Jasmine tea

Jasmine tea is tea — most often green, sometimes white or, less commonly, oolong or black — that has been scented with the fragrance of jasmine blossoms, traditionally by layering fresh-picked flowers among the dried leaves over several nights so the tea drinks in their aroma. The base leaf is still Camellia sinensis, the same plant as all true tea; what makes jasmine tea distinctive is the perfuming. Brewed, it gives a pale yellow-green liquor that smells intensely, sweetly floral over the soft grassy backbone of the green tea beneath, and tastes delicate, lightly sweet and gently astringent. It is China's most famous scented tea, traditionally associated with Fujian province, and the fragrant "jasmine green" served by the pot in Chinese restaurants and teahouses the world over; the prized hand-rolled pearls known as jasmine dragon pearls are among its most celebrated forms.