to a tea

November 2, 2022 2:35 PM

What are some traditional teas that feature other plant ingredients or flavors added to actual Camellia sinensis leaves?

I can think of jasmine tea, masala chai, and Earl Grey. What are some others? And is there a collective name for this type of tea blend?

(By "traditional" I only mean it should be a known thing in some culture, not just an interesting blend that some random company happens to make. And please note that I am not asking about straight-up tisanes.)

posted by dusty potato to Food & Drink (28 answers total)

Moroccan green tea with mint?
posted by box at 2:37 PM on November 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

I have had rose tea, it is tasty, it has rose petals in it. I assume this is a known thing since there are tea roses.
posted by aniola at 2:40 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Lapsang souchong is a smoked tea.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 2:47 PM on November 2, 2022 [8 favorites]

Genmaicha - green tea with roasted brown rice
posted by typetive at 2:51 PM on November 2, 2022 [15 favorites]

Oh, I forgot, I often drink Cardamom Tea, a black tea with cardamom in it. I get it at an Armenian grocer, but I think it's rather common across the middle east/India.
posted by typetive at 2:53 PM on November 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

I don't know if there a collective name for all of them, but jasmine tea in particular is what's called a "scented" tea: the tea is mixed with flowers or herbs during processing so the tea can absorb the flavors, but then the non-tea plants are removed before selling and don't get brewed. Traditional varieties other than jasmine include rose, osmanthus, orange blossom, and plum blossom - I've had lychee scented tea as well. You can also get pu ehr tea that's scented with Nuo Mi Xiang, which produces a flavor like sweet sticky rice.
posted by darchildre at 3:17 PM on November 2, 2022 [7 favorites]

Genmaicha has Korean equivalent known as hyeonmi-nokcha.

Persian tea can be flavored like chai, but I've seen variations that had saffron (!)

And for a very different kind of mix-in, there are blends for milk tea where milk powder is included in the tea mix, so that you don't have to add creamer or milk.

Does fermentation count as adding a flavor? Because that means a whole class of Chinese teas, with pu'erh being the most famous.
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:19 PM on November 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Earl Grey is flavored with bergamot. Just noticed that you already mentioned it.
posted by jkent at 3:23 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Thai iced tea
Lady Grey (contains orange/lemon peel in addition to bergamot)
Prince of Wales tea
posted by music for skeletons at 3:24 PM on November 2, 2022

One more I just remembered: ganpu tea, which is pu ehr tea that's stuffed into the skin of a mandarin orange, which is then allowed to dry and brewed along with the tea.
posted by darchildre at 3:27 PM on November 2, 2022 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Does fermentation count as adding a flavor?

Not for the purposes of this question :) Just realized the syntax of my question was a little ambiguous though -- please read as "teas that feature (other plant [ingredients or flavors])". Thanks for all the suggestions so far, folks, some cool stuff!
posted by dusty potato at 3:32 PM on November 2, 2022

I have a black tea I get from Upton Teas that has lemon peel in it. It's not "lemony" lemon flavored, but it does has a definite lemon taste. Sort of like if Earl Gray had lemon and not bergamot.

Upton carries a number of flavored black teas (I'm not a green tea drinker so I don't have anything to recommend there).
posted by ralan at 3:37 PM on November 2, 2022

Russian Tea Recipe was a winter staple growing up, not sure if it would reach the threshold.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:48 PM on November 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Magnolia Oolong is a thing. There's a Melange Russe which is basically a lighter Earl Grey (less bergamot). Rose Congou.
posted by shadygrove at 4:05 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Constant Comment tea with spices. Chai with cardamon, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and clove, honey, and cream.
posted by Oyéah at 4:45 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Butter tea?

Sort of a sidebar to your question: Kukicha, a.k.a. twig tea, is a Japanese blend made of stems, stalks, and twigs of Camellia sinensis. So, it is made from the tea plant, but not made from the tea leaves (though some blends do include some leaves.)
posted by gudrun at 5:17 PM on November 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

The tradituibak version with rose petals is called Rose Pouchong, Twinings used to sell it but don't appear to any more, but several other places do. There is also Lapsang Souchong, which is black tea flavoured by smoking over burning wood (pine, I think).
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:35 PM on November 2, 2022

Sakura (cherry blossoms) can be brewed by themselves but are also sometimes added to sencha for a springtime tea.
posted by A Blue Moon at 6:22 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Palestinians often drink black tea with sage instead of (or in addition to) mint.
posted by goingonit at 6:53 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Kukicha is a Japanese blend made from the twigs, stems, and and stalks of Camellia sinensis. It is nutty and slightly sweet.
posted by bruschetta_cat at 6:55 PM on November 2, 2022

Murchie's has a chestnut black tea with small shaved pieces of chestnuts and a roasted-chestnut flavor. Their coconut cream also has pieces of coconut in it.

It's not really plant-based, so this may not fit, but milk oolong is steamed over milk to give it a creamy flavor with a sort of fruit note to it (the Republic of Tea version smells like pineapple and cream, which sounds weird but is really wonderful).
posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:06 PM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

There isn't actually any milk involved in producing Taiwanese milk oolong. It's delicious, though!
posted by esker at 5:47 AM on November 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Kashmiri Noon Chai is usually a base of green and/or black tea plus baking soda, salt, cardamom and milk. The baking soda gives it a distinctive pink colour, so you can often see it called Kashmiri Pink Tea.
posted by guessthis at 6:17 AM on November 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Black tea with vanilla is very popular in Mauritius
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:24 AM on November 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

You get 八宝茶 (Eight Treasures tea) in Ningxia, China which is normally, tea leaves, red dates, longan, wolfberries, Russian olives, walnuts, sesame and rock sugar. I think there are other variations as well in different regions. (The wolfberries (AKA goji berries) are a specialty of Ningxia.)
posted by scorbet at 6:51 AM on November 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

And is there a collective name for this type of tea blend?

Wiki suggests Flavoured and scented teas for these, and gives some examples.
posted by scorbet at 7:08 AM on November 3, 2022

The Republic of Tea brand has several flavored black teas including my favorite, Ginger Peach.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:28 AM on November 3, 2022

It's a mineral, but Tibetan Butter Tea is also often salted.
posted by spinifex23 at 5:22 PM on November 3, 2022