The Craft
Custom tea blends – The Night Before Mail Date (caffeinated), Mailed Packages Early (no caffeine)
Inspiration
Nothing says comfy and homey to like a fresh brewed pot of tea.
Instructions
I started with a search for custom tea blends. I found lots of companies that sell their own blends as well as bulk ingredient kits to mix your own. I also read a few blogs about making your own tea, like this one:
https://jamiegeller.com/holidays/diy-tea-make-your-own-blends/
I also searched options flavors for tea. You can go straight herbal (with no actual tea leaves in it) or a mix of tea with dried fruit, whole or ground spices, ground nuts, dried flowers and leaves. The options are endless.
I opted to find a local shop for ingredients. I found a fun local shop that has all of the ingredients in jars lining the wall. You can smell anything before buying.
I picked out a green tea base and a white tea base and some flavorings. However, you don’t have use specialty ingredients. You can use freeze dried fruit and spices you can get at Target!
I had planned to make my own tea bags from coffee filters thanks to this Pinterest-popular post from A Beautiful Mess.
https://abeautifulmess.com/2011/09/loose-leaf-tea-make-your-own-tea-bags.html
But after chatting with the ladies at the tea shop I learned that coffee filters don’t allow enough water flow for loose leaf or larger ingredients. It is only useful for ground tea – like in commercially available tea bags. So I decided to go with these- because of the size and the loose strings that I could attach my own labels.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0784BTT1Z
The store advised me on how much to put in each bag – depending on the ingredients but here is a helpful chart.
Next up a created logos for my project – a fake tea company and the two blends. I used a silhouette file I already owned that is actually hinges as a base for the string labels – but it would be very easy to create if I didn’t already have a file that worked .
https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-artist/19547/79720
I attached my SVG file of the labels below.
I filled the bags, tied the strings and attached the tags. Since loose leaf tea stays fresher when sealed, I put the bags in clear plastic bakery bags.
Lessons Learned and Highlights
That I shouldn’t be intimidated by creating tea blends – it’s easy and forgiving.
I loved this project and I will doing more blends in the future. I have lots of tea bags left over (oh and you can also just use a tea ball)
Cost of Materials: $16-$50
Time Per Item: 15-30 minutes
Craft Difficulty: Easy
