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Tea (rec.drink.tea) Discussion relating to tea, the world's second most consumed beverage (after water), made by infusing or boiling the leaves of the tea plant (C. sinensis or close relatives) in water. |
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While shopping for cheap tea at my local asian grocery store, I bought
some vietnamese jasmine flower tea for the great price of $1.29 for 80g. What I was actually looking for was dried chrysanthemum flowers, which makes a nice herbal tisane. But I got my chinese mixed up and bought moli cha instead of what I guess would be juhua cha. In any case, the jasmine flower tea is nothing like the jasmine tea I expected. The little white flowers have a completely different flavor from the scented leaves I have had before. The tea leaves are big and somewhat twisted, with lots of stems (not surprising given the price). In thinking back, a while ago I was at a Hong Kong style Chinese restaraunt and they served tea that they claimed to be jasmine. It didn't taste anything like jasmine to me and I noticed many little white flowers in the tea pot. Now I realize that it was probably this same jasmine flower tea. While I sometimes find jasmine tea to be too strongly scented with jasmine for my liking, this tea is more subtle and I actually like its soothing flavor (hot or cold!) Anyone have any knowledge of this type of tea and its relation to the much different tea that is scented with jasmine (and which is often rolled into little "dragon" balls)? -charles- |
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.. . . as a follow up to my own post, I searched rftd and found this
series of posts on a very similar topic: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.f...6c5d14c24c86bf I know no vietnamese whatsoever and don't know where to really start with the vietnamese on the package. But the most significant words appear to be "Tra Hoa Sen". Because I know some Chinese, that was my focus. There are three Chinese characters on the package: Mo4 (has grass radical), Li4 (doesn't have grass radical, but probably should), and Cha2 (tea). There is no English anywhere on the package. Now I am wondering if this is really jasmine tea or not. |
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Charles
What you had is flower tea, or hua cha. Like yourself, my personal favourite is the gong ju, or tribute chrysanthenum, although I am no expert. It is difficult to get hold of it here, although I have quite a few directly from China. The usual jasmine tea mentioned in the West is a jasmine scented green tea. They are entirely different, although may smell similar. Does this help? Julian http://www.amazing-green-tea.com |
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In article .com>,
cha bing > wrote: >. . . as a follow up to my own post, I searched rftd and found this >series of posts on a very similar topic: > >http://groups.google.com/group/rec.f...6c5d14c24c86bf > >I know no vietnamese whatsoever and don't know where to really start >with the vietnamese on the package. But the most significant words >appear to be "Tra Hoa Sen". Because I know some Chinese, that was my >focus. There are three Chinese characters on the package: Mo4 (has >grass radical), Li4 (doesn't have grass radical, but probably should), >and Cha2 (tea). There is no English anywhere on the package. Now I am >wondering if this is really jasmine tea or not. It's not. The Vietnamese is "Lotus Flower Tea." This is Hue style tea made with lotus, not Saigon style made with jasmine. For some reason just about every tea from Vietnam is sold in the US as "Jasmine" no matter WHAT it really is. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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That may help. My tea definitely has tea, not just flowers (though I
was looking for the chrysanthemum flowers without tea when I bought it). I guess it could be a very low grade jasmine, and maybe that is why it smells so different. The tea itself is not what I would call delicate two-leaf-bud pickings. The leaves are rather large, but it is definitely green. |
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Strange, my last post appeared about 24 hours after I "posted" it.
