Before I launch into how to become a Blend Meister in your own right, I want to say congratulations to the entire team and fellow bloggers here on T-Ching for scoring Best Blog and being nominated for Best Social Media Reach at The World Tea Expo! You have dazzled the world by capturing the hearts and imagination of tea sippers everywhere. I’m deeply humbled to sit in your company, contributing my little bit from the tea fields in Kyushu.
As shincha season has come and gone, we are now in the dog days of summer… the trickiest time for tea in Japan. Tricky because the intense moisture in the air zaps all freshness from the precious steamed leaves if they aren’t stored and handled correctly.
We get heaps of tea at the café given to us from farmers bestowing their latest and greatest. And when a tea farmer comes up offering their prized leaves, we simply have to steep a pot. This results in a bit of a stockpile as you can imagine!
We also receive quite a range in quality: amazing tea is not easy to make if the quality is not there, and the more samples we try from around Japan, the more aware of this we become.
The truth is, there’s a fair bit of ordinary stuff out there.
So when the leaves are a bit past their sell-by date, have been moisturized, or just aren’t that fabulous in the first place, what to do?!
Enter the Holly (or insert your name) Blend!
In a nutshell, I “spike” inferior leaves with a stronger, fresher batch.
My preferred source of magic comes from either a fresh Gyokuro or a Kabusecha. Ratio-wise I’m talking about 70% old/flat-tasting to 30% fresh. When using Gyokuro, the blend ratio might be as little as 10% to 90% dodgy leaves. Using Gyokuro presents a slight issue because of the water temperature and longer steeping time. Simply adjust by lowering the temperature to about 70ºC – not all the way to 55ºC (131ºF) and steep it for about 90 to 120 seconds or until you see enough of the leaves open up.
On a side note, reading the leaves is something most folks simply don’t do with Japanese tea. It’s much easier with a fabulous full red-crested high mountain oolong from Taiwan! Japanese leaves are tiny in comparison and sometimes resemble mush so it’s hard to know when the steeping is complete. Keep reading and the better you will become!
The reason home blending is such a secret is because we often feel the Master producer knows best and it’s not our place to interfere with what the “experts” say. So we tend to take their word at face value. But why shouldn’t we have an opinion and a play?!
Blending your own Japanese tea leaves can open a whole new world of flavors. I rarely do this with exquisite, artisan tea because in such cases the farmer is essentially already doing it for us. But for older or slightly ordinary leaves, you can start to explore a myriad of different sensations.
Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t always go to plan! I’ve had some instances when the blend goes south, turning flat-tasting tea into an outright bubbling Hogwarts brew! But when you hit the jackpot you’ll have both the benefits of a unique, interesting, maybe even delicious beverage plus the warm glow of satisfaction at your own handy work!
N.B. this technique is not for old Matcha! If your ceremonial Matcha has been open for longer than a month, rather than trying to fix it with fresh Matcha, simply start adding it to smoothies!
Thank you for your kind words. We are honored to have been chosen.
I am a big believer that it’s shameful to waste food of any kind. I certainly understand what you mean about tea loosing its peak after a period of time. I too have used some older teas to add to my newer teas. I use a much larger ratio of new tea to old tea however. I would never think of blending my especially precious teas, as you mentioned, but add it to my “everyday” teas. I have been surprised by the blends that have evolved. It’s a crap shoot for me as I haven’t gotten the sense of proportions and I’m always surprised when a delicious tea is created. Interesting that matcha is the exception to the rule but I love the suggestion of putting it into a morning smoothie. I’m going to do that right now. I’ve had a tin in the refrigerator and the thought of just throwing it away has been to painful – hence it continues to reside in my refrigerator.