This post may contain affiliate links. Simple Loose Leaf is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com. Want to try something outside of the usual tea shop assortment? Making your own real tea or herbal tea blends has never been easier. Blending is not only easy, but it gives you the opportunity to experiment with flavors and create those you enjoy the most.
The benefits of blending your own tea
With only 1-2 different pure teas and herbs, flowers and spices you can create numerous blends and enjoy different tea each day. Changing only one or two ingredients can change a tea from calming to invigorating. Blending is good for enhancing the flavor of tea you don’t necessarily enjoy, but would like to drink because of the health benefits. You can find most of the ingredients for blending in health food stores or even grow your own herbs, collect flowers or dry fruit. This way you can reduce the risk of drinking tea with sweeteners or artificial flavors sometimes hidden in blends.
The Basics of Blending
Every blend uses one ingredient as a base. This is usually a pure real teas or dried herbs that connect all flavors together. Fresh flavors of mint, spearmint, lemongrass and tangy and sour lemon, hibiscus and strawberries are great for summer teas, while spices make perfect warming winter teas. Black and rooibos teas blend well with sweet ingredients, and green tea with sour, fruity and fresh ingredients.
10 DIY Recipes for Your Own Tea Blends
We prepared 10 DIY recipes to make your own tea blend. You can use these recipes as guidelines and a starting point for blending. The amount of leaves used in recipes is enough for 2-3 infusions, depending on the recipe. Our recipes include the most common herbs, fruit and spices, for very easy blending. Every herb, fruit and spice is different, so it's important to adjust the amounts to best suit your taste. Intensity of ingredients will depend on the type, quality, storing conditions, etc. We suggest blending small amounts and trying them first.
1. Rose Breakfast Blend
Breakfast blends are usually a mix of stronger and lighter teas in the ratio that gives a recognizable breakfast tea flavor. The most common teas in breakfast blends come from India and Sri Lanka, although teas from other countries are now used as well. For the traditional Breakfast Blend, use Darjeeling and Assam tea. This tea is perfect with milk.
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons of Darjeeling tea (Namring Estate Darjeeling)
- 3 teaspoons of Assam tea (Organic Assam)
- ½ - 1 teaspoon of rose buds
Extra tip: Add guarana powder for an extra caffeine boost.
2. Tropical Pu’erh
If you want to drink pu'erh because of the benefits but don't quite enjoy the pure flavor, you can easily create your own blend with the flavor that you like the most. Our recommendation is coconut pu'erh because it blends well with the earthly flavor of ripe pu'erh. Adjust the ratio to suit your taste. You can exclude candied fruit and add coconut only.
Ingredients:
- 2 spoons of Pu’erh tea
- 1 teaspoon of candied pineapple
- 1 teaspoon of candied mango
- 1 teaspoon of shredded coconut
Fast blending: Blend pu’erh tea with your favorite fruit tea.
3. White Spice tea
Light flavor of white tea blends well with tangy and spicy notes. Peppercorns are a great choice for adding a spicy note and dried strawberries give a tangy and sweet layer to light and delicate flavor of Bai Mu Dan. This tea contains caffeine.
Ingredients:
- 2 spoons of Pai Mu Tan
- ½ teaspoon of peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon of dried strawberries
- A pinch of safflower
Extra tip: Do not use flavors and herbs with a strong taste for blending with white tea.
4. Apple Pie Herbal tea
Sunday dessert in a liquified form? Yes, please. Apple Pie herbal blend has rooibos as a base because of its natural sweet flavor. Besides, this dessert should be suitable for children as well, so we wanted to leave out teas with caffeine. It’s easy to blend and makes a cup of tea with a delightful sweet and lightly tangy taste.
Ingredients:
- 2 spoons of Rooibos tea
- 1-2 teaspoon of dried apple
- 1 inch of cinnamon stick
- ½ inch of vanilla pod
Extra tip: Add white chocolate drops for a creamier and sweeter tea.
5. Minty Sencha
This minty blend is great both hot and cold, but for the ultimate summer refreshment use cold brewing technique to make an iced tea. For an extra kick add some dried spearmint leaves.
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon dried lemongrass
- 1 teaspoon of dried mint
- 2 spoons of Chinese Sencha Green
Extra tip: Add fresh cucumber to the jug or teapot when cold-brewing. Chinese sencha is better choice for blending than Japanese sencha.
6. Chamomile Herbal
If you are looking for a calming tea without a caffeine that you can drink in the evening, chamomile is the best herb to use. All the herbs in this blend offer calming and soothing properties, especially for the stomach problems. This blend is best hot.
Ingredients:
- 2 spoons of dried chamomile
- ½ teaspoon of dried licorice root
- 1 teaspoon of dried ginger root
Extra tip: For a more potent sleepy time tea replace ginger with valerian root.
7. Refreshing Hibiscus
Crimson color and refreshing tangy and fresh taste make this herbal blend one of the best summer drinks you can blend yourself. It’s great both hot and cold.
Ingredients:
- 2 spoons dried hibiscus
- 1 teaspoon of mint leaves
- 1 teaspoon of lemongrass
Extra tip: This tea is great both hot and cold.
8. Upgraded Earl Grey
Earl Grey, the classical blend beloved by many tea drinkers, you can easily upgrade by adding a pinch of lavender flowers or rose petals. Be careful not to use too much flowers as they will ruin the taste. Both lavender and rose petals have a dominant scent and flavor and should be used in small amounts to add just an extra layer to your blend.
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons of regular Earl Grey tea (or feel free to use one of the nontraditional blends and enhance them with more ingredients)
- A pinch of Lavender or rose petals
Extra tip: Add safflower for an extra note.
9. Homemade Chai
The beauty of chai tea is that you can customize your recipe until you get the flavor you truly enjoy. Chai is always made with a black tea base, preferably with stronger Assam tea, milk and a blend of different spices. Crush the spices in a mortar and blend with black tea.
Ingredients:
- 3-5 spoons of Assam black tea
- 1 teaspoon of dried ginger
- ½ teaspoon of peppercorns
- 2 inches of cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon of cardamom
- 1 teaspoon of cloves
Extra tip: Add star anise, nutmeg, cocoa shells or vanilla to your blend. Adjust the ratio of spices to black tea leaves to create lighter or stronger taste.
10. Herbal Chocolate
Liquid chocolate in the healthiest way will satisfy your chocolate needs, especially during rainy cool days. Use boiling water to brew Herbal Chocolate tea to melt the chocolate drops.
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon of chocolate drops
- 2 spoons of pure Rooibos tea
- ½ - 1 inch of vanilla pod
- ½ teaspoons of cocoa shells
Extra tip: Turn this blend to an After Eight tea by adding a pinch of dried mint leaves. Replace rooibos with Yunnan Black tea if you want a stronger flavor and tea with caffeine. Make it in a latte style for extra creaminess.
Additional tea blending ideas
Want to try flavors? Try simple blends with only two ingredients, such as:
- chamomile and white tea
- chamomile and green tea
- linden flowers and green tea
- rose petals and black tea
- rose petals and oolong tea
- osmanthus and white tea
- osmanthus and green tea
- lemongrass and green tea
- lemongrass and white tea
- lavender and black tea
- lavender and white tea
- licorice and black tea
- carob and rooibos tea
- cinnamon and rooibos tea
- cardamom and black tea
- mint and green tea
- tulsi and green tea
- tulsi and black tea
