Defending straight, unflavored, teas in today’s market comes naturally to me. I hold these unadulterated leaves close to my heart and find them filled with endless variations on what seems to be a growing portfolio themes. Straight teas are the base for all tea products and I hold that a working knowledge of these is very helpful when judging flavored teas.

That said, let’s take the positive note on flavored teas, talk a little about what makes them so popular and see how we can hone our pallet for them.

There many different ways to flavor teas and all seem to have their place in the market. There is some confusion (even among the most expert flavorists) as to what distinguishes a ‘natural’ flavoring from an ‘artificial’ flavoring. That’s subject that has been in debate ever since I entered the industry 20 years ago and may just never be resolved.

The fact is: flavored teas have been a boon to the specialty tea industry in the USA. 

I can stand on my soapbox all day long and talk about how we ‘should’ discover the many subtle wonders of straight teas, but in the end, flavored teas have driven sales in the specialty tea market here in the US for the past 2 decades or more.

Let’s face it, flavored teas are more accessible, often less costly and often marketed with more panache than most straight teas. They often have quick pallet appeal and ‘easy to identify with’ noses. They attract the attention of the newbie and they often hold that attention for a long time.

In short, they’re usually the easiest teas to get familiar with at the local grocery store. And the rub is this: some of them steep a pretty nice cup.

I’m drinking a magnificent Magnolia Oolong as I write this blog, it’s a scented tea that I really enjoy but the truth is that I’ve been drinking a lot of melon flavored teas these days and I love them too. Especially when I put the flavoring on a great green or white leaf (therein lay one of the keys to great tasting flavored teas the base leaf).

Here are some factors I look for in a flavored tea:

1 - the overall nose of the beverage must be pleasing 

2 - the resulting mouthfeel of the beverage must be lively and clean (very important - if a tea beverage coats my pallet with flavoring oil, it gives me the creeps)

3 -  the underlying leaf notes must be present

4 - the balance between the flavoring and the leaf flavor & aroma must be pleasing and obvious

5 - the ability of the beverage to evoke the essence of the fruit or flower, herb or whatever it is meant to represent must exist and be easily and instantly identifiable. A mango flavored tea should be easily identifiable as mango, pear as pear, ginger as ginger, etc.

If a flavored tea meets these standards I often incorporate it into my day, at least for a while, and if it continues to meet these standards after a week or more, and I think it will satisfy the customers of my client, I say, ‘go for it’.  Sometimes it becomes a regular in my personal tea cabinet (which is out of hand at the moment!).

So, the next time you have the opportunity to taste a flavored tea, please don’t cringe or instantly place the tea into the ‘not acceptable’ category in your mind. Set some standards of your own and taste the tea with an open mind. Recall the great and very naturally flavored teas of China, the Lychee, Peach, Rose, Plum, Ginseng and Ginger teas (flavored with the real fruits and/or flowers) and see how the tea in front of you measures up. You might just discover a new friend and open the door to a world of tea pleasures previously unexplored.        

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