Freeze Dried Osmanthus Flower Tea

Unsulfured freeze-dried osmanthus from Guilin

These flowers are Bao Xin Gui (苞芯桂), a variety of golden osmanthus from Yangshuo, Guilin in Guangxi province. They're freeze-dried — frozen within hours of picking, then the ice is drawn out under vacuum at low temperature. The flowers keep their colour, shape, and around 95% of their original fragrance.

Most dried osmanthus on the market is hot-air dried, which usually requires sulfur fumigation to keep the flowers from blackening. Ours is not sulfured, with no added flavours, colours, or preservatives — single-ingredient flowers, nothing else. Strictly speaking, osmanthus is a flower, not a tea leaf. What you're brewing is a tisane — a herbal infusion. It's caffeine-free, light, and naturally sweet.

How to use it

As a tea (Western brewing): Use about 0.7g (roughly 1.5 teaspoons) of flowers per 250ml cup with 85°C water. Steep for 3 minutes. You can get two good infusions from the same flowers.

To add to another tea: Add a small pinch (0.2–0.3g) to your usual leaves when brewing white tea, oolong, black tea, or pu-erh. The osmanthus lifts the floral notes without overpowering the base. It pairs especially well with oolong and aged pu-erh.

For cooking and desserts: Freeze-dried osmanthus is roughly twice as concentrated as conventional dried osmanthus, so use about one-third to one-half the amount your recipe calls for.

What it tastes like

Brewed, it's gently floral and sweet — apricot and ripe peach notes, sometimes a faint honey edge. The cup is light gold and clean.

If you nibble the dry flowers on their own, you'll notice a faint bitterness. That comes from the same compounds (polyphenols, polysaccharides, saponins) that give the brewed tea its body — they dissolve into the cup as natural sweetness once you steep them. So the brew tastes sweet even though the dry flower has a hint of bitter.

Tea profile

• Taste: Floral / Sweet / Apricot-honey
• Type: Tisane (herbal flower infusion)
• Origin: Yangshuo, Guilin, Guangxi, China
• Variety: Bao Xin Gui (苞芯桂) — a golden osmanthus prized for its plump, bud-like flowers and intense fragrance
• Harvest: Once a year, around early October. Current stock is from the 2025 harvest.
• Processing: Vacuum freeze-drying, unsulfured
• Caffeine: Caffeine-free
• TCM Property: Warm (温性). Traditionally associated with the lung and stomach meridians; long used to loosen phlegm, ease coughs, and warm the stomach against cold discomfort.
• Ingredients: 100% freeze-dried osmanthus flowers
• Net Weight: 20g (also available as a 2.5g sample — the flowers are so light and concentrated that at 0.7g per cup, a sample still makes about three cups)
• Best within: 12 months of harvest

Storage

Store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place away from light and moisture. Refrigeration extends shelf life — just keep it sealed, since the fragrance will travel to other foods. Best within 12 months of harvest.

If you'd rather have osmanthus already blended with green tea, our Osmanthus Green Tea uses the same Guilin osmanthus on a green tea base. Browse more in our flower tea collection.