The Art of Blending Tea - Tips from a Master Blender
~ by Jennifer Geronaitis

Tea Blending is the trend of the future. As "baby boomers" become more health conscious and tea continues to make headlines there has become a demand for more tea in flavors to please every pallet.

Companies have been blending teas for years but lately the demand for even more choices has them scrambling to create more winning blends with unforgettable names. And although it seems as though almost every imaginable flavor combination has been created new blends are being developed every day and and the demand is even keeping the extract business hopping.

I'm a new kid on the block and I would love to create a winner. As
a gourmet cook with a sophisticated pallet it seems as though I would have the skills to get started. I even consider myself quite knowledgable about tea which makes one think that blending tea would be a breeze. However, I was wrong. I had read almost every book and publication related to tea I had never come across any information about the hands on, "How To's" regarding blending tea. John Harney was kind enough to share his 30 years of tea blending experience with me and advise others on how to get started in the tea blending business.

Getting Started

John Harney has been blending tea for over 30 years. In 1970 he purchased a tea Company from Stanley Mason tea blender who "taught him the art of fine tea" and inspired him to "sell fresh quality tea at a price that would make it an everyday luxury." He credits Stanley Mason for providing him with the knowledge and tools he needed to become a master blender and passing along recipes which remain big sellers at Harney and Sons Tea today.

Before I began research for this article I had sampled many tea blends. I was always intrigued by the variations among blends and wondered if the differences occurred in the process, the tea or the flavorings. Apparently all three elements play a part in the Art of Blending Tea.

My first experiment involved blended a teaspoon of loose leaf tea with some freeze dried strawberries from my morning “Special K” cereal. The end result was mushy strawberries in tea with no flavor. The beautiful red berries looked great against the dark black tea, but the Tea did not take on the Strawberry flavor I desired. Clearly I was doing something wrong.

Tips From The Trade

John Harney learned of my experement and gave me a few tips to get started. First he said "dried fruit alone adds little to no flavor to a tea blend. The flavor comes from essential oils that are mixed with the tea." Eurika! For some reason when I saw chunks of apricot in apricot tea I assumed the flavor came from the apricots I could see not the flavorings I could not. Secondly, John said "You need to start off with good tea and good quality natural essential oils. Good flavorings can cost up to $85 a pint, but its worth it. Good Quality natural oils hold their flavor for the life of the tea". And three, "never use flavorings to mask the flavor of bad tea." The goal is to create a fragrant cup that has flavor but also allows the true taste of quality tea to shine through."

Once I understood the basic principles of blending tea I was eager to find out more. I wondered how one would blend the tea to maintain consistency in the batches and to obtain the desired flavor. This infromation was difficult to find during my research. Some companies had "corporate policies" that would not allow them to dibulge any invformation. Once again, John Harney was open and candid and taught me everything I cared to know.

The Process of Blending Tea

How does one mix the various elements of tea, fruit, and flavoring and once a recipe is created how does one maintain consistency among batches?

John uses a small cement mixer with plastic liners to blend his teas. "The most important thing is to use a different liner for each blend so as not to mix flavors by mistake." The key is adding essential oils in the right amounts. The mixer allows the blends to mix more evenly.

Once the leaves are blended with the oils and allowed to dry a bit the dried fruits and visual elements are added which can be as important to marketing the product as the flavoring itself. John mixes about 25 pounds of tea at a time, however he recommends that a small business with a big idea should try purchasing a few bottles of natural extracts (sold at Gourmet food stores) and blending small amounts of tea and drops of extract until the desired flavor is created.

Working With a Master Blender

In addition to blending his own tea under the Harney and Son Label John also works with Hotels and individuals as a consultant to develop private label blends. "It helps to come to the table with an idea of what you want and John works with you to create a recipe that suits your taste", said John. "The most important thing is to trust his experience which can save time and money" If you go to him with a recipe that he knows will not work, trust he has the experience to back it up.

John's most memorable blending experience was when he worked as a consultant with Donna and Ron Lasko on their "Courtship Tea". Donna came to him with and idea to blend black tea with crystallized Ginger. He admits that at first he "wasn’t sure it would work", however, he was open to the possibility and to his surprise it was an "unexpected winner".

Since then he and his family have marketed many new blends which have been very successful. His personal favorite, however is still Harney's Irish Breakfast because of his affection for Assam and Ceylon Tea.

Jennifer Geronaitis is the owner of Tea Time World Wide, a web based tea and gift business located at www.tealiving.com and a free-lance writer. She can be contacted at:
Tea Time World Wide P.O. Box 97 Hanson, MA 02341.
Phone: 781-447-1832
E-mail info@teatimeworldwide

John Harney is founder of Harney and Sons Fine Teas. He can be reached at 1-800-TEA-TIME