Moli Longzhu (Jasmine Pearls)

Scented Tea 2023

Tea Origin

Fuding City, Fujian Province, China; Jasmine from Heng County, Guangxi Province

Tea Bush

Dabai (Big White), Dahao (Big Hair)

Tea Maker

Lin Xingxiong

Harvest Time

Early April

Plucking Standard

One bud, two leaves

A full flavored jasmine green tea with a bright jasmine aroma. Bold yet smooth flavor with a lasting floral character. High quality yet affordable, Jasmine Pearls’ elegant hand-rolled pearl style leaves that unfurl gracefully into a tea sprig makes it our most popular everyday jasmine tea.

Each round pearl is a hand-rolled sprig of young spring tea with one bud and two leaves. Though the dry tea contains no flowers, the tea leaves have been scented multiple times with real fresh jasmine flowers. Unlike teas that have been sprayed with jasmine-scented oils, teas made by this traditional method using real flowers have a long-lasting jasmine aroma that persists over multiple infusions.

The traditional jasmine scenting process for making Jasmine Pearls

To make this pearl style of jasmine scented tea from Fujian Province, the fresh spring tea is first harvested and processed as a green tea. Each pearl is hand-rolled into shape before the tea is dried and then carefully stored for later use as a green tea base. Fresh jasmine flowers will not be available until a couple months later, when the jasmine plant’s blooming season begins in summer. Scented tea makers will harvest large quantities of jasmine flowers whose petals have just barely begun to open. At this stage of growth, called “tiger’s palm,” the jasmine buds are at their most fragrant.

They mix the dry tea leaves with freshly picked jasmine flowers and let them rest for several hours to absorb the flavor and aroma of the jasmine. For this particular grade of Jasmine Pearls, the mixture is about 70% tea and 30% jasmine. The tea is then meticulously separated from the flowers and dried once again to remove any moisture picked up from the fresh flowers. For this grade of Jasmine Pearls, this process is done a total of three times with fresh batches of jasmine each time. Making quality jasmine green tea this way takes around 2-3 weeks for the repeated mixing, separating, and drying.

Green tea made from the white tea bush

This particular Moli Longzhu is made with leaves from the Dabai and Dahao white tea cultivars that are famous for their smooth, sweet flavor and large buds. Though they are most commonly made into white tea, their leaves can also be processed to make them into a green tea instead. The type of tea produced depends not only on the bush it comes from, but how it is processed after picking. Using these excellent white tea bushes to make Jasmine Pearls results in a particularly smooth green tea.

No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea. Click here to read more about our promise to fair trade and the environment.