Loose Leaf Tea Blends
All our loose tea blends are created by Henrietta Lovell, Rare Tea founder and one of the most celebrated tea blenders of our age. For decades, she has been blending loose leaf teas and herbal infusions to create bespoke blends for many of the world's most admired chefs, restaurants, and hotels. From Noma and Claridges to your kitchen table.
These are the teas she blended for you.
What are good tea blends?
It's Henrietta's belief that the world’s best loose leaf tea blends are created to be better than the sum of their parts - to make something unique and extraordinary and, above all else, delicious.
What we don't believe in here at Rare Tea Company are blends with flavourless flowers added to merely make them pretty or to disguise added flavourings. Or using pieces of dried fruit sprayed with flavourings, and often fructose too, to make teas that taste like sweets.
Rare Tea blends only combine the highest quality loose leaf teas, herbs, spices, flowers (with their own unique flavours) and essential oils (bergamot in Earl Grey tea) to create something amazing.
Henrietta's unique blends are sought out by the globe's tastemakers from chefs, bartenders, perfumiers, fashion designers and athletes. Instead of pursuing bland uniformity, her ambition is to create exquisite tea blends that make your heart truly sing.
The best tea blends are always loose leaf and free from tea bags which add extra unwanted 'baggy' flavour to your tea blend - along with bleaches, glues and nanoplastics.
Types of tea blends
Teas, herbs, spices and flowers can be blended in infinite combinations to create different types of tea blends.
Not just in the UK, but the world's most widely enjoyed blended tea, English Breakfast, is usually a blend of black teas. But we don't stop there. Henrietta created our revolutionary 21st Century Breakfast by blending loose leaf green tea to pair with a modern-day breakfast.
As well as pure tea blends, you can blend teas and other ingredients together to create something with another flavour dimension, such as Chocolate Tea which is enhanced with cacao nibs or Masala Chai with rich spices like cinnamon and cardamon.
Pure herbal blends like Himalayan Ginger & Lemongrass are a good choice of tea blend if you are looking to avoid caffeine. Our Pick-Me-Up tea is a blend of organically grown herbs designed to give you a little lift without the caffeine.
If you enjoy experimenting, all our loose leaf teas are at your disposal to blend with at home, from Pu'er to Jasmine Silver Tips or Wild Rooibos. You might try a pinch of lapsang souchong leaf in your English Breakfast tea or a hint of mint in your mug of chamomile tea.
What is the most popular blend of tea?
One of the best-known tea blends is Earl Grey. Our Rare Earl Grey is a blend of hand-crafted black tea and pure bergamot oil from the ancient citrus groves of Calabria. Not all Earl Grey teas are created equal though. The vast majority of Earl Grey tea blends contain artificial flavourings. Many contain citrus skins to bulk up the weight, or blue cornflowers, which might look nice but don't add any flavour. You'll find no such additives here.
One of our most popular caffeine-free tea blends is Lemon Blend. A delicious combination of sweet and vibrant lemongrass from Sri Lanka and herbaceous lemon verbena from Malawi. This herbal tea is not only delicious as a cup of hot tea but also makes a wonderfully refreshing iced tea.
Relaxing tea blends
There are a number of tea blends that can help you relax and unwind. Often, the best tea to help you relax is the one that brings you the most comfort, whether that be a fragrant Vanilla Tea (scented with real vanilla pods) or a gentle, floral White Petal Tea.
Our favourite relaxing tea blend is Soothe-Me tea. A pure herbal blend of whole Croatian chamomile flowers, Indian tulsi and Malawi spearmint. This blend was designed to help you relax before bedtime or soothe you during moments of stress with a sip of delicious solace. Soothe-Me is also naturally caffeine-free which makes it a good choice for pre-bed relaxation.
What teas should you not mix?
There are no rules to tea blending - trust us, we've even blended oolong teas - a controversial move. Please feel free to experiment to your heart's content. We wouldn't recommend blending Emperor's Golden Eyebrow - an extremely rare and valuable tea that is pretty perfect as it is. But if you really want to - no one is going to stop you.
