How flavoured tea works: what is actually in Caramel and Chocolate Mint
A flavoured tea sounds like a cheat and sometimes it is. A good one is not. Our Caramel and Chocolate Mint are black tea blends with real things added and a natural flavouring to lift them, and there is no sugar, no syrup and no dairy in either pouch. Here is what is in them and how they are made to taste the way they do.
How flavouring gets into tea
Dried tea leaf absorbs smells and flavours easily, which is the same reason jasmine tea works and the same reason you should not store tea next to the coffee. A flavoured tea is made by tumbling the leaf with a natural flavouring, an extract made from real ingredients, until the leaf carries it. Pieces of the real thing, cocoa nibs, peppermint leaf, orange peel, petals, are then blended in for taste and for the look. That is the whole process. Nothing is sprayed on at the end and nothing is sweetened.
Why it tastes sweet without sugar
Smell does most of the work. A caramel aroma reads as sweet to the brain before the tea touches the tongue, and a smooth black tea base with no bitterness lets that come through. There is no sugar in either tea. If you take sugar normally you may find you want less in these, or none.
Caramel
A smooth black tea with calendula and sunflower petals and a natural caramel flavouring. It is sweet and rounded and it is the base of several of my own blends. Lovely after dinner, and it takes milk very well. The caramel taste comes from the flavouring, not from any caramel or dairy added by us, and the full ingredient list is on the pouch.
Chocolate Mint
My own blend: the caramel black tea base with real cocoa nibs, peppermint leaf and petals. Rich, chocolatey and cooling at the same time. In a pot it is a treat. On the stove with milk and a spoon of honey it is a pudding. It is the tea I give people who say they do not like tea.
How to brew them
Freshly boiled water, one heaped teaspoon per 200ml, three to four minutes. Both take milk and are better for it. For Chocolate Mint, the pan method is worth the ten minutes: simmer the leaf in a splash of water, add milk, a spoon of honey, bring it up once and strain. Drink flavoured teas within a year of opening the pouch, since the added flavour fades before the tea does.