How to Make Osmanthus Tea: Home-Made Fragrant and Pleasant Osmanthus Tea

Nowadays, with the rise of the health and wellness trend, many people love drinking all kinds of floral teas, and among them osmanthus tea is one that the public loves to drink. This tea not only has a rich, long-lasting fragrance, but its taste is also mellow and sweet. Below, let's introduce how to make fragrant and pleasant osmanthus tea.

I. Basic Introduction to Osmanthus Tea

1. Osmanthus has long had the saying, “In the eighth month, osmanthus blooms everywhere; when osmanthus blooms, happiness arrives.” Osmanthus varieties are generally divided into golden osmanthus (Jin Gui), silver osmanthus (Yin Gui), red osmanthus (Dan Gui), and four-season osmanthus (Si Ji Gui). Among them, the most brilliantly colored is red osmanthus, while the most intensely fragrant are golden osmanthus and silver osmanthus. Although all these varieties can be used to make osmanthus tea, golden osmanthus is the very best choice for making osmanthus tea, because this kind of osmanthus has the strongest and most long-lasting fragrance.

2. Osmanthus tea has a long history. As early as the Tang and Song dynasties, court ladies and imperial consorts already used foods taken internally to give their bodies a fragrance. Osmanthus tea is pungent in flavor and warm in nature, with effects of relieving cough and transforming phlegm, and nourishing and moistening the lungs. Regular drinking of it has a preventive and adjunctive therapeutic effect on bad breath, blurred vision, hives, duodenal ulcers, and cold stomach and stomach pain.

II. How Is Osmanthus Tea Made?

The methods for making osmanthus tea are not difficult. The traditional method is scenting, also called fumigation, but for friends with insufficient experience it is rather complicated. Today we will mainly introduce several simple methods for making osmanthus tea.

1. Picking and Selecting Osmanthus

(1) Before making osmanthus tea, the first step is picking and selecting the osmanthus. It is best to choose golden osmanthus, as its fragrance is relatively long-lasting;

(2) The best time to pick osmanthus is during its full bloom period, when the flowers are shaped like tiger claws and are golden yellow, picking them when the buds have just begun to open. It is best to pick fresh osmanthus bearing autumn dew;

(3) When picking, it is best to wear gloves, picking gently and placing loosely. Absolutely do not beat the osmanthus with bamboo poles or other objects, so as to avoid the flowers being bruised and discolored, which would affect the quality of the osmanthus tea;

(4) After picking the osmanthus, promptly remove the flower stems, leaves and other debris, then immediately begin making the osmanthus tea, so as to avoid losing the floral fragrance from leaving it too long.

2. Methods for Making Osmanthus Tea

Method One: Drying Method

Use steam to quickly steam the selected fresh osmanthus until cooked, then use a tea dryer to roast the fixed osmanthus until it is 80 percent dry (at home you can use a microwave to roast it). Let the dried osmanthus cool naturally for 24 hours, then put it into a sealed glass jar or food-grade plastic bag and seal it for storage.

Method Two: Direct Brewing Method

Take an appropriate amount of fresh osmanthus and rinse it repeatedly with clean water and edible salt, then drain it. Put it into a glass cup, pour in an appropriate amount of boiling water and add a little rock sugar or honey, cover with a lid and let it steep for 3 minutes, then it is ready to drink directly.

Method Three: White Sugar Preserving Method

Put the cleaned fresh osmanthus into a glass jar, then add a layer of white granulated sugar. Repeatedly spread a layer of fresh osmanthus and press on a layer of white granulated sugar. Once filled, seal the glass jar and store it in a cool, ventilated place for about 1 month, with the specific time depending on actual conditions. When you want to drink osmanthus tea, just take out a little at any time and brew it with boiling water; it can also be drunk together with other ingredients.

Method Four: Sun-Drying Method

Put the collected and prepared fresh osmanthus into a winnowing basket and place it directly under the hot sun to dry. After drying for a while, gently shake the winnowing basket (by no means turn it with your hands). Once the fresh osmanthus is completely dried, put it in a glass bottle or food-grade plastic bag and seal it for storage. When needed, take it out and brew it into osmanthus tea.

Note here that it is best to choose a day with strong sunlight for sun-drying, because the longer the drying time, the more fragrance is lost. Try to dry it in one day (at most it must not exceed 3 days).

Method Five: Quicklime Sealing Method (recommended; this method gives the strongest fragrance and the best quality)

Gently spread the fresh osmanthus on moisture-proof paper and fold it into a square block, then place it in a prepared earthenware vat with quicklime blocks. Seal the mouth of the vat, and after two or three days take it out and it is dried osmanthus. Put it in a glass bottle or food-grade plastic bag and seal it for storage. When needed, take it out and brew it into osmanthus tea.

Method Six: Tea Base Making Method

If you want to make even better osmanthus tea, according to Method Five, after placing the osmanthus for 3-5 months, take tea leaves from Qingming to before Guyu, and spread them on moisture-proof paper layer by layer, one layer of tea leaves and one layer of dried osmanthus (the ratio of tea leaves to dried osmanthus is 5:1). After spreading three or four layers, wrap it up well, put it into an earthenware vat and seal it. Open and turn it about once every two days, and in about six or seven days it becomes osmanthus tea.

In fact, the above 6 methods for making osmanthus tea are all fairly simple and very suitable for home preparation. The finished osmanthus tea must be stored with care; it is best to store it indoors in a ventilated and dry place, and the storage period should not exceed 1 year.

Conclusion: The above is an introduction to the methods for making osmanthus tea. I wonder if you have learned them. When the osmanthus blooms, why not put your own hands to work and make a batch of home-made osmanthus tea to taste.