How to Make Your Own Tea Blends at Home in 3 Easy Steps
Blending or brewing your own tea at home involves combining different types of herbs, roots, and leaves, and it can be simple or complicated depending on what you prefer, and the best part about it is that you can customize the recipe according to your taste buds.
While there is a lot about drinking tea that can be relaxing to the soul, the making of it is in itself soothing and medicinal, and in some cases, almost alchemical. While there are a lot of ways to make your own special brews, there are three general steps you can follow:
1. Choose a teabag size.
The teabag size will depend on the size of the cup you intend to use. If you’re planning on drinking tea by yourself, you can opt for a smaller teabag, while serving many people will call for a larger one.
Alternatively, you can also choose to not use a teabag, but instead place them in the container and slowly add hot water to it and sieve the leaves, roots, and flowers out. You can even add them to the water before boiling.
2. Choose your preferred tea base.
An easy guide to brewing your own tea at home goes as follows: base first, then top, and finally florals.
Always choose the base first before adding the top. This will be the primary tea leaf that will provide the main flavor for your drink. As much as possible, avoid using too many tea types – keep them only up to a maximum of two.
The “top” will consist of supporting and catalyst herbs, which are secondary ingredients that either sooth or buffer the effects of the primary tea leaves. They usually make up roughly a third of the blend.
Lastly, the florals (though optional), which are unmistakable ingredients, will add a strong floral punch in any blend of your choosing, though they should only be added by about a pinch.
3. Know which flavors complement and contradict which.
There are three main categories of flavors when it comes to choosing your supporting or catalyst herbs: earthy, spicy, and sweet.
Earthy ingredients, such as catnip leaf, juniper berries, and dandelion, add a lot of depth and mix well with strong teas. They can also make them taste bitter, which sweet and tart flavors can counteract.
Spicy ingredients, such as peppercorn and cinnamon, are an excellent complement to earthy ingredients and mask them well, but to truly calm the strong, earthy flavors, sweet and tart flavors such as licorice root and hibiscus are needed.
You can even add fruity elements, such as lemon and orange peels, to bring out the lemon and orange flavors in your brew.
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