Flavored Tea Blending

I enjoy cooking and baking, I think because of the myriad of flavors that can come together to make something sensational and look extremely appetizing. But also because of the process that you must go through to create something from scratch. It can turn out horribly wrong or can be something great that you can take pride in. When I think of tea, I'd love to go through the process of making my own tea from plucking the leaf to roasting, but that dream is nowhere close to becoming a reality!

So aside from quitting my job and moving to Taiwan (my favorite tea growing country) to beg a tea master to train me, I have for a while thought about creating my own flavored tea blends. Blending or flavoring tea with fruits, flowers and herbs is not uncommon and has a long history. In China, chrysanthemum flowers and rose buds are typically blended with tea, mint is a common blending ingredient (first introduced in the 18th century, Moroccan mint green tea is one popular example), and Earl Grey tea (black tea scented or flavored with bergamot oil) is an example popular in Britain. Now, in 2011 you see a multitude of blended/flavored teas! Teas blended with fruits, flowers, spices, and other ingredients are readily available on the market. With all these options, I think it attracts more people to drinking tea.

However, getting back to my original statements about cooking and baking, I have started to think of blending my own flavored teas...the process of experimenting with different flavors and trying out different ratios to find the perfect balance is half the fun; then drinking the tea that I just blended - satisfying. But, don't get me wrong (to those purists), to me, no tea is more beautiful and satisfying than a wonderfully fragrant and naturally sweet oolong that is not blended with other ingredients - I just happen to think blending teas could be fun.

So, onto some guidelines that I have come across and will be following if you, like I, are interested in blending your own flavored teas:

1. Many commercially made flavored teas use flavored oils to provide enough of the flavor and the bits of fruit and other components are usually there for aesthetic reasons. So, you may have to add more of your tea blend per cup or a greater ratio of ingredients to tea to get more flavor.
2. Steep time is important. Often pure tea is steeped on average 3 mins, but some ingredients need a longer time to steep and release their flavors. A second steep may yield more flavor from your added ingredients.
3. Using a strong tea will over-power the other flavors
4. If making a batch (especially for gift-giving), consider the size and weight of the added ingredients. Over time, heavier ingredients can settle to the bottom of a bag resulting in a non-uniform tea blend. When, you scoop some out, you might not get the right proportion of ingredients as you did in your tasting/testing.


More to come on my experiments...and if anyone would like to share their experience, please do!