Are flavored white teas "junk'?

[tlhfirelion]

I'm new here and to loose leaf tea. Got my first white sampler today and I'm giving it a run.. So far I'm pleased in a reserved, "it's not a big deal but I like it" kind of way. What I wonder though is about the flavored white teas. Are these teas the junk tea since it's flavored or is it good tea with something extra?

Thank you.

[bryan_drinks_tea]

Flavored teas usually use a lower grade of tea.

[Victoria]

Right. Usually all flavored teas are lesser quality tea.
There are wonderful natural flavors in tea. You really don't
need anything added if it's quality leaf. But if you like them, then
enjoy!

[tenuki]

yes, in exactly the same way wine coolers are junk from the perspective of the wine snob.

[entropyembrace]

Usually the above is true...almost all flavoured teas have a very bland base with flavour extracts sprayed on to the leaves. That´s in the more "premium" blends...the really cheap stuff will have synthetic chemicals sprayed on.

But this isn´t always the case...sometimes you can find decent teas used as the base and the tea has been flavoured by scenting...by exposing the tea to things like smoke or whole flowers for an extended time....or by additives being blended in such as flowers, dried fruit, spices, dried herbs ect. These type of flavoured teas can usually be infused more times, have more complex flavours and aromas and have a lot more variety in appearance...they´re also more expensive and harder to find.

I´ve had a flavoured white that falls in this category recently....nice blend of fluffy whole leaf bai mu dan and shou mei with whole dried berries and flower petals blended in. The mingling of the natural peachy fruityness of the good quality white tea with the flavours extracted from dried currants, grapes and roses was really exquisite

[tlhfirelion]

I kinda figured that was the general rule. Thank you for everyone's reply.

[AlexZorach]

I think it's true that tea companies tend to use lower-quality white teas for blending and flavoring to produce flavored white teas. However, it's not true as a general rule that flavored teas are inferior in quality or flavor to pure white teas. Some companies are better at blending than others, and some do a good job of producing flavored white teas.

I also think that there's a difference between blends that involve whole ingredients such as herbs, spices, or dried fruit, or that involve traditional scenting such as with flowers like Jasmine, Rose, or Osmanthus, and teas that just use scenting with an essential oil (or worse, artificial flavoring). I strongly prefer the teas that have been traditionally scented or blended with whole ingredients.

I also want to point out that lower-grade does not necessarily equal lower quality or inferior flavor. Personally, as a general rule, I tend to like silver needle tea less than white peony tea, which I tend to like less than shou mei, my favorite style of white tea. Yet shou mei is the lowest grade of the three, and silver needle the highest.

It's largely a matter of personal taste.

So, if I were advising someone, I'd say that it's good to be a little skeptical of flavored and scented teas, and to do some research into them, but if you can find a company that sells traditionally-scented teas or that uses ones blended with whole ingredients, you're probably going to be in good shape. (And honestly, some people do like tea scented with essential oils or even artificial flavors, I know it sounds sacrilegious to the purists but it's really a matter of personal taste.)

[jaderabbit]

I've had my share of teas scented with "essential oils" and "natural flavors". Teas scented with real flowers, herbs, and fruit are a million times better. Never go for the other crap. Mistake!

[Oni]

Yes, except some jasmine tea, like Jasmine bi luo chun from Teaspring.

[fracol]

Yes, no questions asked.

Well except Jasmine sometimes...

[gingkoseto]

Teas scented with real flowers, herbs, and fruit are a million times better.

This is very true! This method of scenting has at least 700-800 years of history. In the processing of jasmine tea, more jasmine flowers are used than tea, by weight. The flowers are used in severl scenting cycles, each tedious scenting cycle takes 12-24 hours, with heavy labor involved. Then spent flowers are thrown away and new flowers are added. This way of natural, slow scenting has go to be a lot better than fast scenting with concentrated oils, let alone some oils are not so natural.

[Chip]

Teas scented with real flowers, herbs, and fruit are a million times better.

This is very true! This method of scenting has at least 700-800 years of history. In the processing of jasmine tea, more jasmine flowers are used than tea, by weight. The flowers are used in severl scenting cycles, each tedious scenting cycle takes 12-24 hours, with heavy labor involved. Then spent flowers are thrown away and new flowers are added. This way of natural, slow scenting has go to be a lot better than fast scenting with concentrated oils, let alone some oils are not so natural.

You can really tell the difference immediately between natually scented Jasmine teas and those sprayed. The real deal is so nice while the sprayed is quite bleh to disgusting.

[Coppery Cup]

I've had a couple of very good flavored white teas from TeaGschwendner-Strawberry White and White Christmas. They use real strawberries, orange blossoms, almonds, etc. I would buy both again. But, I see they both have "natural flavor" listed as well, which I suspect is the dreaded essential oils. Have just received a couple of unflavored white teas and am anxious to see if there is a significant difference in the quality of the leaves.

Last fall, I had a peach-flavored black tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina that was truly hideous. I assumed that since SC is a major peach-producing state that they would use real peaches in their tea-wrong! The peach flavor was clearly chemically obtained-it tasted EXACTLY like a peach-flavored soda pop I had years ago. Yuck.

[CasualConnoisseur]

You can really tell the difference immediately between natually scented Jasmine teas and those sprayed. The real deal is so nice while the sprayed is quite bleh to disgusting.

I'll second that one. My first shot at jasmine green tea was from an unknown source years ago- I decided I hated it and stayed far away from the stuff until I was given some traditionally scented tea as a gift. Brewed some up, figuring I should be nice and try it, only to find that I didn't hate jasmine tea at all. Turns out I only hate low-grade, sprayed jasmine tea.

[iovetea]

usually most flavored teas are bad. but i really enjoyed twg´s silver moon tea. its a really nice tea in my opinion strong but still round and nice.