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I committed a tea crime with these beautiful pearls! I was preparing a tea package for one of my friends who is just getting into the wide world of loose leaf—I split a good chunk of my Ovation order with her, and I wanted to include some samples of other brands as well. She loves jasmine so I thought I just had to put in some pearls—my little sample packet of this was lying on the table next to the box and I thought perfect! But I had not tried them yet and that won’t do, so I put a cupful in the nearest thing I could find—my gaiwan.

Later that night I really wanted jasmine and was dead tired and didn’t feel like switching to my Ingenuitea which still needed a rinsing out, so I just brewed them up in the gaiwan! But I was not feeling like sitting around trying all the different steeps so I brewed them up 4 times and dumped it all in the same mug. Without tasting the differences! I know, horrifying. But it worked out pretty well!

After 4 steeps these pearls had not fully unfurled so I am saving them for a few more steeps later. This is a really light and sweet jasmine tea, the floral elements aren’t at all soapy and in fact they are very soft, not in-your-face jasmine at all (though that might be because of the steeping method?). This reminds me of the tea you get after a meal of really good Chinese food—fancy restaurant kind, not takeout, where they serve wonderful jasmine blends at the end (that are properly brewed—I have had some very bitter restaurant teas). Sweet green to just perfectly cap off a meal!