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Blending black tea (making your own blended black tea)

Most of the black teas sold on the market today are blended. Some are blended with leaves grown in the same area, but at different picking times. While other blends are combinations of the same growing area but different fields. Most of the teas sold on the market are from completely different areas and picked at different times. Of course the balance of tea and the taste is very important. When blending tea adding different types of tea can make me taste milder. If you try to make your own blended black tea, it's better to know each characteristic of your tea. (How to blend black tea on your own) 1. Prepare more than 3 kinds of tea leaves. 2. Prepare tasting cups (a kind of cups connoisseur use for tasting tea). 3. Put 3 to 5g each type of leaf in each cup and pour hot water into the cups. 4. Cover the cups and wait for a moment. 5. Filter the tea and pour into different tasting cup. 6. Check the taste and smell to determine the characteristics of each tea. 7. Using a spoon, take the same amount of tea from each cup and pour into one cup and mix. 8. Taste the blended tea carefully. 9. Add some tea as is needed, and take note of how much tea you added from each cup. 10. Once you are satisfied with the taste, check the amount of tea you poured, and using the same ratio, blend the tea leaves. 11. Make tea using freshly blended tea leaves, and check the taste. 12. If you need an adjustment, redo the procedure from #7. There are many kinds of already blended tea, as well as canned tea and PET bottled tea blends are available in stores. Blended tea does not necccesarily refer to black tea blends . Sometimes blended tea can be mixtures of Sencha, Oolong tea, Ph-er tea, or even herbs, flowers or spices.

(Rumi Kanemaru)