Fuzhou Jasmine Tea Scenting Craft

Fuzhou's jasmine-tea scenting craft has a long history; the city's distinctive soil and climate nurtured the marriage of jasmine and tea, celebrated as 'the foremost fragrance in the human world.'

Using oven-dried green tea as the base, the craft repeatedly blends and scents the tea with fresh jasmine so that the leaf absorbs the floral aroma; through many rounds of scenting, airing, flower-removal and re-firing the blossoms are finally taken out, leaving only their fragrance in the tea.

It was inscribed on the fourth national ICH list in 2014, and in 2022 was included—as part of 'Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China'—on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Centered on Fuzhou as its growing region, the scenting process can be explored in the city's jasmine fields and tea-culture venues.