Tealyra - Imperial Jasmine Dragon Pearls - Loose Leaf Green Tea - Jasmine Green Tea with Pleasant Aroma and Tonic Effect - 113g (4-ounce)

I've had a few varieties of jasmine pearls and I feel iffy about getting new ones. My usual favorite is from the Louisville Tea Company, but with covid being a PITA and minimum shipping, I decided to try this variety. I'm pleased to say it's very fragrant, though more of a softer floral jasmine. The leaves are a bit smaller than some of the pearls I've had, and I did discover more broken leaves after brewing, if either of those matter to you. The most important thing to me was that it didn't smell perfumey or false, and did smell like actual jasmine flowers. A good jasmine pearl should stand up to a fair amount of resteeping. Happy to say that although the jasmine effect does fade, it's still slightly discernible from the second steeping, and afterwards absent. The packaging itself does have a resealable zipper seal, and since I'm not too finicky, I've found that squeezing the air out and keeping the pearls in that package has been just fine for me. I'm torn on whether I prefer this tea to my old favorite, because they're both slightly different fragrance qualities of jasmine, though neither is bad. The Louisville Tea Company one is definitely a bit more of a harder floral, still not perfumey. I would estimate that someone who is not typically big on floral scents might prefer the Tealyra one, or for people who are hoping to just try out having jasmine pearl, whereas someone who's tried jasmine pearls and knows they really like jasmine might opt to spring for the other variety. Some protips and instructions for folks who are maybe just getting into this: First, make sure you have a strainer or some setup ready. These leaves do tend to have some broken portions, so you can either decide those are a snack (why not?), or you can use a strainer, but you won't want to let the whole leaves hang out in your cup. If you have a teapot with a strainer, or with holes poked into where the spout is, that's fairly sufficient. Heat water until it's decently steaming but not close to boiling. If you feel the need to take it to boiling, let it sit for 4-6 minutes to let it cool off first. The important thing about steeping a nice pearl is that you should want to resteep it, and you're trying to infuse the water with the leaves, not cook them until they've made the water bitter. For a first steeping, I like to use slightly-more-than-gently steaming water and give it about 3 minutes. When in doubt, for a single, average coffee cup, use 6-8 pearls until you get to know your tastes better. For subsequent steepings, heat the water up a little more and add about a minute to the steep time. You can easily steep three times; I tend to make a big pot with ~3 cups just for myself, so I haven't done a fourth steeping yet. I'm sure it's delicious, but it's also impractical to spend my day going back and forth from the bathroom. Once you're finished with your leaves, you should do something cool with them, if you're inclined. You can compost them or directly add the leaves to your garden, mix in with mulch, or add some to your potted plants. If you add to pots or just want them to break down better/faster, cut them up a bit more; or better yet, if you can do so without them getting moldy or funky, you can also dry the leaves out and crunch them up for this use, which is probably the best approach, if more work-intensive. You can also squeeze the leaves out and use the liquid as some toner, or if you want, you can make one final steep and have a nice foot soak. Finally, here's a weird, unnecessary, but interesting use for leftover tea and whatever you can squeeze out of the leaves: this stuff breaks up grease really well. If you happen to have tea or leaf-juice whatever left over, and you have yourself some greasy dishes, run some hot water in them to basic degrease, and then pour yourself some leftovers in there. Waste not, want not? Eh.

Really delicious. Highly recommend. I use with an infusion cup system that works great.

Floral notes with a bit of a spicy taste. Love this green tea.

I've tried lots of loose jasmine green teas and this one of the few very good ones IMHO. It gives a nice aroma and flavor of jasmine without going too far, and even when I leave it steeping for a long time it never gets bitter (note I never use boiling water). It has a very light and natural taste to it that I only associate with the higher quality jasmines I've had. If you prefer a really strong and predominant jasmine flavor and aroma you might find this tea just a little tame, but regardless this is a very good jasmine green that will not disappoint and worth paying a bit more for in my opinion. My normal go to and preferred loose jasmine green is from Rishi, but that’s not currently available and this is one of the very few worthy substitutes (although it is more expensive being the Pearl variety).

I ordered this Imperial Jasmine Dragon Pearls Tea two times, and have been pleased with it. Attached are three photos: one is the bag as it arrived (identical in both cases), and the other two photos show my purchased tea after I spread it out onto white paper. Pros: * The tea is clean and appears to be just *tea* (nothing gross at all). * The flavor profile is light and sweetly fragrant. Of course, if I heat my water too hot, then the tea loses the jasmine notes. * My tea mug holds 2 cups (470 mL), and about 1 teaspoon is enough—for an initial mug AND a refill! Cons: * Tea arrives in a flexible package (pretty), which doesn’t protect the friable tea during shipping. Consequently, there are more fines than I used to find in tea from my local teashop. I can’t tell that the fines affect the flavor profile, though. * Opinion: I find this tea has more caffeine that other green teas I’ve had. Of course, I’m drinking 1 teaspoon pearls/4 cups of tea a day, and can’t consume any after noon in order to sleep at night. Not much of a con, just be aware this tea is not *low* in caffeine. I’ll gladly buy more of this tea as long as I continue to find that it’s clean, contaminant-free, and with this nice flavor.