Why Hand Blending Tea Impacts Taste
At Twist Teas we are passionate about providing the best tasting tea you’ve ever had. So how do we deliver on this promise? The secret to this lies in our unique approach to hand blending our ingredients.
Tea grade quality: whole leaf tea vs tea dust
Tea flavour is derived from the oil contained in the leaves and whole leaves contain the most oil. When tea leaves are picked, they are rolled and dried then sorted according to size. They are graded from whole leaves and buds to fannings and dust particles. Often fannings and tea dust, the lower grades of tea, are selected for use in tea bags by well-known brands. Twist, however, only selects top quality whole leaf tea for our blends and we do this to optimise flavour and health benefits.
Fresh full flavours
Whole leaves lock in more essential oils, flavour and aroma than smaller tea particles that dry out quickly and subsequently lose flavour. Twist whole leaf tea not only tastes amazing, but our skilled blending team also combines flavours and aromas that enhances the Twist tea drinking experience.
Health Benefits of whole leaf tea
Studies show that whole leaf teas have a greater catechin content than smaller tea particles. Smaller tea particles have a lower catechin content than whole leaf, due to ‘greater leaf disruption’. Catechins are a group of antioxidants found most abundantly in green tea that can help reduce inflammation . To extract the most health benefits from green tea it is best to start with top quality, whole leaf tea.
Tea blending technique
The way that the tea leaves are handled during blending will determine taste. Other tea brands recognise the importance of using whole leaf tea, but their production process breaks the leaves, allowing the oil to evaporate, taking with it much of the flavour. Often larger tea companies use quick, cost-efficient methods of production such as machine blending. At Twist we prefer to hand blend our tea in smaller batches. This is undoubtably a slower, more labour-intensive method of blending; however, it is a far gentler process, ensuring less damage to the tea leaves. Not only this, but hand blending allows a greater depth of flavour. No two Twist tea bags will ever taste exactly the same!
Visit the Tasting Room to try some samples, or shop here. Discover more about how hand blending the finest whole leaf ingredients ensures our teas reach our wonderful customers in pristine condition and really delivers on taste by watching the video below.
