Until now I’ve tried 4 different blooming teas, but I’m not sure if they are 4 different kinds, if the flowers are different, the teas are different, or just the names are different.
Clockwise from top left: the 4 stages of blooming of the Fairy Flower
The constructions are definitely different from one another. Of the two kinds that I got from the Golden Tea Shop in Oakland, one opens up with a string of jasmine on top and a red gomphrena globosa(which I’ll call a bachelor button) nested in long needle-like tea leaves; the other kind is constructed in reversed order: the bachelor button rises above the jasmine. The first kind is called Fairy Flower, and the second is Love at First Sight. Each tea blossom costs $2.50.
Then there are two other kinds that I’ve tried at Teance, which smelled and tasted differently from each other, but they could just have been steeped for different times. One is called the Flower Bouquet, which has a red flower in the middle.
The water that I used to steep the Fairy Flower and the Love at First Sight must have been too hot because they turned out a bit bitter. I didn’t know anything about tea at the time. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the flavors. 😀 They tasted like Tieguanyin. All are hand sewn.