Flavoured Teas

Published:January 8th, 2011

Some teas are flavoured while others are considered scented. Scented teas have just absorbed the fragrance of the addition, while flavoured teas actually taste of the addition. Any tea can be flavoured but the most popular candidates are black and green teas. Such tea blends can be flavoured with natural dried fruits, spices or even artificial flavours.

Flavoured teas were first introduced in China where fruit trees such as apricot, peach or plum trees were planted near tea bushes to provide shelter for the leaves. In time, the tea took on the flavour of the nearby fruit tree. Later flavouring the tea leaves became a part of the tea production process and the most common flavours were chrysanthemums, roses, bitter orange, jasmine and cinnamon.

Jasmine is the most famous tea additive. The first scented tea is thought to be jasmine tea, which was created centuries ago in China by infusing tea leaves with jasmine blossoms at night. It was thought that jasmine naturally releases its fragrance at night. Jasmine is usually added to green tea, from the freshest unopened jasmine blooms which are paired with fine spring first flush green tea.

Tea flavoured with vanilla is quite popular. Black tea with vanilla flavouring is obtained by adding vanilla blossoms fresh or dried. Tea flavoured with orange peels or orange blossoms has a lovely flavour.

One of the most famous flavoured teas is Earl Grey. Earl Grey is flavoured with bergamot oil. Bergamot does not grow in China, this citrus plant comes from Italy. Probably someone who wanted to flavour tea with bitter orange used bergamot instead and the replacement became a huge success. It is thought that this tea was created by Earl Charles Grey, who was a British diplomat.

Traditions for flavouring tea are different throughout the world. India, which is one of the largest tea producers in the world, is known for the distinct muscatel flavour of the Darjeeling teas. Cardamom, dried ginger, cloves or cinnamon are the most common flavours in India.

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