The art of making tea

It is now possible to create a bespoke blend to perfectly suit your taste buds, writes Lebohang Mosia

AMONG tea drinkers, it is telling that until recently there has been little interest in creating bespoke tea.

“Customising your own tea sounds easy enough, but there is a lot of science that goes into creating a tea blend,” says Cecillia Jonkers, a tea sommelier and sales manager of Yswara Tea Room.

“In order to create a bespoke tea, you need to have knowledge and understanding of tea classification and herbal teas, their individual steeping times and what flavours and additives (fruit, flowers, nuts etc) will blend well with each tea classification, as some flavours and additives work and some don’t.”

The signature blends at Yswara are exclusively created by founder Swaady Martin, and include African ingredients such as rooibos, honeybush, buchu, kola nut, wild yam and Penja pepper.

The concept of creating your own high-end tea is simple: choose a base and one or more flavours to blend your own unique tea. Top it off with a personalised name and brag to your family and friends about your gourmet style, or, better yet – gift it.

According to Jonkers, ratios play a very big part in creating a tea blend – how much of what is added. This is often based on trial and error.

Mingwei Tsai, tea sommelier at Nigiro Tea, says that when tea is mixed with the correct energy, the correct temperature, the appropriate infusion time and the right state of mind, all of its wonders and glories are unlocked.

“When choosing your tea base, avoid choosing too many tea types in one blend. You will lose the flavour of these exquisite teas if you don’t take into account the potency of each variant,” Tsai said.

Keep the tea base to three types, maximum.

Next comes the fun part; choosing your ingredients.

Decide on the type of flavour you want in your tea. Do you want it to be earthy, floral, fruity, herbaceous, spicy, tart or sweet? There are so many flavours to choose from. Almond, blackcurrant, cinnamon, peach, raspberry, honey, chocolate, vanilla