Small White Dragon, Scented Seven Times
Scenting flowers into tea started as a refined pastime among Qing dynasty scholars. By the Xianfeng era, tea merchants moving between Beijing and Tianjin were selling it north as "xiangpian" — scented tea — and it caught on fast. That's what pushed production around Fuzhou into full scale, and refined it into the complete jasmine-scenting craft still used today. When old Beijing families speak of the "Beijing flavor" xiangpian sold at the well-known tea houses, what they actually mean is the particular character of authentic Fuzhou jasmine tea.
This year marks the eighth year Baoputang has custom-ordered jasmine tea made the traditional Fuzhou way. The best Fuzhou-style jasmine tea today still holds to the old standard: Fuding white tea from the spring picking as the base, scented during the hottest stretch of summer, spring tea paired with summer flowers, exactly as tradition calls for. The only thing that's shifted is where the scenting itself happens — long since moved to Hengzhou, Guangxi, the world's jasmine capital.
Small White Dragon is one of Baoputang's signature teas: the first-flush spring leaves from Fuding, made into a baked green tea base, then specially shaped into small pearls and set aside. Once the deep summer heat sets in each year, the elaborate scenting process begins. Small White Dragon's flower-to-tea ratio runs as high as 1:6, scented seven times over. "Scent the jasmine to its finest note, and it's called the best fragrance under heaven." That reputation for being the best fragrance under heaven comes from craft passed down across generations — tending the flowers, mixing them into the tea, venting the heat that builds up, pulling the spent flowers out, roasting — every step done with care, because that's the only way to reach the real flavor. All it takes is a glass cup: drop in a dozen or so pearls, and before long the fragrance fills the air and the liquor turns out clear, sweet, and smooth.
Each year, the custom jasmine tea only reaches the shelf right before Mid-Autumn Festival. It's remained one of Baoputang's signature teas in recent years — not only sought after by tea drinkers at home, but carried overseas as well, where it's won over quite a few tea friends abroad.