How is tea flavored?
Throughout its history, the flavor of tea has been enhanced by a variety of aromatic substances. In modern tea processing, this tradition continues under two major headings: “scenting” and “flavoring”. (A third category, really a form of blending, involves mixing aromatic material into the tea leaves, as in the case of chai, which is made by adding spice to the tea.) Two of the world’s most popular teas are jasmine and Earl Grey – perfect examples of scenting and flavoring. Jasmine is (or, at least, should be) a scented tea, meaning that all that is added to the tea is literally the scent. This is how it works: tea leaves are picked, processed, and dried. Then they are “layered” with jasmine flowers, i.e. stacked in thin layers of tea leaves and jasmine flowers separated by screens. For high quality teas, such as Jasmine Pearls, the flowers are changed several times and the scenting process can last up to a week. (Jasmine flowers are mixed in with lower quality products for show, but t
