Book Review: Spill The Tea

Spill the Tea is a quick primer on the blended tea business. The book is pocketbook size, 5×8 inches, and, at 110 pages, is a quick and easy read.

Dietz became interested in tea at 15 when he tried it to soothe a sore throat. Soon he was reading avidly, both books and blogs. He created an online identity, Sir William of the Leaf, a name he still uses on Instagram. At 17, he graduated from the three levels offered by the Specialty Tea Institute (STI). An instructor there suggested he pursue a business degree because he needed to understand business if he wanted to make a living at tea. He began networking in the tea world, and after graduation, he was offered a job with DAVIDsTEA as a Tea Blending Apprentice in Montreal, Canada.

Blended tea may contain several kinds and usually contains various herbs, fruits, spices, and flavors (known as inclusions). He uses the terms “blended” and “flavored” interchangeably. Creating a blended tea, for example, by capturing the essence of “strawberry” or “blueberry,” requires the skills of a flavor chemist.

Dietz calls this book “the window to that hidden world” of blended teas. He started out thinking that straight teas were superior to blended teas. But now he feels that “Everyone in the tea industry should be holding hands and working together to grow.” He is a cheerleader for tea.

Two main themes dominate the book. The first is, “There is no bad tea.” He says every tea will find a market, and the more people that drink tea, the more the industry as a whole prospers. The second theme is the importance of networking and communication. Communication among vendors, blenders, and suppliers is key to developing tea blends.

He took flavor classes offered by McCormick FONA, but still, he struggles to define “flavoring.” He observes that companies try to keep their flavoring a secret, like KFC’s secret sauce.

Only small quantities of flavoring are used in tea blends. But the impact can be great. Flavoring makes all food taste better and is often the most expensive element of a blended tea.

Flavoring is mostly chemicals. Artificial and natural chemicals are chemically identical. The first is constructed in a lab, and the second is deconstructed from natural substances. Using artificial ingredients means consistency in flavor and quality.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 4:

“Imagine that you are tasting a tea blend called “Strawberry Delight” and notice the ingredient list has black tea, freeze-dried strawberry, flavor, and pink cornflower petals. This is a simple and typical example that you might find in a tea retailer’s assortment. You look over the ingredients and think, Wow, the addition of the strawberry pieces really brings out that ripe strawberry note, and the flower petals are beautiful!

“Most labels do not disclose the weight percentage of each ingredient, so let me pull back that curtain for you. It might be that 92% of the blend is made up of black tea, only 5% is freeze-dried strawberries, 2% is flavor, and 1% is pink cornflower petals. That does not seem like enough strawberry to bring out such a potent flavor, does it?

“Truth be told, the only components of this blend that you actually taste are the black tea and the flavoring. The black tea absorbs and carries the flavoring that mimics the taste of strawberry, not the strawberries themselves. If this shocks you, you are not alone!

“However, a blender’s first instinct is to add strawberry pieces because it gives the brain a visual cue to recognize the strawberry as the dominant flavor. This is part of the magic, mystery, and wonder of the blended tea world. Every ingredient in the blend has a purpose, just not the one you may think,” writes Dietz.

Producing a blended tea is a complex process. The ingredients come from many sources. For example, “the black tea in the blend might come from India, the apples from Turkey, the flower petals from Albania, and the flavoring from Switzerland. Depending on the labeling laws in the country of sale, the package might say ‘Product of Germany.’ ” So, asking your tea supplier where a blended tea comes from may get you a complicated answer. Because of the varied ingredients in a blended tea, deciding if it is truly organic, fair trade, kosher, or vegan is a challenge.

He encourages companies that wish to market blended teas to use professional tea blenders. They know reputable suppliers, they know how to create a desired blend, they research regional differences in taste preferences, and they understand the regulatory process. They know how to control the costs: of ingredients, shipping, testing, cleaning the materials, keeping inventory, certifications, of packaging.

This book is not a step-by-step instruction manual for creating and marketing a blended tea. It provides an overview of the complicated tea blend industry. It is a quick read, chatty in style. The author indeed “spills the tea” by spreading the news about the mysterious world of blended tea.