What's in Your Cup? A Guide to Tea Flavorings

Have you noticed a change lately in the way we list ingredients on our labels?  For many years we, and almost all other food manufacturers, have listed flavorings in the ingredient list as natural if they are natural and as “flavorings” if we use a natural/artificial flavoring. We are now listing the flavorings as natural, natural with other natural flavors, or natural and artificial.  

The FDA has specific requirements on how food products need to be labeled, such as the font size for the weight statement, allergen notifications, company information, etc.  For ingredients the requirement is that they be listed in the order of the quantity used in the blend.  At the moment flavorings are required to be listed on the labels but the FDA is not enforcing specific information about the flavors. 

In the United States, the FDA recognizes 3 flavor types: natural, natural and artificial, and artificial. The specific ingredients in the flavorings are not listed on food and beverage labels since these formulas are proprietary secrets of the manufacturers. The formulas though are rigorously tested and analyzed by regulatory agencies to determine their safety at specific concentrations. These agencies have extensive information on file, compiled over decades, that they use to make determinations on the safety of each flavoring produced. Before we purchase a flavoring from a manufacturer they provide us with the carrier used for the flavors (i.e. propylene glycol or ethyl alcohol), and whether they are natural, natural and artificial, or artificial. They give us spec sheets with allergen and nutritional information as well as information on GMO’s, lab analysis and whether the flavorings are vegan.

Flavoring our Chai Black tea in our Mixer (left)

With recent trends moving towards more transparency on the labels of food and beverage products, we decided to break from the norm and list more information on our labels.  You’ll notice that we now show on the front of our tins if the flavoring used in the blend is Natural or Natural/Artificial (we don’t use artificial flavorings in our blends).  We also are reflecting this information in the ingredient statement both on our labels and on our website.

You will notice that we sometimes list Natural flavors as “Natural with Other Natural Flavors” (WONF). Natural flavors means that only the flavor listed is used, i.e. "natural bergamot flavor" means the flavoring is derived solely from bergamot (Citrus bergamia).  WONF flavors, like "natural dragonfruit flavor with other natural flavors", means that there are natural flavors used in combination to create the taste of dragonfruit. 

Flavoring our Dragonfruit Rooibos (right)

We want to stress that we have not changed the flavorings we’re using, we are simply making label updates to provide you with more information.  We have made efforts over the years to try to acquire as many natural flavors as possible. The list of natural options from manufacturers continues to grow, however, there are some flavors, like ones in our dessert teas, that are not possible to purchase in a natural formulation. Since we use flavorings that are applied to dry tea and herbal blends, we require flavorings that are stable and do not mold on the tea. So while a flavoring may exist in juice form, with a water base, they would be detrimental for our application.  

As new natural options appear in the marketplace we extensively test the flavorings we discover to see if they are a close match to what we have been using on our blends.  It’s amazing how different flavors are from different suppliers and with different formulations.  We have been sent many versions of flavors like lemon, orange, cherry and more and they are wildly different from one another.  So simply switching to a natural flavor requires rigorous testing on our part.  

When we receive new flavoring samples we blend up the teas and add the new flavoring. Then we pack up the blends and test at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year to test the staying power of the natural flavoring on the tea and/or herbal blend.  Some natural flavors dissipate quickly and therefore are impractical for us to offer.

What are Artificial Flavors?  On a molecular level, natural and artificial flavors may be identical.  Manufacturers work to create artificial flavors that mimic the compounds found in natural flavorings. For instance there is a chemical compound in vanilla beans, called vanillin, that gives the aroma and taste we associate with vanilla.  Vanillin is molecularly the same whether it is extracted naturally from beans or synthesized in a lab. 

Why would we use a natural/artificial flavoring?  Major reasons are: 1) Cost: Some natural flavors are so wildly expensive that they are prohibitive to use on our blends. 2) Consistency: Some natural flavors could possibly vary from growing season to growing season, whereas a natural/artificial flavor would offer a consistent taste.  3) Availability: Some natural flavors are available in such a short supply that we cannot be guaranteed that the flavors we need will be available on a consistent basis.  4) Natural flavors do not exist for the specific flavor profile we need. 

Another aspect of creating natural flavors does touch on the environmental impact. In some cases, offering a natural/artificial flavor may be more ecologically sound if the demand for the natural flavoring causes the production of resource intensive crops (i.e. vanilla). Also, with such a high global demand for vanilla, if labs were not creating natural/artificial or artificial versions there would not be enough supply.

We are hoping that this transparency of the flavorings we use helps to guide you in your decision making about the types of teas you would like to consume.

We are always available to answer all your questions about the ingredients we use in our blends.  So please reach out if you need anything.