In any case, one weird thing about this tea and its marketing is that it has not one word of English on it. It is entirely in what I presume to be Vietnamese, with the exception of three Chinese characters that I believe to be "Jasmine Flower Tea". So it was clearly not made for the U.S. market. Thanks, all, for your help. -charles |
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Vietnamese Tra Lai Jasmine Packaging
http://www.phuongvycoffee.com/SanPham/tralai.htm Vietnamese Tra Sen Lotus Packaging http://www.phuongvycoffee.com/SanPham/trasen.htm Jim PS: Sorry for my stuttering posts yesterday. On Apr 25, 8:40 pm, cha bing > wrote: > Strange, my last post appeared about 24 hours after I "posted" it. > > In any case, one weird thing about this tea and its marketing is that > it has not one word of English on it. It is entirely in what I presume > to be Vietnamese, with the exception of three Chinese characters that > I believe to be "Jasmine Flower Tea". So it was clearly not made for > the U.S. market. > > Thanks, all, for your help. > > -charles |
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For some reason, I had never thought to look up this tea online. Here
is a picture of the packaging: http://www.hoasentea.com/english_ver...mine/info.html I guess it is jasmine tea after all. Doesn't smell much like what I expect of jasmine. Maybe the problem is in my nose. -Charles |
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Does your packaging Chinese characters match up with the packaging I
showed? I put more stock in the characters. Jim On Apr 26, 5:22 pm, cha bing > wrote: > For some reason, I had never thought to look up this tea online. Here > is a picture of the packaging: > > http://www.hoasentea.com/english_ver...mine/info.html > > I guess it is jasmine tea after all. Doesn't smell much like what I > expect of jasmine. Maybe the problem is in my nose. > > -Charles |
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On Apr 26, 4:22 pm, cha bing > wrote:
> For some reason, I had never thought to look up this tea online. Here > is a picture of the packaging: > > http://www.hoasentea.com/english_ver...mine/info.html > > I guess it is jasmine tea after all. Doesn't smell much like what I > expect of jasmine. Maybe the problem is in my nose. > > -Charles I have seen this tea in one of the Thai markets here in Berkeley. It could very well be that it is just a different kind of jasmine. Lately, the jasmine has been in bloom around here and there must be a dozen different types with nearly dozen different scents. BTW, I have had Vietnamese Lotus tea, often and one brand hardly resembles another. Shen |
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On Apr 26, 2:40 pm, Space Cowboy > wrote:
> Vietnamese Tra Lai Jasmine Packaginghttp://www.phuongvycoffee.com/SanPham/tralai.htm The packaging on my tea matches the characters on the Jasmine packaging above, except the "Li" character does not have the grass radical on top on my packaging (I think that is the grass radical, right?). That must be a sort of typo. |
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I guess. Another li4 character without the grass radical on top means
sharp. You find that character using the dao radical on the right which is the downstroke and hooked downstroke. Jim On Apr 27, 6:09 pm, cha bing > wrote: > On Apr 26, 2:40 pm, Space Cowboy > wrote: > > > Vietnamese Tra Lai Jasmine Packaginghttp://www.phuongvycoffee.com/SanPham/tralai.htm > > The packaging on my tea matches the characters on the Jasmine > packaging above, except the "Li" character does not have the grass > radical on top on my packaging (I think that is the grass radical, > right?). That must be a sort of typo. |
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On Apr 28, 11:51 am, Space Cowboy > wrote:
> I guess. Another li4 character without the grass radical on top means > sharp. You find that character using the dao radical on the right > which is the downstroke and hooked downstroke. > > Jim The "Li" character on my tea packaging is the "Li4" that means sharp. According to three different dictionaries I have (all from mainland), the "Li" used in the word "jasmine" is the same as the "Li4" that means "sharp", except with the grass ("cao") radical. Both "li"' characters appear to use that "Dao" radical within them, except I guess it is not the "radical" when the grass radical is on top. Since we've gone this far into a Chinese discussion (it would be a lot easier if I could just post a picture of the character, but this has given me a great excuse to pull out old chinese text books), the "li" on my packaging contains the grass, or "Cao" radical on top (simplified form), the growing grain, or "He" radical on the lower left (similar to the tree radical, only with a slanted line on top), and the knife, or "Dao" radical on the lower right. It almost looked like, in the packaging you sent that the lower left in some writings of "Li" could use what I understand to be a "wei" character (meaning "not, no") instead of the "he" character. Due to the font, I can't tell which one babelcarp uses. Interestingly, neither "Mo" nor "Li" appear to have any independent meaning. Anyone know why they are used together for the word "jasmine" (e.g., is the word is a phonetic approximation of a foreign word), or is that just the way the word is written? -Charles |
