Jasmine Tea substitute

Substitutes for Jasmine Tea with ratios

1. 2Plain green tea (sencha, gunpowder or any Chinese green)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount brewed at 80 C or 175 F for 2 minutes

   The same base leaf without the scenting.

   What changes

   Gunpowder green is the closest in character because it is a rolled Chinese green, which is what most jasmine tea is made from.

   Best for

   any recipe where jasmine tea is a background flavour, iced tea, tea-steamed rice or fish, milk tea

   You keep the pale golden-green colour, the gentle astringency and the vegetal freshness, and lose the perfume entirely, so a jasmine milk tea made with plain green reads clean and slightly grassy rather than floral. If that matters, a single drop of orange blossom water or a few dried rose petals adds a floral shadow back. Boiling water is the enemy here.

2. 3Light oolong, especially a floral Tieguanyin

   Different taste

   Use the same amount brewed at 90 C or 195 F

   Partly oxidised tea with a natural orchid-like aroma, which is the closest thing to jasmine perfume you will find in an unscented leaf.

   What changes

   Best for

   milk tea and boba, custards, ice creams and panna cotta, iced tea, hot drinking

   Fuller-bodied and honeyed with a genuine floral lift, so a dessert made with it tastes more rounded and less bright than the same dessert made with jasmine tea. It stands up to milk and sugar better than green tea does, which makes it the better pick for boba, and it is much harder to make bitter.

3. 4Orange blossom water or rose water (floral note only)

   Different taste

   Use 2 to 3 drops for every cup of liquid, stirred in off the heat

   Distilled floral waters, used where jasmine's aroma is the point and the tea base is not, such as in syrups, rice puddings, whipped cream and glazes.

   What changes

   Best for

   jasmine rice pudding and mochi, sugar syrups, glazes and frostings, sorbets and granitas, cocktails

   Both are more intense than jasmine and easier to overdo. Orange blossom is the closer of the two, sweet and slightly citrus-floral; rose water tilts toward Turkish delight and reads distinctly Middle Eastern rather than Chinese. Add drop by drop, tasting, and always off the heat, since heat drives the aroma off. There is no tea character at all, so a drink made with only floral water tastes like scented water.

4. 5White tea (silver needle or bai mu dan)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount using a generous spoonful, at 85 C or 185 F

   Barely processed leaf and bud, naturally soft, sweet and faintly floral, and the base of some premium jasmine teas.

   What changes

   Best for

   delicate desserts and jellies, hot drinking, light iced tea

   Gentler and hay-sweet rather than perfumed, and so light that milk, sugar or a strong syrup will erase it completely. Use it where jasmine tea was a subtle presence in something pale and delicate, and use noticeably more leaf than you expect, because white tea is bulky and mild.

5. 6Fresh jasmine flowers (only if you are certain of the plant)

   Close match

   Use 6 to 8 blossoms for every cup, added at the end

   True jasmine, Jasminum sambac or Jasminum officinale, briefly steeped in already-brewed tea.

   What changes

   Best for

   a fresh, intensely fragrant version, syrups and cold brew

   Wonderful when it works, but two warnings. Only use flowers you can positively identify as true jasmine and that have not been sprayed, because several unrelated garden plants are commonly called jasmine and some of them, including star jasmine and Carolina jessamine, are not food. If you are not sure, buy dried jasmine blossom instead.