Vietnamese Lotus Flower Green tea is truly spectacular. It's a traditional specialty of Hanoi and can only be made in a very short window of time in the summer when the lotus blossoms bloom. The tea makers have to rise very early in the morning to collect the blossoms in their ideal "half-smile" shape, when the fragrance is most delicate and developed enough to scent the tea inside. These lotuses are the prized 100 petal flower from West Lake.

The green tea inside the flower is specially made from spring harvested ancient Snow Shan tea trees that live naturally in the high mountains without any fertilizer or irrigation. The captivating fragrance of the lotus permeates and infuses the tea inside resulting in a truly special tea experience.

To prepare the tea for drinking, carefully take off the larger petals on the outside and set them aside. At some point you get to the smaller petals, and you can set those aside as well, to use as decoration to enhance your tea enjoyment while you drink this tea. Soon, you’ll get to the tea inside…. set that aside for a moment. Finally you’ll have the yellow stamens with the fluffy pollen on top. You want to try and coax off the pollen and put in with the green tea. You can put some of the stamens in with the tea as well. It’s perfectly ok if this is a little messy and inexact – there are many different ways to enjoy and steep Lotus Tea, this is just one suggestion.

At this point you are ready to steep the tea. You can steep this tea gong fu style, western tea pot style, or even leaves in a bowl. If you use western tea pot style we recommend steeping it in 185-ish degree water for about 2 to 3 minutes, going just a touch heavy on the leaf. Make sure you save the leaves for re-steeping. If you steep this tea gong fu style, 185 degree water is recommended with about a 20 second first steep.

Each order includes a whole lotus blossom plus approximately 8 to 10 grams of tea in each flower.

2023 Harvest, made by Nguyen Viet Hung and Vu Thi Hai Yen

Ingredients: green tea, lotus flower