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the "li"
> on my packaging contains the grass, or "Cao" radical on top > (simplified form), the growing grain, or "He" radical on the lower > left (similar to the tree radical, only with a slanted line on top), > and the knife, or "Dao" radical on the lower right. > -Charles Oops, I mean it does NOT have the "cao" radical, though it probably should. |
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Remove the grass radical for either jasmine or lotus and you get the
same pinyin name with another meaning. http://i19.tinypic.com/4yirtk8.gif Jim On Apr 28, 6:08 pm, cha bing > wrote: > On Apr 28, 11:51 am, Space Cowboy > wrote: > > > I guess. Another li4 character without the grass radical on top means > > sharp. You find that character using the dao radical on the right > > which is the downstroke and hooked downstroke. > > > Jim > > The "Li" character on my tea packaging is the "Li4" that means sharp. > According to three different dictionaries I have (all from mainland), > the "Li" used in the word "jasmine" is the same as the "Li4" that > means "sharp", except with the grass ("cao") radical. Both "li"' > characters appear to use that "Dao" radical within them, except I > guess it is not the "radical" when the grass radical is on top. > > Since we've gone this far into a Chinese discussion (it would be a lot > easier if I could just post a picture of the character, but this has > given me a great excuse to pull out old chinese text books), the "li" > on my packaging contains the grass, or "Cao" radical on top > (simplified form), the growing grain, or "He" radical on the lower > left (similar to the tree radical, only with a slanted line on top), > and the knife, or "Dao" radical on the lower right. It almost looked > like, in the packaging you sent that the lower left in some writings > of "Li" could use what I understand to be a "wei" character (meaning > "not, no") instead of the "he" character. Due to the font, I can't > tell which one babelcarp uses. > > Interestingly, neither "Mo" nor "Li" appear to have any independent > meaning. Anyone know why they are used together for the word > "jasmine" (e.g., is the word is a phonetic approximation of a foreign > word), or is that just the way the word is written? > > -Charles |
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On Apr 28, 8:08 pm, cha bing > wrote:
> On Apr 28, 11:51 am, Space Cowboy > wrote: > > > I guess. Another li4 character without the grass radical on top means > > sharp. You find that character using the dao radical on the right > > which is the downstroke and hooked downstroke. > > > Jim > > The "Li" character on my tea packaging is the "Li4" that means sharp. > According to three different dictionaries I have (all from mainland), > the "Li" used in the word "jasmine" is the same as the "Li4" that > means "sharp", except with the grass ("cao") radical. Both "li"' > characters appear to use that "Dao" radical within them, except I > guess it is not the "radical" when the grass radical is on top. > > Since we've gone this far into a Chinese discussion (it would be a lot > easier if I could just post a picture of the character, but this has > given me a great excuse to pull out old chinese text books), the "li" > on my packaging contains the grass, or "Cao" radical on top > (simplified form), the growing grain, or "He" radical on the lower > left (similar to the tree radical, only with a slanted line on top), > and the knife, or "Dao" radical on the lower right. It almost looked > like, in the packaging you sent that the lower left in some writings > of "Li" could use what I understand to be a "wei" character (meaning > "not, no") instead of the "he" character. Due to the font, I can't > tell which one babelcarp uses. > > Interestingly, neither "Mo" nor "Li" appear to have any independent > meaning. Anyone know why they are used together for the word > "jasmine" (e.g., is the word is a phonetic approximation of a foreign > word), or is that just the way the word is written? > > -Charles "Moli" is probably a chinese phonetic approximation of the south/ southeast asian terms for Jasmine. Jasmine is called "Chameli" in Hindi, "Melipu" in Tamil, and depending on where in Indonesia "Meulu" or "Melati". Just a matter of curiousity, why don't you by the dried chrysanthemum and green tea separately and blend your own flower tea? |
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![]() > Just a matter of curiousity, why don't you by the dried chrysanthemum > and green tea separately and blend your own flower tea?- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Well, I never actually found the dried chrysanthemums. The "tea" I had with chrysanthemums was just the dried flowers, no actual tea. I'm sure you can purchase them online somewhere, but I was in the store and just looking through their tea selection to see what I could find. I understand dried chrysanthemums to be good for your stomach and my wife was feeling a bit off at the time. |
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