Flowering tea or blooming tea () consists of a bundle of dried

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

leaves wrapped around one or more dried

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s. These are made by binding tea leaves and flowers together into a bulb, then setting them to dry. When steeped, the bundle expands and unfurls in a process that emulates a blooming flower,"On Food: Stop and savor the flowering teas"
Hsiao-Ching Chou,

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

, May 1, 2007. and the flowers inside emerge as the centerpiece. Typically they are sourced from the

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

."The Cup that Still Cheers"

Caterer and Hotelkeeper ''The Caterer'' is a weekly UK business magazine for hospitality professionals. It covers all areas of the hospitality industry (including restaurants, hotels, foodservice, pubs and bars) providing news, analysis and features about senior industry ...

, 20 October 2005. Flowers commonly used in flowering teas include

globe amaranth ''Gomphrena globosa'', commonly known as globe amaranth, is an edible plant from the family Amaranthaceae. The round-shaped flower inflorescences are a visually dominant feature and cultivars have been propagated to exhibit shades of magenta, pur ...

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiva ...

lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in mu ...

hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

, and

osmanthus ''Osmanthus'' ''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, the Himalayas, etc.),and was ...

. Flowering tea in its current form was developed in China in the 1980s, and first became popular in Western countries in the early 2000s."What is Flowering Tea?"
WiseGEEK Some sources state that the general concept of bundled tea leaves is several centuries old. Chinese Tea 07

Flowering tea is generally served in containers made of glass or similar transparent materials so that the flowering effect can be seen. The bundles can usually be reused two or three times without the tea becoming bitter.

References

{{teas Chinese tea Green tea Flower tea