Jasmine or Jasmine Pearls

[iheartea]

I am a green tea fan, so I'm not too familiar with oolong or jasmine teas and sources. This time, I will be using it to brew kombucha. Can anyone give me a jasmine/jasmine pearls recommendation?

[CWarren]

EDITED

[Teaism]

I am a green tea fan, so I'm not too familiar with oolong or jasmine teas and sources. This time, I will be using it to brew kombucha. Can anyone give me a jasmine/jasmine pearls recommendation?

Jasmine pearls is jasmine flowers scented on tea. The tea can be rolled in pearl form or sometimes in tea leaves natural forms. There are a few criteria on selecting this tea.
Firstly the tea with artificial jasmine flavour should be avoided at all cost. If the tea is naturally scented with real jasmine flowers, it is good to find out how many times the scenting process took place. Normally the higher the better. Typically a good scenting process can go through 6-8 rounds. Next would be the base of the tea that is used for scenting. There many types of base tea leaves from oolong to white tea and recently from Puer tea. Personally I prefer white tea as a base as it complement with the ethereal aroma of the jasmine.
Jasmine scented tea is preferred to be drunk fresh but loose its aroma in longer period of time. I normally drink them within a few a few months or over one or two years. It is a very nice tea to enjoy usually in the morning but sometime I do drink it in midnight if I have sudden craze for it.

Cheers!

[iheartea]

CWarren - thank you very much for the source recommendation! I'll check out their site.

Teaism - thank you for the education! Beautiful process, it seems.

I only had jasmine tea twice. Both times in Chengdu, China. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Apparently, the kombucha aficionados speak highly of using jasmine tea instead of the usual black tea.

Kombucha is uncharted territory for me, but I'm excited about using tea for a very different purpose and process.

[JRS22]

I see Yunnan Sourcing is claiming to have Spring 2014 jasmine pearls, but how could that be? My understanding is that the spring 2014 harvest has begun very recently, and that jasmine petals aren't available until the summer.

[debunix]

I can't think that even the best quality Jasmine will add what you want to Kombucha, because the Jasmine scent is so delicate (when it's not artificial): if the tea sits for a while after brewing, the sweet floral notes evaporate, and there is a vaguely unpleasant soapy note that takes over. You wouldn't want to add it to a culture that you will strain and drink some hours or days later.

[iheartea]

Thank you for posting.

JRS22 - I will ask Yunnan Sourcing!

Debunix - I just made my first batch of kombucha with an organic black tea, which is the traditional choice. Jasmine pearls is the favorite of one of the bloggers I follow. I will probably try a batch for the sake of experimenting. There was also the suggestion that a blend of black and green tea is recommended to keep the SCOBY healthy.