The Nose Test: How to tell if your tea is truly natural (or just chemically flavored)

In a market saturated with candy-scented teas, knowing how to distinguish a truly natural tea from an industrial product has become an essential skill. Many brands advertise "natural" on the box, but very few deliver on that promise in the cup.

You deserve to know what you're drinking. Here are 4 foolproof clues to avoid the pitfalls and recognize authentic tea, as it's prepared in Sichuan.

1. The Nose Test: "Candy" or "Bouquet"?

Open your sachet and inhale. That's often where everything happens.

• The chemical indicator: An aggressive, very sweet odor, immediately reminiscent of sour candy or air freshener. It almost stings the nose. This is a sign of concentrated synthetic flavorings used to mask a mediocre tea.

• The Spiritus Mundi signature: Our teas have a powerful and intoxicating aroma, but it's a density of fresh flowers . You should feel like you're burying your nose in a bouquet of gardenias or fresh roses, not a packet of sweets.

This potency doesn't come from a spray, but from the phenomenal quantity of flowers used in the infusion process. Experience this sensation with our black tea. Queen of Roses .

2. Deciphering the label: The trap of "Natural Flavoring"

It's the industry's best-kept secret. The label "Natural Flavor" doesn't mean the taste comes from the flower! It often means the flavor was synthesized in a lab from other plants or yeasts.

A true flavored tea, steeped using traditional methods (like our ancestral ones), contains only two things:

1. Tea (Camellia Sinensis).

2. Mention of the flowers used for contact (e.g., Gardenia flowers).

If it says "Flavor" (even natural), it's not haute couture, it's ready-to-wear.

3. The appearance of the sheets: Matte vs. Glossy

Pour a little tea into your hand and observe it under the light.

• The suspect: Leaves that appear "greasy," oily, or artificially shiny. This is often a sign that a flavor fixative has been sprayed on the leaf.

• The authentic one: Matte, dry leaves with bold colors.

At Spiritus Mundi, our leaves of Michelia Mist remain pure: they have only touched fresh flowers, nothing else.

4. The method: Transparency or Silence?

A brand that uses the traditional infusion method ( scenting ) is proud of it. They'll explain the nights of contact, the manual sorting, and the flower ratios. A brand that uses artificial flavorings will remain vague about the "how."

For us, the process is a source of pride. It's a labor of love, carried out by our partner producers in the mountains. (👉 To understand this unique process, read our article: The Art of Impregnation )

Conclusion: Try it at home

The next time you brew a cup of tea, close your eyes. Do you smell the living flower or a sweet imitation? Once you've tasted the truth of natural tea, there's no going back.

Put your senses to the test with our pure collection.

👉 Explore Spiritus Mundi teas