Flavoring Tea

Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:14 pm

Hello fellow Tea Heads,

I enjoy drinking artisan, non-flavored tea as well. But I am trying to flavor some teas with "natural flavors". (I know there are also herb/flower blending methods, and real flower scenting like jasmine, I don't have a problem with that). I've tried to do this for a really long time, and the closest I got doesn't taste as good or strong as from other brands. I thought that maybe I wasn't using the right flavors, so I got some strong oils and extracts from a pretty good company. The flavors by themselves smell really good and strong from the bottle, but when I brew the tea the flavor is very weak. I also thought maybe the tea I was using [gunpowder] was too high of a quality because it had a very nice and strong smell by itself, and probably didn't take on the flavor well. So then I tried using stale gunpowder (just to see if it works) that had very little scent, but it also didn't really work out. The flavor is there, I can taste it, but I would never buy it myself, because it's just simply not pronounced enough. Here is what I'm doing currently: I usually spray ~3 tsp dry leaves about 10 times, mix it all around, and store in a tin can for a day. I learned the general guidelines from articles online and also from flavor companies. Is there any step I'm missing or any tricks of the trade? Where can I find more information on this? I've been trying really hard for a long time and I am getting hopeless.

Please help me with this, if you have some thoughts.

I appreciate it! Thank you in advance.
Kai

mbanu · Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:00 pm

Spraying will not work correctly, as you noticed. It is a bit misleading when they say this is how it is done professionally, factories have specially designed spraying machines that allow this method to work.

For doing by hand, you have to use the older method, which is adding the oil to an absorbent material (a popular choice used to be cotton balls) and then layering the tea and the material together, then removing the material after the aroma has been absorbed by the tea, repeating this cycle until the tea has the level of scenting you desire.

Tue Jun 08, 2021 10:05 pm

When I have almost totally emptied a jar of jelly (fruit preserves, jam), I don't scrape the sides of the jar to get every last bit. I steep 2 teabags inside the jar or fill the jar with loose black tea that was just steeped & is still very hot. I know that is not the way you want to go but mention it because nothing has ever topped this.

I have baked Taiwanese black tea of average quality for a few hours with a tray of spiced fruits in the oven. This did add flavor to the tea but not as much as hoped for & much less flavor than the aroma of the tea would leaded me to expect tasting.

If I take a teabag of herbal black currant tea to brew with regular black tea, it is never as good as a top quality black-currant flavored black tea (e.g. Harney & Sons). If I add black currant syrup to black tea, it is not very good either, nothing like fruit preserves added to cheap black tea.

There are so many dynamic tasty teas that need nothing done to them or added to them. Finding them is a pleasure & I suggest you try. Once you know you are walking down the wrong road, get off of it. Cheers