Citizen Tea Jiaogulan Tea Review

It has been so long since I did a tea review.  Life has been hectic that  bagged Red Rose has become my norm instead of my usual calming ritual of making tea.  So today I am sharing a new to me tea that I received as a sample with my last Citizen Tea order.  Jiaogulan is one of Citizen Tea’s wellness teas and is $12 for 50g.  I should have weighed the ball to see how many cups that would make but a but late for that now.

Citizen Tea Jiaogulan (pronounced jow-goo-lan) is a Chinese herb known as Immortality Tea.   It is believed to have a number of health benefits.  From improving digestion, helping with weight loss, improving sleep and decreasing cholesterol, people in regions where it grows even have lower occurrences of cancer and other serious diseases.

Each ball can be resteeped a number of times, but honestly, the subsequent cups were not as great.  When I resteep oolongs, I usually add some fresh tea into the resteep, but that wasn’t possible with my sample.  It might work well if you can add a little fresh Jiaogulan when resteeping.  According to their reviews, you can cut the ball without damaging the leaf or compromising the flavour.

Citizen Tea Jiaogulan Steeping Instructions and Times

It says to use a teaspoon of Citizen Tea Jiaogulan per cup of boiling water.  It is hard to work out what a teaspoon of it would be so I steeped the whole ball in a 16oz mug.  As mentioned, you can cut the ball to get the right amount.  Jiaogulan has a longer steeping time, they recommend 6-8 minutes.  The ball starts to release air bubbles and unfurl when steeping.

Citizen Tea Jiogulan after one minute of steeping with bubbles starting to pop out of the ball of tea~

After 3 minutes steeping, the cup of Citizen Tea Jiogulan starts to get some colour~

Full steep time of 6 minutes and the ball of Citizen Tea Jiogulan has unfurled but the cup still needs stirring

Citizen Tea Jiaogulan Tea Review

Similar to green tea, Citizen Tea Jiaogulan has a slightly vegetal taste but not grassy like many green teas.  It is also much sweeter.  Partly due to the glucose sugar that binds the ball but the herb has a natural sweetness too.  It is a nice cuppa, even if you do not enjoy regular green teas.  It is especially nice for a wellness tea which sometimes don’t have the best flavour.

Given the size of the tea ball and how it unfurls, it is better to infuse this with lots of space.  I wouldn’t use a tea bag or small infuser.  A tea pot would probably be best straining it as you pour into a cup.  It brews to a bright green tinged yellow and tasted good after a 6 minute steep time.  I only had the sample so can’t speak to any benefits, but it tastes good and doesn’t have anything bad in it unless you count the small amount of glucose sugar.