Ginseng Tea

Note Profile

Prepared

About

Ginseng tea is the brewed root, not the leaf. Earthy leads, the way it does in plain ginseng, with a bitter forest-soil depth under it. Brewing thins the root and adds a dried-leaf tannin on top. No source describes the smell of the finished cup, so this vector is the root profile with a preparation modifier that is inferred.

Scent Profile

Earthy leads because every odour-specific source leads there, and it is set below the published ginseng root at 0.75 for one reason: this is a water infusion of that root, diluted. Premiere Peau's 'musty forest-soil depth' is the exact character. Tobacco_hay is the brewed dried-plant tannin, the facet that every published tea note carries, and it is scored well below black-tea at 0.60 because ginseng tea is brewed from root and stem, not from Camellia leaf. It is the single least supported number here and its spread to record that. Dry_woody is Premiere Peau's 'pepper-woody warmth (from sesquiterpenes)' and it tracks the published ginseng, cut slightly for dilution. Green comes from the Frontiers panel, which found ginseng products characterised by 'sweet, fruity, and green notes'. Sweet_vanillic is the 'faintly sweet' both Premiere Peau and Paper & Tea report, and it matches the published ginseng value exactly because both sources are describing the same faint sweetness. Aromatic_herbal is Premiere Peau calling ginseng 'an earthy-herbal heart-note modifier'; the published ginseng note scores it at zero, so this is a disagreement with a sibling and not a derived value. Below: fresh_spice for the 'less pungent than fresh ginger' comparison, fruity from the Frontiers panel, and sour for the bitter finish.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeHeart · ~6h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

A hot water infusion. The Frontiers in Nutrition study states which organ is used: 'Ginseng roots and stems are utilized for brewing ginseng tea, while ginseng roots and leaves are commonly used in soups.' That settles the referent as root and stem, so the odour case starts from root ginseng. Premiere Peau's glossary describes that root as 'Earthy, slightly bitter, faintly sweet, with a musty forest-soil depth... A distant pepper-woody warmth (from sesquiterpenes) sits underneath.' Paper & Tea describes the brew itself but only by taste: 'slightly sweet at first, followed by a pleasantly bitter finish.'

Usage in Perfumery

Measured 2026-08-30: 2 Parfumo placements across 2 brands, and none on Fragrantica. Use it for a quiet, medicinal, East Asian tea accord where plain ginseng would sit too heavy and too rooty. It pairs with green tea, iris, camphor and vetiver, which is the company Premiere Peau puts plain ginseng in. Caeleste Principalities is the one fragrance found that reads this way, and it lists Ginseng and Black Tea as two separate notes rather than one.