Gardenia Bird's Tongue

The evocative name "Que She," which translates to "Bird's Tongue," references the tiny, elongated, and tender leaves of this varietal of green tea. This experimental flower tea is crafted with First Harvest leaves, picked at the end of March, on the sacred Menging Mountain. While all First Harvest teas require careful attention and patience to collect, Bird's Tongue may be the most tedious. These sprouts are so small that each serving of tea contains over 300 buds.

We consider this an experimental tea as we have never come across gardenia scented tea, let alone a Bird's Tongue, before this one. It is far more common to scent tea using jasmine or osmanthus flowers, as these flowers can be cultivated on a farm. But gardenias are very delicate and difficult to cultivate. They have to be found in the wild, foraged, and transported quickly to where they can be combined with the tea. To forage enough flowers for the required number of rounds of scenting is almost unimaginable, making this tea a bit of a phenomenon.

The scenting process begins in June, immediately after the wild gardenia flowers bloom in the Mengding Mountains. The flower buds are foraged just before they open, when their scent is lighter and not likely to overtake the tea as the mature flowers would.

Flower-scenting tea is a time-honoured process that takes roughly two weeks. Gardenia Bird's Tongue sees seven rounds of scenting. Each round begins just before midnight; a time chosen on behalf of the flowers, as they emit the most compelling fragrance overnight. The green tea leaves are thinly spread out on bamboo mats, then fresh gardenias are scattered and mixed in with the tea. Left like this overnight, the tea absorbs the aromatic oils from the flowers.

Each scenting cycle mirrors a sleep cycle, lasting eight hours until the following morning. After they share in this sleep, the flowers are separated from the tea and dried over warm charcoal. The leaves rest for two days, and then another round of scenting begins with fresh flowers. After seven sleeps, the Bird's Tongue carries the gardenia within it.

In the gaiwan the dense tea buds float on top of the water, slowly sinking through infusions. They brew a glowing liquor with notes of pitted fruit and cherry leaf, amplified by a juicy acidity. On the finish we taste hints of pandan and pungent flowers. By the fourth and fifth infusions a bright, lemony sweetness emerges, a bit like meringue. There is a deep warmth to this tea, and we appreciate a green tea that conjures so much purple and red in its flavour. This is an excellent tea for high summer.