These are the loose tea leaf flavors for making tea and boba drinks at home, or as a barista at a boba shop.
Note: Some of this information goes over the health benefits of tea, but should not be treated as a ‘cure’ for diseases. The information provided for the health benefits should not be exchanged for doctors and medications for real health concerns.
1. Golden Milk Loose Tea Leaves
This is commonly used blending for Milk Teas and Lattes that has a warm bitter taste. It’s origin is from the 10th century BC of China. Golden Milk tea leaves is said to reduce the risk of heart problems, cancer, and inflammation.
2. Black (Red) Loose Tea Leaves
Black Red Tea is a dark tea that has a stronger flavor than other teas including Green tea. Black Tea tastes malty (bready, grain-like). It is more bitter than other teas. This is the most commonly accepted standard tea used for bubble tea drinks. It is called ‘Red Tea’ in China because of its rich red colors within the leaves. Black tea is said to help reduce the risk of many health problems such as: bad cholesterol, blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and reduce blood sugar levels.
The well known Green tea that everyone knows and loves. Green tea tastes sweet with a dash of bittersweet. Its origin is from China in the eastern part of Asia. Green tea is said to help with weight loss, disease prevention, regulation of blood sugar levels, and help recover energy levels. Green tea leaves, when processed, are unfermented whereas Black tea leaves are fully fermented.
4. Jasmine Green Loose Tea Leaves
Jasmine green tea is green tea with Jasmine flowers that gives green tea a finer taste. This is a light tea. Jasmine leaves themselves are normally made into green tea, but it can be mixed with other tea leaves. The leaves are a bit more in the price range because of the laborious process of picking the material. Because of the finer taste and the fragrance, it makes it worth the effort. Jasmine tea is said to boost brain functions, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and other diseases, promote weight loss and oral health. It may have more benefits than just drinking regular Green Tea because of the added flowers.
Normally made into a very sweet tea, Thai Tea tastes like sweetened black tea. This is primarily used for creating Thai Milk Tea when making boba drinks. It has a very unique color that changes when mixed with condensed milk. The color becomes lighter and appears orange, unlike other teas. Food colorings is used to achieve this in some teas for aesthetics, but there is no food coloring in this one. It is said to help reduce the risk of cancer, promote weight loss, and even expand the arteries to help fight against clotting.
Oolong tea has a unique taste that tastes buttery sweet. It is a tea that can be used in healthier bubble teas that aren’t heavy on sugars to enhance the natural flavors even more. You may not have heard of this tea, but it has benefits such like the more well known tea that you do know. It is loved for its balanced flavor between the dark and light tea leaf flavors. This tea is a traditional tea that originated from China. Oolong tea can promote the health of the heart, bones, teeth, and brain. It is said to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer as well.
7. Butterfly Pea Flower Loose Tea Leaves
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea has a very slight earthy, woody taste, with a very pleasing color when brewed into tea. The color appears as a vibrant rainbow mixture of pinks and purples which makes the drink look very tasty. It is often used for aesthetics when making bubble tea. It is a common drink in the Southeast Asia area including Thailand and Taiwan. It is said to promote radiant butterfly skin and help reduce inflammation. It’s not going to change your skin purple or anything or make you young overnight, but it helps with aging.
8. Assam Black Loose Tea Leaves
Assam Black Tea has a full malty taste (bready, grain-like). This tea is another tea of the black tea leaves family with a rich strong taste. It originated its production in India and spread around the world because of its rich taste. It isn’t preferred in boba teas as much as the black red tea leaves. People enjoy tasting the tea just how it is. You might want to add this to your tea party list of teas. Just like Black tea, it is said to help reduce the risk of many health problems such as: bad cholesterol, blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and reduce blood sugar levels.
9. Osmanthus Oolong Loose Tea Leaves
Osmanthus Oolong Tea has a more smooth mellow taste. Originating from Asia, this is an Oolong tea that has been infused with the Osmanthus flower just like Jasmine Green tea is infused with the Jasmine flower. The fragrance from the tea is wonderful; as most teas have a great scent because of the addition of flowers in the tea. Osmanthus Oolong Tea can promote the health of the heart, bones, teeth, and brain. It is said to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer as well.
10. White Peach Green Loose Tea Leaves
White Peach Green Tea tastes like peach that has been subtly mixed with the natural taste of apple. Since this is a Green tea, it will have the mostly sweet with a dash of bittersweet flavor. Just like Green tea, it is said to help with weight loss, disease prevention, regulation of blood sugar levels, and help recover energy levels. Green tea leaves, when processed, are unfermented whereas Black tea leaves are fully fermented.
How Do You Make Tea With Tea Leaves?
- You will need a tea infuser to steep the tea, and a tea pot to cook the tea leaves.
- Place 1 teaspoon of Tea Leaves per 8 ounces of tea in tea pot.
- Heat up water and pour it into tea pot with tea leaves. Make sure you don’t have the temperature too high (150 to 190 degrees is enough), else the tea may end up very bitter.
- Let Tea Leaves sit in hot water for 1 to 10 minutes (time varies for different teas and one type can still take 1 to 8 minutes).
- Steep the tea using the infuser to insure that no leaves end up in your tea (this can make the tea very bitter overtime if they remain in the water.
- Done. Enjoy.
This is a general step by step to making tea with tea leaves. The process is very simple if you have the right tools. Do Not use reheated tea leaves water to make tea as this can make the tea stale. Do Not ‘squeeze’ or squish the leaves during the steeping process. If you need more flavor for your tea, use more tea leaves before you begin brewing.
Don’t worry, most tea bags will have specific instructions written on the bag for the exact tea you’re brewing.
Also, this whole step by step process can be skipped by just simply using tea bags instead with a Tea Brewing Machine.
Where do Tea Leaves come from?
Most tea leaves come from the tea plant Camellia sinensis, and some from the Camellia assamica. Both of them grow predominantly in the Asian providence of China, Taiwan, and India. The best tea can be found in the mountains there, because the shades help the leaves to grow slowly and remain tender.
Which is better Tea Bags or Tea Leaves?
Tea bags is better for convenience as it will make things less time consuming with less tools needed to brew tea, and less to clean up.
However, Tea Leaves, if done correctly, will yield a better taste because the leaves are more whole than they are in the Tea Bags. So if you have the time and equipment, Tea Leaves are better because they will yield better quality.
If you are making tea for someone important, or going for a great first impression, you might want to go with brewing Tea Leaves for the quality.
How do you properly steep tea?
There is no exact science to steeping tea because of the variety of different tea types, but a few things is crystal clear: you don’t want the temperature of your hot water too hot, and you don’t want to steep your tea leaves for too long.
If the water is too hot, you’ll end up with a tea leaf stew instead of brewed tea. Steep it too long, and you will end up extracting more than just the desired flavors. This is ok though if you wouldn’t mind sharing your breakfast early in the morning with a cow in the grasslands.
To find the right tea flavor, you’ll have to test it with the general instructions provided above to find out what is right for you. Some people like their tea more bitter than others, and others like to reuse the same tea leaves to draw out that bitterness and additional underlining flavors.
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