Blending Tea: A Science & An Art  

Introduction:

We are often asked by our customers exactly what makes a "good tea" taste so good and why are there such variances in the price of tea.  It's interesting that the answers to these questions are so similar to the answers for questions about fine wine.  (There are mass-produced, relatively low quality and low-cost wines, comparatively large production wines that are really quite good for their price and there are "Estate Wines" that are produced in small, or even tiny quantities that have highly sought-after and unusual taste characteristics.)  The same comments can be made about fine teas.  Producing and blending teas is as much an artform as it is a science.  The tea master can be compared to an artist, who carefully blends the raw materials that he has been given to produce his "final product".  We've researched this process extensively as we search for high quality teas to add to our portfolio and found the following information.  We hope that you find it to be as intriguing as we do!

Blending Fine Teas

After all of the stages of the tea manufacturing process are complete, teas are either packaged and sold as "specialty" teas (also referred to as "single source" or “garden" teas), or they are blended with teas from other tea gardens or other tea producing areas or countries. This practice is due to the simple fact that teas from single tea estates or tea plantations can, like fine wines, vary from year to year. Interestingly, a specialty tea can vary in taste and quality due to such uncontrollable annual and seasonal weather variations or even controllable factors, such as the tea production processes. This is to say, for example, a 2010 Broken Orange Pekoe from Diyagama Tea Estate in Sri Lanka may be different than the same grade from the same tea garden that was grown in 2009!

Some tea connoisseurs choose to purchase only single source teas and enjoy these subtle variations from year to year. Other tea drinkers like to know that each time they buy a particular tea for example, Darjeeling Second Flush, Ceylon BOF2 English Breakfast, the tea will have the same flavor each time that they consume it. Conversely, by blending several different teas, tea packaging companies and tea retailers can guarantee the flavor and quality of that particular tea on an ongoing basis. Obviously, the decision of which route to follow when selecting a premium tea is an intensely personal one…

Blending Fine Tea Is Part Science and Part Artform!

There can be virtually no doubt in any intelligent person’s mind that tea blending is truly a work of art. Tea tasters literally sample hundreds of fine teas each day to discover the precise components required for a particular blend of tea for which they are striving. As well, each individual tea blend may contain dozens of different types of teas. Bulk blending (according to a particular recipe) is often completed in massive drums to ensure that the teas are evenly blended prior to them being packed into tea bags, tea packages, or tea caddies.

Phyllis and Greg Sprout began their company, epicureanfoods.com, in July 1993.  They specialize in supplying hard-to-find gourmet foods, fine wines, gift baskets and other non-food gourmet items to discriminating customers across North America.  Their combined 50+ years in the fine food and fine wine businesses uniquely enable them to assess the wide variety of gourmet & specialty foods, fine wines and non-food gourmet items available on the market today.  They offer only those items that they deem to be superior to comparable competitive products and that represent superb value to the consumer.   They also have a thriving wholesale division of their company which services gourmet shops, gift shops and gift basket companies across North America.  They can be reached at phyllisandgreg@epicureanfoods.com.