Jasmine Tea for Well-Being: Caffeine and Health Benefits

Tea drinking is a wonderful pastime, due to the breadth of delicious flavors and aromas that can be explored. Scented teas such as jasmine and even gardenia add to the vibrant palette of tea flavors. Luckily for tea lovers, tea drinking is not only pleasurable – there may be health benefits too! Below, we explore potential health benefits of jasmine teas, and touch on caffeine concerns, to help you make the most of your tea habit.

What is Jasmine Tea?

Quite simply, jasmine teas are leaves from the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) which have been processed, dried, and scented with jasmine flowers.

High quality jasmine teas like ours at CC Fine Tea are made by laying out layers of tea leaves with fresh jasmine flowers, allowing the tea leaves to absorb the floral scent. The flowers are replaced with fresh blossoms 4-5 times to infuse the tea with a strong jasmine aroma. The finished tea may or may not contain dried jasmine blossoms, which have little flavor of their own.

Less premium jasmine teas may be flavored with a scented spray or oil, instead of using the traditional fresh flower method. At CC Fine Tea, our jasmine teas are always 100% natural, using only real flowers.

Jasmine Tea vs Green Tea

Technically, any type of tea could be scented with jasmine flowers to make jasmine tea. However, jasmine black teas or oolongs are practically unheard of, because those tea types do not absorb fragrance well. Traditional tea categories used for jasmine tea are white and green, and green tea is the most common. (Not all green teas can be scented with jasmine; the best green jasmine tea is hot-air fired, like our Mountain Green Tips, not steamed or pan-fired like Sencha or Dragonwell.)

For example, our Silver Tip Jasmine (Yin Hao Jasmine) and Jasmine Pearl are green jasmine teas. Organic Jasmine Silver Needle is a white jasmine tea.

Health Benefits

We are not doctors, and don’t recommend tea as a substitute for medical care. That said, as part of a healthy balanced diet, there are several health benefits that jasmine tea may provide:

1. Like all additive-free teas, jasmine tea is a low calorie beverage. Despite its luxuriously smooth and floral flavor, jasmine tea is a healthy substitute for sugary beverages like juice or soda.
2. Jasmine tea may provide trace micronutrients, such as minerals from the tea leaves, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and vitamins B, C, and E.¹
3. Jasmine teas made from white and green teas contain antioxidants, such as EGCG, which is associated with anti-diabetes and anti-inflammatory effects, and may lower the risk of cancer.^2,3
4. The floral aroma of jasmine flowers may have a calming influence, helping to improve mood.⁴
5. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is believed that jasmine is calming, dispels cold, and helps qi flow smoothly.⁵

Does Jasmine Tea have Caffeine?

Yes, jasmine tea contains caffeine from its main ingredient, the tea plant. Caffeine is a stimulant, which can be helpful to boost energy and focus. However, large quantities may cause jitters, or interfere with healthy sleep. Here are a few tips to control caffeine intake:

1. Use a lower leaf to water ratio, and don’t over-steep.
2. Brewing with cooler water may extract less caffeine from the leaves. (The downside is that cooler water also extracts less of the other healthy compounds found in tea leaves.)
3. Re-steeping the same tea leaves several times has a lower caffeine impact than brewing with new leaves for each cup. It’s also more thrifty! Discarding the first steep may also help reduce your caffeine intake.

Which tea is the most healthy?

To conclude, jasmine tea is a delicious and healthy beverage! Is jasmine tea healthier than other types of tea? Probably not – all tea is healthy, as long it is pure, clean, and free of pesticide residue. That’s why we make sure our teas have no suspicious additives, and they are produced with strict pesticide limits.

There is a saying about tea:

The healthiest type of tea is the kind you like to drink.

It’s true – because you will consume that tea more often than one you dislike! So if you love the scent of jasmine, jasmine tea may be the healthiest type of tea for your body.

Sources

1. Chacko SM, Thambi PT, Kuttan R, Nishigaki I. Beneficial effects of green tea: a literature review. Chin Med. 2010;5:13. Published 2010 Apr 6. doi:10.1186/1749-8546-5-13
2. Eng QY, Thanikachalam PV, Ramamurthy S. Molecular understanding of Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. J Ethnopharmacol. 2018 Jan 10;210:296-310. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2017.08.035. Epub 2017 Aug 31. PMID: 28864169.
3. Gunnars, Kris. “10 Evidence-Based Benefits of Green Tea.” Edited by Atli Arnarson , Healthline, 6 Apr. 2020, www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea.
4. Kuroda K, Inoue N, Ito Y, et al. Sedative effects of the jasmine tea odor and (R)-(-)-linalool, one of its major odor components, on autonomic nerve activity and mood states. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2005;95(2-3):107-114. doi:10.1007/s00421-005-1402-8
5. Hays, J L. “Chinese Nutrition Properties of Jasmine Flower.” Chinese Nutrition, chinesenutrition.org/view_image.asp?pid=687.

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