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Floral

Orchid, jasmine, lilac, osmanthus. The floral notes in tea are aroma rather than taste, and in most cases they come from the leaf itself rather than from anything added to it.

Sensed as
aroma
Compounds
linalool, geraniol, nerol, phenethyl alcohol
Rises with
a hot short first infusion, a warmed vessel, fresh leaf
Falls with
long steeps, later infusions, age and poor storage

What it is

An aroma, reaching you two ways: through the nose when you smell the dry leaf or the wet leaf, and up the back of the throat while you drink. That second route is where most of it lands, which is why a tea can smell mild in the cup and bloom once you swallow.

Where it comes from

Terpenoids, chiefly linalool, geraniol and nerol, with phenethyl alcohol adding a rose-like note. Much of this is bound up in the fresh leaf as odourless glycosides and released during processing, which is why withering and the bruising steps in oolong production matter so much: they are not incidental handling, they are what liberates the aroma.

Which teas show it

At its most extreme in Phoenix dancong oolongs, which are cultivated and processed specifically for aroma, and in high-mountain Taiwanese oolongs. Present in Darjeeling first flush, in many white teas and in good Chinese greens. Scented teas like jasmine are a different case: there the flower is real and physically present during production, so the aroma is added rather than developed.

How to turn it down

Longer steeps and repeated infusions, which shift the balance toward the heavier compounds. Storage does it too: aromatics fade first, so a floral tea is the kind that most rewards drinking young.

How to turn it up

A hot, short first infusion. Aromatics are volatile and extract early, so the opening steep carries more of them than any later one. Pre-warming the vessel helps, and smelling the empty cup after you drink is where the floral note is often most obvious. A tall narrow cup concentrates it.

What it gets confused with

Fruity, and the boundary is genuinely blurry rather than a failure of attention. Some compounds sit between the two, and osmanthus in particular reads as apricot to many tasters. If you cannot decide, that is often the honest answer, and rating both moderately is more accurate than forcing a choice.

What people get wrong

Assuming a strongly floral tea has been scented or flavoured. Dancong and high-mountain oolongs get there through cultivar and processing alone. The other mistake is chasing floral notes with a long steep, which is exactly backwards: you are diluting the volatile fraction with everything that comes out later.

If this is your problem

teabert, the tealytics teapot, keeper of the kettle
Smell the empty cup once you have finished it. That is where a floral tea says the most.

Sources