The price of gourmet looseleaf tea is a rip-off. An ounce at the “special tea” (get it? haha) stores is often as high as $5-$10. I made my own for around 50 cents an ounce, with minimal effort. That’s a savings of 90%-95%!
Looseleaf tea is available at most bulk food stores. All you have to do is buy the basic looseleaf tea and add your own ingredients to make them gourmet!
Even better… these teas are all natural. I was surprised to find see how many “artificial flavours” are found in the store-bought gourmet teas.
Oh, and rock sugar? No matter what the salesperson tries to tell you, it’s just sugar. It’s pretty, it’s fun, but it’s just sugar with a marked-up price.
These teas would make a great homemade gift for the holidays. You can package them in some pretty tins like these ones, make some pretty handmade labels, and wrap it up with ribbon!
If you give this recipe a go, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or snap a photo and tag it with #smartnutritionrecipes on Instagram! I’d love to see your creations! Knowing someone has enjoyed one of my recipes always makes my day brighter.
Blueberry Pecan Black Tea
3 oz dried blueberries
2.5 oz pecan pieces, toasted
0.5 oz loose black tea
Apricot Ginger Green Tea with Toasted Coconut
1 oz dried apricot, cut into small pieces
1 oz dried ginger, cut into small pieces
1 oz toasted coconut
1/2 oz loose green tea
Cranberry Orange (caffeine-free)
1 oz dried cranberries
1 oz candied orange peels
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Ella says
What a great cost savings idea.
Jessica Penner says
Thanks! Enjoy your tea! š
Keira says
Love this. Can’t wait to try this out.
Jessica Penner says
Enjoy!
cheri says
How did you roast your pecans, did you use sugar on them or just toast them
Jessica Penner, RD says
Just toasted!
Jordan Keen says
How long do you steep each of these recipes for?
Jessica Penner says
I find length of tea steeping is a personal choice so I didn’t include times. I like to steep mine for a long time, somewhere around 5-10 minutes!
Arlinda says
Thanks Jessica Iām going to try some of these because they sound as good as the specialty tea stores. Where do you buy your dried fruits?
Jessica Penner says
Either at Costco or Bulk Barn!
Stacy says
How do you make the Cranberry Orange (caffeine-free) one? The recipe cut off after 1 oz dried cranberries and 1 oz candied orange peels . Thanks!
Jessica Penner says
that’s the whole recipe!
maria says
Hello!!! I was looking for tea ideas and came across this web site. I recently started drinking teas and its a wonderful idea to make my own. just one question do you buy the fruits already dried or can I dried them in dehydrator?? Thanks for you answer
Jessica Penner says
I buy them already dehydrated but I’m sure it would work just as well with home-dried fruit!
Amanda says
Think I’m going to try a twist on your cranberry orange and make it cranberry cutie using either cuties or halos. So much easier to get my daughter to eat the little ones.
Jessica Penner says
Neat!
Karen says
Thank you for this post! I have recently started drinking tea (gave up coffee) and have tried tons of flavors. The problem is that I am noticing headaches after drinking a lot of the ‘all-natural’ teas I’ve been buying and am fairly certain it’s related to that vague description of ingredients. I am excited to try making my own. Thank you!
Maija says
Thank you so much!
I just happened to stumble across this post.
I wasn’t searching and it came up on my
Pinterest home page. Serendipitous, I’d say!
My Son has become addicted to David’s Tea.
I’ve wondered if it was possible to make my
own flavour blends. I’m so excited to try now!
Jessica Penner says
What good timing! Feel free to experiment with different dried fruit, spices, flavourings, etc. Try to recreate your son’s favourite tea!
Janine says
Love this idea! I didn’t even realize you could buy bulk green tea. (Sounds pretty obvious now that I type it :S). I’m adding this to my list of things to try for sure!
Jessica Penner says
I didn’t know either until I decided to try to make my own funky blends!
Veronica says
Maybe for flavoured teas it makes sense to bash suppliers on high prices, but man, when you get a good green pearl tea or puerh, the prices make sense. I’ve also found that the rock sugar I used to get didnt make my tea sweet, it just took away the bitterness. I really hate the mouth puckering sweet flavour of refined sugar. But yeah, even if you’re using sonething like demarrara or your neighbors honey, it’s all sugar…
Jessica Penner says
Yes, the high prices are more of a response to the blends that are easy to replicate at home! You can only find puerh and such at a specialty place and those teas will cost more for the way they’re grown, the limited amount that can be grown, and some of the labour involved! I had the pleasure of touring a tea farm when I was in Malaysia and was fortunate to see first hand what goes into some of the tea production!
cheryl says
nice! gonna try this – keep posting whatever recipes you come up with!
Jessica Penner says
Thanks Cheryl. I’ll keep posting if you keep commenting š