Tea Flavors

Flavoured tea is a tea with tea leaves as a base, and added flavour to it, to make the culinary experience more interesting. Flavour in tea can be included in the form of inclusions such as spices, nuts, flowers, or as added flavour extracts such as essential oils of ginger, lemon and spices. Natural flavours in the form of essential oil, oleoresin, extract, distillate etc. are often added to the tea during manufacturing to produce a uniform, aromatic yet natural product. To complement the aroma and enhance the sensory appeal, natural colours are often added as well. So the strawberry tea would be bright pink with sweet notes of strawberry while blueberry would be bluish purple smelling of fresh blueberries. Manufacturers use jasmine flowers along with tea leaves during the drying process. The jasmine scent molecules are adsorbed by the tea leaves and are retained even after removal of jasmine flowers. Modern technique use extracts or oils spraying on tea leaves which gives an equal effect and is better manageable and cost-effective. The resultant tea has a delicate jasmine aroma sought by many.

The flavoured tea can be bulk packaged or sold as tea bags. Tea bags are preferred as the brewing time for most flavoured tea is a minute or two in contrast to traditional black tea that is brewed for a much longer time. The flavour compounds in such teas are volatiles and are lost if the tea is brewed for too long. Technological intervention in the form of tea bags with flavour granules and flakes provides extended flavour release when the tea comes in contact with water and provides a superior product. Most of the flavoured teas are brewed in water and not milk, except for spice/masala tea which needs longer brewing and goes well with milk.