How To: Make Your Own Tea Blends

Here at Shang Tea, we focus specifically on providing the highest quality organic Chinese teas that taste delicious and also respect the traditional tea processing and preparation methods. We do this not only to prepare the best tasting teas, but also to preserve an aspect of traditional Chinese tea culture.

Sometimes you may be looking for a little something extra with your tea, though—perhaps a dash of mint or some bits of fruit. While we do carry some herbal blends, you might be interested in adding something to tea that we do not carry.

Our recommendation is to have some fun and prepare your own blends, rather than trying to find a pre-mixed blend at a store! Not only is it an enjoyable process to make your own blends, but it will also lead to a fresher, tastier tea because you have control over all the ingredients that are added to the tea.

So what are some things you can experiment with? Well, let’s say you want a mint tea. Instead of buying a pre-mixed mint tea, you can go to the store and buy fresh, organic mint leaves or if you are really patient, you can grow some in your backyard. Dehydrate the leaves in your oven by heating it to 90-110 degrees and check the leaves often until they have dried (you don’t want to overheat them). Put the mint leaves in an airtight container and place them in a cool, dark area. When you are ready to make mint tea, add the dry leaves to the Shang Tea of your choice, or just add hot water to the dry mint leaves and enjoy them as an herbal tisane.

Other examples include adding dried fruit peels (such as orange), dried flowers, or anything else that you are interested in trying. You can find plenty of examples online of mixes to try if you are interested, and preparing them yourself will lead to a fresher and more delicious tasting tea!