Jasmine tea comes from Fujian Province in China. Due to the favorable weather conditions, Fujian Province is perfect for tea farming. This region is also known to produce excellent Oolong tea.

The process of making Jasmine tea takes two steps. The first step involves picking young tea leaves in the spring. The young leaves will be use to create a base tea. It is stored it in a cool place until the Jasmine flowers blossom in the summer. The skillful workers keep the tea leaf open and ready for the scent of the flowers. Jasmine flowers are plucked during summer months. To be precise, they are plucked between July and September, from noon to 4p.m. by experienced workers. They look for 1/2 inch blossoms that just turn from ivory to a white color. For the next 4 hours after plucking, the Jasmine flowers are kept at a warm temperature with the base tea. This encourages the flowers to open and the scent to infuse with the tea. To create a strong scent, some tea receives multiple infusion of the flower scent. When infusion is completed, the flowers can be discarded.

Adding Jasmine tea to food gives it the extra luxurious aroma. Try this delicious Jasmine syrup with fruit salad. Brew 2 teaspoons of Jasmine tea leaves in 1/3 cup of hot water. Melt 2 tablespoons of honey and the add zest and juice of 1 lime. Marinate fruits for just one hour before serving.

Another way to use Jasmine tea is when cooking rice. Just replace 2 to 3 cups of the water you use to cook the rice with tea. This gives the rice the extra nutrients of the antioxidants as well as the aroma of the Jasmine flowers.