In this article, I want to talk about the differences between single-origin teas and blended teas, their pros and cons.

Single-origin teas

These teas come from a certain tea estate or garden. Because the growing methods and terroir differ from estate to estate, you are getting teas with diverse flavours. Even the same type of tea will taste different from one farmer to another.

They are easily identifiable by the label, which either contains a grade (e.g. FTGFOP) or the estate of origin and the month of harvest (e.g. Maokong Tea Garden, May 2021).

The only potential disadvantage of single-origin teas is that you may have loved the tea you bought from last year’s batch, but the tea from this year’s batch may not taste so good and you would get disappointed.

Blended teas

These teas combine from different regions or countries. Various teas can be used to make a tea blend. How many? Only the blenders know. The purpose of the blending is to produce a constant favour all the time so that no matter whether you have your tea in London or Rome it tastes the same.

English Breakfast Tea is the most famous tea blend. It’s made by usually combining teas from India, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Russian Caravan normally combines Keemun tea, Lapsang Souchong and roasted oolong.

The problem with blended teas is that the individual teas that are mixed are not premium quality. And an exquisite palate will ‘discover’ that at the first smell or sip. Most of these blends are sold in teabags.

Teas are blended using one of two methods: commercial blending and signature blending. The key aim of commercial blending is to make teas that taste the same no matter the time or location. Signature blending involves adding to the mixture of teas ingredients such as dried fruits, spices, petals, etc. We tend to call signature blends flavoured teas because of the added flavours, but there are many flavoured teas that use a single-origin tea as their base.

To conclude, single-origin teas offer you a myriad of flavours and aromas, whereas blended teas give you a consistent taste at all times.