Tea Collection: Osmanthus Green Tea (China)
What is Osmanthus Green Tea
Osmanthus Green Tea is a portrait of early autumn in southern China—fragrant, golden, and softly sweet. Each cup carries the scent of blooming osmanthus flowers, a perfume so delicate it feels like a breeze drifting through courtyard gardens in Hangzhou or Guilin.
When paired with green tea, the blossoms don’t overpower; they lift. The result is a cup that moves between fruit-like brightness and floral warmth, evoking apricot, honey, and sunlight filtered through leaves.
This blend belongs to a long tradition of scenting teas with fresh flowers, a craft refined over centuries. The process is slow, requiring repeated layering of blossoms and tea until the fragrance is fully absorbed. To understand how this technique fits within Asia’s broader tea heritage, guides like The Art of Asian Tea and The Modern Tea Lover’s Guide offer insight into how scenting, roasting, oxidation, and terroir shape a tea’s final character.
Osmanthus Green Tea shares its lineage with other floral-scented teas, such as the softly perfumed Jasmine Silver Needle, yet its flavour is unmistakably its own—warmer, more amber-toned, more autumnal in spirit. For drinkers exploring how green teas shift across styles, the steamed luminosity of Sencha offers a bright, vegetal counterpoint to osmanthus’ honeyed depth.
Ingredients
2–3 g Osmanthus Green Tea
180–200 ml water (80–85°C)
Equipment Needed
Teapot or gaiwan
Fine strainer
Kettle
Cup
Method
Heat water to 80–85°C to preserve sweetness and avoid bitterness.
Warm your teapot or cup briefly and discard the water.
Add the tea leaves.
Pour water slowly over the leaves.
Steep for 1.5–2 minutes for a floral-forward cup, or up to 3 minutes for more body.
Strain and enjoy while the fragrance is still rising from the surface.
Notes
Osmanthus Green Tea is gentle yet expressive. Its sweetness emerges naturally—no sugar needed. Because the blossoms are light and aromatic, the tea reveals more nuance when brewed at lower temperatures.
Drinking it next to teas like Oriental Beauty, with its honeyed notes shaped by leafhopper bites, highlights how different forms of natural sweetness appear across tea traditions. Meanwhile, venues such as Yugen Tea Bar in South Yarra curate tastings that show how floral-scented teas express fragrance, texture, and seasonality in their own quiet languages.
Osmanthus Green Tea is a reminder that elegance often comes from subtlety.
A sip is like stepping into a courtyard where the flowers are just beginning to bloom.
