Is black Tea with osmanthus still black tea or flower tea?

Recently, several complaints of false advertising claimed that the osmanthus black tea purchased from online stores was labeled with a standard for black tea, leading to complaints to Ya'an market supervision authorities alleging incorrect standards. So is osmanthus black tea black tea or flower tea? Some say it's inherently flower tea and there's no dispute, while others argue that adding flowers to tea makes it flower tea. In this case, I agree that it should be considered flower tea.

First, we need to understand what flower tea is.

Flower tea belongs to the category of reprocessed teas, made by blending traditional teas such as green tea, black tea, Oolong Tea, white tea, yellow tea, and dark tea (as the base), with fragrant flowers. The tea absorbs the scent of the flowers, also known as scented tea, perfumed tea, or fragrant tea. Simply put, flower tea is a combination of flowers and tea. Depending on the type of flower used, it can be jasmine tea, osmanthus tea, and so forth, with jasmine tea being the most produced. Therefore, any tea with added flowers is no longer green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea, or dark tea but becomes flower tea instead.

Meanwhile, teas made from roses, chrysanthemums, honeysuckle, and other flowers are considered herbal teas and not flower teas.

Second, products must use the correct standards.

Producers and distributors must ensure that the products comply with the appropriate standards. For example, in the case of the complaints about osmanthus black tea in Ya'an, if the product adheres to the black tea standard, which does not allow for added substances, then using the black tea standard is incorrect. After adding osmanthus to black tea, the correct standard to apply would be the Mount Mengding Tea (Flower Tea) GH/T 1353 or the industry-standard for osmanthus tea GH/T 1117-2025.

Historical knowledge related to flower tea

In China, during the Song Dynasty (960 AD), high-quality green tea was infused with dragon brain incense (a type of aromatic spice) as a tribute. According to Cai Xiang's “Tea Record,” “Tea has its true fragrance, and when offered as tribute, it is slightly enhanced with dragon brain to improve its aroma. However, in Jian'an, local tea tasting does not involve adding fragrance, fearing it might overpower the tea's natural scent… it should not be used.” This marks the precursor to modern flower Tea processing and the earliest form of Chinese flower tea.

The Ming Dynasty was a period of great development for Chinese tea, where compressed tea was replaced with loose leaf tea, and the production of stir-fried, oven-dried, and sun-dried green teas became widespread, laying the foundation for flower tea production. At the same time, the method of scenting tea with flowers developed significantly, with techniques that allowed the flowers to enhance the flavor of the tea. According to Gu Yuanqing's (1564-1639) “Tea Spectrum” in the section “Methods of Making Tea,” there is a detailed description of the technique of scenting tea with flowers: “Osmanthus, jasmine, Rose, rose, honeysuckle, orange blossom, Gardenia, sweet osmanthus, and plum blossoms can all be used to make tea. Pick the flowers when they are half open and half closed to retain their full fragrance. Measure the amount of tea leaves and pick an appropriate quantity of flowers to mix with them. If there are too many flowers, the tea will be overly fragrant and lose its original character; if there are too few, the aroma will be insufficient. A ratio of three parts tea to one part flowers is ideal. For osmanthus flowers, remove the stems, dust, and insects, and layer the tea and flowers alternately in a ceramic jar until it is full. Seal it tightly with paper, place it in boiling water, take it out once cooled, wrap it in paper, and dry it over fire before storing. Similarly, for lotus tea, at dusk, open the partially closed lotus flowers and fill them with fine tea. Use hemp to hold them together overnight. The next morning, remove the tea, wrap it in paper, and dry it. Repeat this process several times, drying the tea each time before storing. The result is incredibly fragrant and delicious.” These records show that the methods for scenting tea, selecting raw materials, determining the quantity of flowers, the number of scenting cycles, and the drying process gradually matured, aligning with current practices. It was only at this point that flower tea could truly be called such.

In Li Shizhen's “Compendium of Materia Medica” (1578), there is a record stating that jasmine can be used to scent tea, confirming the production of jasmine tea during the Ming Dynasty.

According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (1851-1861) in the Qing Dynasty, large-scale workshops in Fuzhou began producing commercial jasmine flower tea.

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