#puretea

Traditional tea drinkers or “purists” or “tea snobs” are often very dedicated to pure, unflavored or unscented teas. They generally adhere more to much older methods of brewing, mainly gongfu brewing. And almost always have very strong opinions about flavored or blended teas. To these tea drinkers, flavored teas are inferior and believe that no tea company who’s selection is made of 50% or more of flavored teas should be calling themselves a high quality tea company.

Now as a tea snob myself, I would have to agree with many of these opinions. In truth flavored teas do not have the same kind of class, history or traditions as pure teas do. In truth depending on the seller, a lot of flavored teas are not high quality, and because they are going to be misted with flavoring and mixed with dried ingredients they really don’t have to be high quality. In truth I do believe that any companies tea menu should be made up of at least 40%-50% pure, traditional teas. And in truth I do believe that gongfu brewing if better then western brewing methods.

But as someone who has worked in a western tea shop, and has interacted with the type of person who drinks flavored teas, I can honestly say that flavored teas are necessary. In Canada and the U.S. in order for a name brand loose tea shop to survive it must carry a good selection of flavored teas. Why? Well for a few reasons actually.

1. Pure teas and traditional brewing methods hold little to no value in this part of the world. Sure there are still tea drinkers here who do love this side of tea, but the majority come from the boring, plain Jane western traditions of a tea bag in a big pot. Traditional brewing methods take time, practice and patience to master, and unfortunately western traditions are all about simple, quick and lazy.

2. For the purist, a well aged gushu puerh may seem like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Slowly brewing and sipping away at the tea. Taking out the time to admire it’s color, aroma and flavor profile. But for the common everyday tea drinker this seems like a lot of work, very time consuming and were raised on convenient tea bags. And these kinds of tea drinkers tend to believe there is nothing you can get from a high quality loose black tea that you can’t get from a crappy Tetley teabag.

3. A purist will take the time out to sip a pure tea and pick out all the flavor notes of the tea. And an experienced taster can taste a nice oolong or puerh tea and find flavors like peaches, woodsy musks, berries, cream ect. But the common everyday tea drinker here generally doesn’t want to take this kind of time out to discover the flavors of a high quality pure tea. They want the flavor up front with zero searching or hassle. And so instead of spending an hour picking out the cherry notes in a nice pure tea, they would rather buy an “okay” quality tea that’s been doused in cherry flavoring. That way they don’t have to search for the cherry flavors, it’s just right up front. And in all honestly a person buying a cherry flavored tea has no interest in the actual flavor of the tea. They just want something that tastes like cherries.

4. Fun flavored teas with catchy names draw customers into tea shops in this part of the world. Be honest for a minute, what sounds more appealing to you at first glance? “First Flush Rohini Darjleeing OP” or “Coconut Cream Parfait White Tea”? We are in a part of the world where fun, exciting, over the top flavors rule. Now that’s not to say that every tea drinker in this part of the world is looking for funky flavored teas, but from my experience the majority are. And not many people are going to look past the teabag and try loose leaf unless you can offer them something you don’t often find available in tea bags.

Here flavored teas are essential for running a successful tea shop. Sure there are exceptions to this but very few and far between. They create interest and attract people who are sparked with curiosity over the flavors. Now sometimes this can lead a new tea drinker to discovering pure loose teas as well. In fact these teas are a great segway to introduce people to the world of pure teas. But most of the time tea drinkers here really don’t care about the deep and colorful history of tea, they just want a hot cup of something tasty and sweet that they can refer to as tea.

Now I’ll be honest, as much of a tea snob as I am I do drink flavored teas too. There are not very many that I like but sometimes one or two catch my attention. I have a small handful in my personal collection. But for me, flavored teas are best suited for times when I’m searching for a specific flavor for a specific occasion. For example it’s Fall and I want a tea that’s rich in fall spices. I also look to flavored to in the summer months for making iced tea. I drink a lot of iced tea in the summer, and it would be a waste to burn through my stash of expensive Ceylon black tea, as opposed to just cold brewing a cheap lemon flavored black tea.