Tea blending and additives

The most prominent type of tea blending is commercial tea blending, which is used to ensure consistency of a batch on a mass scale so that any variations between different batches and seasons of tea production do not affect the final product.

Another common practice is to scent tea leaves or blend tea leaves with herbs, fruits or spices, either for health purposes or to add interesting and more complex aromas and flavor notes.

[citation needed] Teas blended with other additives were developed in ancient China.

As far back as the Jin dynasty (266–420), ground up tea leaves were boiled with scallions, ginger, and orange peels as reported in the Guangya dictionary (c. 3rd century CE).

This is particularly true for tea blends with pronounced fruit or flower aromas, which cannot be achieved with the original ingredients.

Twinings Lady Grey tea which is a flavored tea blend containing bergamot oil , citrus peels and flowers
Chinese Jasmine tea , a popular scented tea in East Asia . The tea leaves are scented with jasmine flowers. Traditionally, the flowers are not included in the final blend, which retains the scent in the leaves.
Black tea sorted by characteristic and quality in a sample tray at a Sri Lankan tea factory. Various whole dried leaves, partial leaves, and tea dusts are used in combination to produce different types of blended teas
A Flowering tea , green tea with jasmine flowers.
Chinese osmanthus black tea
Vietnamese lotus green tea
Brewed and unbrewed genmaicha