I find it odd that this jasmine pearl tea is made from green tea, when most, not to mention the truly high quality, jasmine pearls are made with white tea from the Da Bai Hao cultivar. Anyways, cut the crap and straight to the review.
I judge all green, white, and scented teas by the following criteria: dry and wet leaf appearance, dry and wet leaf aroma, flavor of first steeping, number of steepings that the tea can get, and its tendency either toward or away from bitterness.
The dry leaves are evenly shaped pearls. Teavana claims that each pearl was hand rolled.
The aroma of the dry leaves is extremely jasminey, almost to floral to be true. Nonetheless, Teavana claims that it was scented six to eight times with real jasmine flowers.
The first steeping was extremely floral. I steeped it according to Teavana’s instructions. Even so, there was a hint of bitterness to the brew. Sadly, I was pleased by the intense floral aroma, but let down by the flavor. For a truly high quality jasmine tea, the flavor would emphasize the aroma.
The second steeping was more flavorful, some of the bitterness gone. However, the aroma was not even half of what the first steeping produced! Again, I was let down. I knew by this time that the third steeping would not increase in either flavor or aroma, so I tossed the leaves.
My high rating is only because of the amazing aroma and appearance of the dry leaves. Then again, it is easy to take a worthless book and rebind it with a fancy looking cover.
