Have you ever considered blending teas on your own? What about mixing favourite flavours to come up with something new and yet familiar to your tastebuds?

We began doing just that in our home when our son began drinking tea. Albeit, he was drinking herbal tea with us at dinner, mostly because we didn’t want him consuming quantities of caffeine before bed, but it made our hot beverages that much tastier and more enjoyable.

And it has carried over in to our black-tea drinking, as well. It’s not that we don’t think the blends that are widely available aren’t tasty. It’s not that we want to make more work for ourselves by blending teas on our own.

It has more to do with depth of flavour, depth of brew, and an innate drive towards creativity – both in and out of the kitchen.

We start with piping hot tea from our electric kettle and the infuser in my tetsubin. We choose flavours that can be found in other foods, mostly fruit and/or desserts. Have you ever considered what a Peach Melba dessert is? It’s layers of vanilla ice cream, peaches, and raspberry (either fruit or sauce). There are varieties of this dessert in different areas of the US, but it’s generally accepted to be a mélange of peaches and raspberries. And so I began mixing our Arctic Raspberry and Peach black teas – both infusions that have marvelous flavour on their own, they blend together beautifully to create a new delight to sip.

What are other teas have we blended? We love cinnamon spice tea, mixed with a red roobiosand a bit of orange spice tea – most of these can be found in both black, green, or herbal varieties. Steep these teas for 5 minutes after introducing boiling water to your teapot, and then remove the infuser to prevent bitterness.

Other flavours that are great together include strawberry, lemon, and blackcurrant. If you enjoy spice teas, consider cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg-flavoured teas to combine. I generally consider a decent blend to be equal amounts of each tea, but in the case of my peach-melba blend, I put a little more Peach than Arctic Raspberry, because as much as I enjoy the Raspberry, it can be a bit overwhelming if I add too much.

Tea is one of those things that if you enjoy, you can expand your sipping options greatly by being a little creative. It doesn’t take much to add another dimension to your teacup, and if you don’t enjoy the blend, feel free to start from scratch and think about new mixtures that might better reflect your tastes.

Happy sipping!

Check out Sue’s blog, A Mother’s Heart!

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