Jasmine Tea, A Never-Fading Charm to Beijingers

TEA drinking is a national pastime in China, where the habit has prevailed for millennia and is firmly embedded in people’s daily life. But unknown to many foreigners, different regions in China enjoy different varieties of the leafy brew.

- JIAO FENG

Those sipping in south China’s Guangdong Province have a liking for Pu’er tea; in east China’s Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces people prefer green tea; for those in southeast China’s Fujian Province, Tieguanyin (a variety of oolong tea) is their favorite; while in Beijing, jasmine tea reigns supreme.

Beijingers’ Liking for Jasmine Tea

Jasmine tea is green tea scented with the aroma of jasmine blossoms. What is interesting is that jasmine tea, a product of south China, has not gained great popularity among southerners, and is instead widely sought after by Beijingers thousands of miles away. Until recent decades, be it at home or in a tea house, Beijingers always liked to treat their guests and themselves to jasmine tea, which was always the predominant variety sold in the Beijing market. Even today, in most northern regions like Beijing and Tianjin, jasmine tea still takes up more than half of the local tea market, which has long perplexed people in southern tea-growing areas.

So what’s behind Beijingers’ special preference for jasmine tea?

It can be traced back to the Song Dynasty (9601279) when the trend for scented tea came into being. Dozens of varieties of scented tea appeared.

However, most of them phased out in time, with only several surviving the taste of locals, and among those tea varieties jasmine tea was the favorite. The popularity of jasmine tea was first driven by the upper class, however during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) it was enjoyed by all walks of life. It’s said that Empress Dowager Cixi had a special liking for jasmine tea, and often presented it as a gift to foreign diplomatic envoys. This royal preference helped raise popularity of the tea among ordinary people. Thus jasmine tea became the dominant drink of Beijingers.