Tea leaves in mead

[Thundernick]

How do you guys think tea leaves would turn out in mead? Would the mead take in the flavors and the leaves would just fall to the bottom? I'm thinking of trying blueberry bliss from teavana inside of a gallon of mead.

Thanks,

Thundernick

 

[Arpolis]

I use tea in mead & wine all the time. It adds tannins/body and yes some flavor. I have a Bochet that had 10 tea bags per gallon of Raspberry zinger red tea "dry hopped" in the primary. It turned out well and did good to balance out the overly sweet bochet. Other recipes have just used like 1 TBS of black tea or Earl Grey just for the tannins.

I think a traditional mead with your blueberry bliss tea would be great.

 

[Bluespark]

I have a chai cider that had the tea bags in primary for 5 days, and the tea tannin bite is really prominent. Not unpleasant, if you like black tea, but I think I like brewing, straining and adding the tea without the leaves better.

I have a metheglin/melomel that I'm dubbing "lullaby" that's lavender honey, Passion flowers, orange zest and tevana's "peach tranquility" tea, it was racked onto the tea and Passion flowers in secondary for three days, then racked off. It's only a few weeks old, but it smells and tastes divine.

 

[Thundernick]

My girlfriend and I typically prefer our mead sweet, so I'm thinking about adding it when I back sweeten and let it sit for a few days. Would that work out fine you think?

Compared to in the primary fermentor.

 

[adamdillabo]

I was thinking of doing a sleepy time tea in my next mead

 

[saramc]

My girlfriend and I typically prefer our mead sweet, so I'm thinking about adding it when I back sweeten and let it sit for a few days. Would that work out fine you think?

Compared to in the primary fermentor.

Absolutely! Adding to secondary will help maintain the essence of the tea. I did the same thing with their pineapple tea and it was nirvana! I remember I did a 4:1 ratio when I brewed the tea and incorporated my tropical blossom honey to help backsweeten. This was for a gallon batch I stole to experiment with.

 

[EndlessPurple]

I have a batch going where I added cherries and teavana's darjeeling both to the primary once initial fermentation died down.

I brewed about a cup of tea and added the water and leaves to the 3 gal batch. Racked off the leaves about 5 days later. Could have left the leaves a little longer but did not want t orisk having the leaves add bitterness.

Just tasted a sample a couple days ago, and was really good. The tea was not strong but I think it added a little more depth to the flavor overall. I was ready to pour a full glass and not just a taste even though it is only 3 months old.