Need Help with Custom Flavored Teas

[Anonymous]

Since I am more of a purist when it comes to drinking tea, I never ever thought I would ask this, but…

To all of the flavored tea-lovers out there… I need your help!

I would like to create some flavored teas to serve and give away as favors at my tea-themed wedding reception. I would like to get them from Designatea.com as they provide wonderful looking favors and seem to have a nice service (I have already been in contact with them).

Now that I know where to get the tea, I need to figure out what exactly to get… which brings me to my problem.

I would like to create three different blends; one to represent the bride, one to represent the groom, and a wedding blend. The bride blend will be green tea base, the groom blend will be a black tea base, and the wedding blend will be an oolong base (since oolong is between green and black in the oxidation process) and will have one flavor from each of the bride and groom blends (get it? Ha, a wedding blend, a combo of the bride and groom… yeah, I know, it’s adorable).

The whole idea of this was to have a blend that represented the personality of the bride and one that represented the personality of the groom… and taking two qualities (or flavors) and mixing them together for a wedding blend. But, I think it will be hard enough just finding flavors that will go well together let alone match the flavors with our personalities.

Designatea.com offers two flavors per tea as well as a few herbs per tea. It doesn’t have to be two flavors per tea… it just depends on what works with the base tea. Below is a list of flavorings and herbs that they offer.

Do you have any suggestions on some good combinations?

Flavors: Almond, Amaretto, Anise, Apple, Apricot, Banana, Blackberry, Blueberry, Caramel, Cinnamon, Chai, Cherry, Chestnut, Chocolate, Cider, Coconut, Cranberry, Ginger, Hazelnut, Honey, Irish Crème, Lemon, Mango, Maple, Mocha, Nutmeg, Orange, Passion Fruit, Peach, Pear, Pecan, Peppermint, Pina Colada, Pineapple, Plum, Pomegranate, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Rum, Spice, Strawberry, Vanilla, Wintergreen, Zabaglione

Herbs: Black Pepper, Chamomile, Cinnamon, Dandelion Leaf/Root, Echinacea, Eucalyptus Leaf, Ginger, Ginkgo, Ginseng Powder, Hibiscus, Jamacian Dogwood Bark, Jasmine Flowers, Juniper Berries, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena, Licorice Root, Lycii Berries, Peppermint, Raspberry Leaf, Rose Petals, Rose Hips, Spearmint, Stevia, Valerian, Yerba Mate

[Xavier]

What are your personalities?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, liberteas. I was planning on ordering them during the beginning of august (wedding is in september), but I was thinking more of freshness than curing. I may order them eariler than this now.

I have narrowed down a few combinations based on what I think will go well with each other. Again with the whole purist thing… I have never even attempted to make a blend before so don’t laugh too much at my pre-lim ideas.

Green base:
Raspberry, spearmint
Raspberry, apricot, spearmint
Raspberry, mango, spearmint

Black base:
Peach, vanilla, lemongrass
Strawberry, vanilla, lemongrass
Peach, vanilla, ginger

Oolong base: (pulling one flavor from each of the above)
Raspberry, ginger
Raspberry, lemongrass
Raspberry, vanilla
Peach, spearmint

For the green tea, I really wanted to have the herb spearmint in there and tried to find other flavors that would go with it. The significance with spearmint is that it is my favorite herb. For the black base I wanted to include vanilla as a nod to the fiance who is always drinking vanilla flavored soft drinks.

I am really interested in what you guys think. I thought about posting this on Steepster instead of on Tea Trade because the majority of people on Steepster practically make O-faces when anyone mentions flavored teas. However, I am looking for more sophisticated opinions… hence the post on here.

[Xavier]

I think it goes down to trying and tasting them to see if they are good and if you like them.

[Anonymous]

Custom flavored teas?

I remember a time when the Chinese were putting green dye into tea to make green tea for my fellow Brits. They ended up poisoning a rather large amount of people.

You should be careful with the additives, it might be dangerous. What ever happened to the good ol’ cuppa. After all that work I did…

[Author]

Posts