Jasmine Chun Hao

I got this sample free with my ‘order’ from Adagio (I had a $10 gift certificate, so technically the whole order was free). I had some tasting notes written down for a puerh that Bonnie sent me to try, but it’s been a rough day & I seem to have misplaced them. We found out that someone my husband and I used to be close friends with was brutally murdered last night in our hometown.

That’s why I chose this tea- it smelled of fresh jasmine blooms & the smell alone proved to be calming.

The jasmine aroma is strong in this tea, as is the flavor of jasmine. I’ve read reviews on Adagio that said the jasmine was too strong, but I find I can still taste the green base & don’t find the floral quality of this tea to be overwhelming at all. I detect a honeysuckle like note to the aroma & flavor as well.

With a little simple syrup to sweeten it the flavors become softer and I find myself sinking into the couch and relaxing. Just what I needed.

Ok, so still in testing mode (and probably will be for a while). Tonight’s question is, do I like jasmine teas? I like green teas, in a general sense, so will see. I keep seeing these cute little jasmine dragon balls everywhere, so it’s time to answer the question. I have 3 jasmines in my samples: this one, Mighty Leaf’s Organic Jasmine, and Teavana’s cute little balls : )

Ok, so I steeped it on the low end of their instructions: only 2 minutes. Pleasant enough, but a little weak (watery). Maybe it needs a longer steep, hmmm. With fragrance being another obsession, I’m very familiar with what jasmine smells like. I’m not getting a strong jasmine scent (no idea what it’s supposed to taste like).

I like this well enough to finish the sample, but there’s nothing here that’s crying my name or anything. Pleasant. Not bitter. I’m going to finish it, which says a lot …

Bleh. Trying sweetener to make it better…ah, raw sugar makes it drinkable but I’m going to have to lower my score for this one. It’s still bitter after steeping for only 40 seconds. I’m trying to finish more tea before I open some new ones I just got. I think I’m going to give it to a friend to see if she likes it better!

This was disappointing as a jasmine tea and as a green. The jasmine perfume is stale and weak, the tea was a bit bitter despite being careful with the tep and steep times. It wasn’t awful – I did manage to finish the cup, but I wouldn’t buy this again nor seek it out.

In the package: STRONG smell of jasmine. Floral scent that will knock you back on your heels.

Steeped: The tea is a clear yellow-green. Still very floral smell. Unsweetened, hits the tongue and runs past without making much of an impression. Three seconds later, the jasmine aftertaste hits and sticks around. With honey, the jasmine taste actually hits while you’re drinking instead of waiting for aftertaste.

It’s not bad, but it’s almost too heavy on the jasmine. I don’t get any green tea flavor at all. The other jasmine teas I’ve had were in black tea, and that held its own against the jasmine and seemed to me to balance it better. This would be a really good choice for someone who wants the benefits of green tea but likes jasmine tea a lot more than they like green tea.

I’m disappointed with this tea. It’s impossible to pull out much flavor without it getting too bitter, and the jasmine fragrance is a bit too understated for what I feel a jasmine should be like. I’ll try Adagio’s Yin Hao, maybe I’ll get better results.

had a lovely night in with a friend. spent the night drinking this, and watching moonrise kingdom and the dead poet’s society. absolutely perfect.

My main question: if I brewed at a lower temp (185 F vs. 195) and for less time (1:45 vs. 2-3 min.), how did this tea get bitter?

Okay, I admit to having used a lot of this tea. 3 tsp seemed like a good amount to start when filling my Ingenuitea almost full. Maybe it was too much. (I have a gorgeous tall Yokohama mug I got at Pearl River Market in NYC before it became a glorified gift shop. And tonight, I wanted THAT much tea. So sue me…) Maybe if I had followed the directions more exactly, I would have had something tasteless, watery, lacking in jasmine flavor, or lacking in tea flavor, as other reviewers mentioned about this tea. Or maybe it would only have been bitterer? That’s what too much time or too hot of water does to green tea, right?

In any case, I stand by my decisions on time and temp. I’m willing to concede however that I may have used too much tea. The result: a thick, sweet, bitter, mineral-y, flowery brown/green brew that is just TOO MUCH FLAVOR for me. Flavor overkill!

That having been said, I’m still sipping it. It might be growing on me…or maybe I just like jasmine so much, I don’t care much how I drink it. Huh, maybe it’s time to invest in the $20 jar of dried jasmine blossoms at the Asian market near me…! (There’d be less caffeine, anyway!)

After pondering, I’m not going to say anything else about this tea until I’ve tried it with less tea. It just wouldn’t be fair. However…I’m going to keep my descriptors and ratings until I have a reason to amend them.

So this is my second of Adagio’s Jasmine Greens. I already reviewed and finished the other so we shall see how this one pans out.
Western Style. I got distracted and steeped it a bit too long (about 3:30-3:45) but the water was 195F.
I can definitely taste the oversteeping. The Jasmine isn’t nearly as overpowering as the other one I tried, so that is a plus. However, with the oversteep, it is ever so slightly bitter. I can taste the green tea more in this one, so those vegetal flavors are totally there. The bottom of the cup where some of the flavor settled was super bitter, but again, oversteep so that is probably why. I will try this one again fresh later and pay more attention so I can get an accurate bead on it. But for now, what I am getting from this one is I think it is better than the Yin Hao (I think that was what it was called). Not as super-jasmine, and a better blend of flavors.

Tastes like the Jasmine tea at Chinese Restaurants. Pleasant and drinkable. Tried 11.2018.