TeaTea Blends - The Art of Mixing Tea Varieties
Tea blends are basically mixtures of different kinds of teas. There are two main reasons why people blend tea. One is to produce unique flavors and aromas. The second is to maintain the same distinct flavor and aroma regardless of the changes brought about by the various seasons.
The first reason is easy to grasp, so lets elaborate more on the second. To start with, know that there are good seasons and bad seasons. For example, this year"s summer might provide the right conditions, i.e.,Ҡ right temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, soil acidity, etc. However, there"s no guarantee that next year"s summer will have the same temperature, pressure, and all those mentioned above.
Therefore, this year"s summer might give you a good harvest with high quality taste of tea, while next year"s summer might provide tea with substandard taste. This inconsistency in taste is bad for business. Consumers always want the products to be predictable. When they buy a particular kind of tea, they assume it would have the same distinct taste that they can easily identify.
To make the taste inconsistencies less noticeable, the art of blending teas was invented. When different types of teas are mixed together, the inconsistencies of one variety can be easily hidden by the prevailing taste of the entire blend.
Although it cannot be ascertained as to when the practice of tea blends actually started, experts believe that it dates as far back as the origins of tea consumption itself. That is, thousands of years ago in ancient China, when they were originally used as medicinal herbs. In fact, it very well might have been in mixing them to produce more potent medicines that the art of tea blending was discovered.
Among the common blends of tea are English, Irish, and Scottish breakfast; British Isles; and Russian Caravan. English breakfast, for example, is a combination of Assam, Ceylon, and Kenyan tea varieties.
Some of today"s favorite blends no longer rely solely on mere flowers, herbs, spices, and smoke. There are those that make use of flavorants and perfumes like citrus oil, spice, rum, roasted grain, as well as flowers like jasmine, osmanthus, rose, chrysanthemum, and lotus.