A blend is a mix of tea leaves combined with herbs, flowers, spices, and/or fruits. We have a lot of blends in our range, but the possibilities with blends are endless. A fun (summer) activity is to create your own tea blend or herbal mix that contains all your favorite flavors. With this blog, we’re here to help you get started.

Determine the purpose

First, you need to determine your purpose. What kind of blend do you want to create? What do you want to achieve with your blend?

• A new, surprising taste.
• Recreating a blend that you’ve tried before but can’t find or is no longer sold. This is not so easy because many store-bought blends contain flavors. However, you can try to approximate the taste as closely as possible.
• A blend with certain health benefits, such as better sleep, immune system, digestion, slimming…
• Your own theme blend: breakfast blend, Christmas blend, summer blend, iced tea blend…
• A blend inspired by hints in a certain tea. For example, if you taste undercurrents of a certain flower in a tea, it will likely combine well with that tea. Many people, for instance, detect hints of rose petals in black tea.
• Lack inspiration? Start with teas that you personally enjoy. Taste many blends and see which ingredients they contain. This way, you can create blends that combine all your favorite ingredients.

Decide your base

Once you know what kind of blend you want to make, you can determine your base. White tea, black tea, pu-erh, but also green tea are delightful to combine into a blend. However, it’s best not to use teas that are too strong, such as Lapsang Souchong or Earl Grey, as strong flavors can dominate quickly.

It’s important to always take tea, infusions, and herbs of good quality. If your ingredients are of low quality, you cannot expect the resulting blend to be of high quality either.

• Tea: Gunpowder, Mao Feng, Pai Mu Tan, Ceylon Pettiagalla, Pu-Erh Yunnan, Assam Mokalbari, English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Honey Black, Bancha, Silver Needle…
• Herbs: honeybush, ginger, hibiscus, rosehip, mint, lemongrass, chamomile, nettle…
• Fruit: Orange Dream, Apple Spice, Rose Hip Symphony, Turkish Orchard...

Complementary flavors

After your base or main ingredient, choose your complementary ingredients. These accentuate the base tea and give the blend a more complex flavor. Good complementary ingredients create delicious undertones and enhance each other’s flavors. Sometimes the right combination of flavors leads to an entirely new taste, with the original ingredients almost unrecognizable.

It’s important to think carefully about your complementary ingredients. You should choose ingredients with similar flavors. You can combine different types of tea or mix herbs with other herbs. Or combine different kinds such as real tea with flowers or herbs. A variety of flavors will create a more complex, unique blend. Too many different types or very diverse flavors, on the other hand, can potentially lead to an incoherent and less tasty whole.

• Tea: Gunpowder, Mao Feng, Pai Mu Tan, Ceylon Pekoe UVA Highlands, Pu-Erh Yunnan, Assam Mokalbari, English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Honey Black, Bancha, Silver Needle …
• Flowers: rose petals, lavender, marigold, chamomile, elderflower, clitoria ternatea, mallow flower …
• Herbs: mint, lemongrass, linden, honeybush, nettle, fennel, linden, dandelion, hibiscus, rosehip, sage, senna, valerian, verbena, licorice, yerba mate (note: does contain caffeine), rosemary, lemon balm, Greek mountain tea, rooibos, eucalyptus…
• Fruit: Orange Dream, Apple Spice …

Possible methods

There are three ways to make blends, which we’ve listed below. Choose the method that best suits your (blend’s) needs.

1. Put all ingredients together and brew the tea. There’s no room for error. Once blended, it’s not possible to separate the ingredients if you’re not a fan of the blend.
2. First brew tea from the first ingredient (e.g., pu-erh tea) and then use this tea to infuse the second ingredient (e.g., rose petals). This method also means that the ingredients cannot be separated if you don’t like the blend. Another issue is temperature. If you first brew pu-erh tea at 95°C and then the rose petals, the tea won’t be as hot, while rose petals need a temperature of 100°C. This method is also harder to apply if your blend consists of many ingredients.
3. Brew tea from all separate ingredients and then combine them. This way, you can taste each tea separately and decide which ingredients and what proportions will work best in the blend you want to make. Adjustments to your blend are quick and easy to make with this method. Tip: brew each individual tea a bit stronger (use more leaves) than you would normally, so the flavors come through well in the blend. This method is a bit harder to apply if your blend consists of many ingredients.

Getting started

The lists above with possible base and complementary ingredients are only meant as inspiration. They can serve as a starting point, but don’t let them limit you. Try anything you think might be delicious in your blend. You can keep it simple and opt for a blend with just two ingredients, or you can go for complex flavors by combining many ingredients. The options are endless.

Choose one of the three methods we’ve mentioned above and use small amounts for testing.

Also, consider what proportions you will use. Do you go for 50/50, 75/25, 25/25/50…? You can do a series with different proportions until you find the ideal ones.

There are no rules, make surprising combinations, and experiment, and who knows what unique, delicious results you’ll get.

Once you’ve found a good blend of ingredients and the right proportions, you can make the blend in larger quantities to keep.

Also, be sure to try your blend cold. It might be delicious as a cold brew!

Some tips

• Use our handy tasting set for experimenting.
• Take notes so you can recreate your blend.
• It’s also fun to do with children, but only use caffeine-free ingredients for them.
• You don’t have to buy new ingredients; you can start with teas and herbs from your own collection.
• Trust your instincts.
• Use our tea box with tins to neatly store your homemade blends.
• Be patient, it takes time to create a tasty blend. It’s not certain that the first few tests/experiments will be successful right away. Adjust ingredients and/or proportions and try again.
• Have fun!

These are our tips for creating your own tea blends. Now it’s up to you. Let us know in the comments below what your favorite blend is and which ingredients you’ve used!