Shut your eyes and consider tea, and except you grew up in a tradition the place inexperienced tea is extra fashionable—like in China, Japan, or Korea—you’re most likely picturing one thing that appears just like the picture above. From the US to the UK to Russia to Turkey, black tea is normally the extra fashionable alternative of tea.

Sadly, many of the black tea generally bought within the West isn’t excellent—overly bitter and tannic but curiously bland. No surprise many Individuals deal with tea as a low-octane also-ran to espresso, and it is no shock most of us stir in a great deal of lemon, milk, or honey to make it style like one thing.

That is a disgrace, as a result of nice black tea is lots just like the intersection of two drinks most Westerners love: high quality espresso and good purple wine. Stimulating but lush with hints of ripe fruit, chocolate, nuts, and citrus, mellow and candy however charged with a tongue-tingling efficiency, top-notch black tea is greater than price your consideration.

The trick is getting the proper leaves and brewing them with care. Here is a quick introduction to upping your black tea recreation.

Making the Grade

Irrespective of the place and the way a black tea is grown, it is all processed the identical approach: withering and bruising contemporary leaves to encourage oxidation, then drying. This oxidation begins the second a tea leaf is plucked off the bush, and the enzymatic exercise is chargeable for increase black tea’s wealthy shade, plush physique, fruity sweetness, and tannic complexity.

So what makes one black tea completely different from one other? A part of the reply is regional variations in terroir and cultivation, however the single largest issue is a tea’s grade. Usually talking, tiny damaged leaves = decrease grades = a rough, blustery brew, whereas bigger unbroken leaves = greater grades = a extra delicate, nuanced, and sophisticated drink. Particularly excessive grades additionally have a tendency to include higher quantities of younger buds or “suggestions,” which will increase the tea’s price (there’s just one bud per shoot on a tea plant versus many older leaves). However these buds add considerably to a tea’s depth of character and distinctive taste.

Tea has at all times been sorted into high quality ranges, resembling by relative quantities of buds, however fashionable grading of black tea by measurement is a comparatively latest consequence industrialization. As British (and later, American) entrepreneurs experimented with rising tea in India, they developed extra environment friendly and economical methods to course of tea leaves. Chinese language producers are likely to maintain tea leaves complete, however Western plantation homeowners discovered they may speed up tea oxidation by crushing and tearing leaves into smaller items. Damaged tea leaves additionally yielded a extra uniform, homogeneous taste, a significant bonus for mass-market manufacturers seeking to create a constant product. And decrease grade leaves have extra floor space, too, in order that they brew quick and darkish, a useful asset for a scorching new invention that burst onto the scene within the early 1900s: the tea bag.

These practices proved wildly profitable, and as of late the overwhelming majority of tea made for the Western, Jap European, and Center Jap markets is comparatively low grade, finely damaged black tea leaves that brew up darkish, brisk, constant, and, objectively talking, comparatively devoid of particular person character.

Now, for plenty of individuals, a daring, easy tea is precisely the purpose. You want one thing as darkish and potent as potential to chop by means of all of the milk, sugar, and spices in a cup of correct Indian chai, and in Turkey and Russia, each black-tea-loving nations, darkish, bitter, concentrated brews are the drink of alternative. And all around the world, tea luggage are a straightforward solution to get a contented caffeine repair. There’s nothing flawed with a constant and dependable product; it is simply that there is extra to black tea past that consistency.

In the event you’re on the lookout for one thing somewhat extra complicated and wine-like, greater grade free leaf teas are the best way to go. Go one step additional and you’ll find “single property” or unblended teas that protect rising areas’ particular person traits—similar to single-origin espresso beans or unblended wines. Here is the place issues get fascinating.

The Nice Broad World of Black Tea

Everyone knows what black tea tastes like. There is a ripe golden fruitiness that registers with a raisin-like sweetness on the tongue. There’s an astringency and, usually, a delicate lingering acidity on the palate, plus a richer, extra velvety physique than lighter teas. “Brisk” is a frequent descriptor: that refreshing crispness that retains the tea’s sweetness from turning cloying. That purple wine comparability beginning to make extra sense? Good.

As a result of similar to purple wine, there are black teas with roughly physique, roughly sweetness and astringency, and variations in secondary notes from citrus to florals to overripe fruit, and roasted nuts or chocolate. In the event you’re seeking to dig deeper into these subtleties, listed below are a couple of key types that present the vary of what black tea has to supply.

South Asia

Ceylon: ‘Ceylon’ teas actually simply imply teas grown on the island of Sri Lanka. In contrast to their Indian neighbors, Sri Lankan growers extra closely favor whole-leaf black tea types (although each nations produce high- and low-grade tea), and whereas Ceylons vary enormously in high quality, they have a tendency towards sunny teas that usually brew up glowing orange with average physique. One of the best Ceylon teas are well-balanced: citrus or nutty excessive notes mellowed by a delicate heat that avoids heavy astringency. They’re nice to drink plain or with a touch of milk, no sugar required.

Darjeeling: The West Bengali district of Darjeeling grows India’s most prized tea: an origin-protected type from bushes initially smuggled out of China as a result of the British could not replicate the fragile candy florals of their favourite Chinese language teas. Excessive up within the Himalayas, Darjeeling tea advantages from a singular terroir that yields a wine-like sweetness that many evaluate to floral muscat grapes. The precise flavors of Darjeeling tea change by means of its rising season, so some are extra contemporary and piney whereas others develop extra brooding wooden cask notes, however general, Darjeeling teas are low-astringency and particularly complicated. Sadly, that reputation has led to loads of fakes; there’s much more Darjeeling bought available on the market yearly than the district of Darjeeling may presumably produce. That is one tea the place it particularly pays to know your vendor.

Nepalese: A lot of these Darjeeling fakes in truth come from Nepal, the place related rising circumstances, fast-rising requirements for export tea, and a decrease price of labor imply a extra budget-friendly different to the nuance of true Darjeeling. Many Nepalese teas—branded as resembling an rising market—exhibit robust chocolatey qualities together with a barely extra rustic model of Darjeeling’s candy wine notes. Excessive-altitude teas like Nepal’s (and Darjeeling’s) even have a singular misty, ethereal high quality; shut your eyes, breathe deep, and you will really feel such as you’re standing proper in these mountainous tea gardens.

Assam: After Darjeeling, Assam tea is India’s most well-known, although in some ways it is the polar reverse. Grown in sunny lowlands from the stronger large-leaf Camellia sinensis var. assamica, Assam teas (named for the Indian state the place they’re grown) exemplify the daring, brisk facet of black tea, whether or not you are consuming tiny damaged “crust-tear-curl” types or or greater grade complete leaf variations. Excessive in astringency and acidity, they’ve a thick, lipsmacking physique that, when brewed robust, could make you overlook all about espresso.

China

Keemun: Considered one of China’s extra fashionable teas within the West, Keemun tea affords among the astringency and physique of an Indian tea, however with a richer malt and darkish cocoa character brightened by delicate florals (assume extra orchid than perfumed jasmine or rose) and infrequently a delicate smokiness gained throughout processing. A superb workaday tea, it is a becoming introduction to the Chinese language method to hong cha (“purple” tea), the Chinese language time period for black tea so named for the colour of the tea’s brew.

Diang Hong: Whereas pu-erh would be the worth of Yunnan province, it is solely one of many teas you may discover there. See additionally diang hong, aka Yunnan Gold, which some think about to be the best black tea on Earth. It is typically {smooth} and rounded on the palate, much less brisk and astringent than Indian black teas, and is stuffed with chocolate sweetness that, in high quality variations, is velvety and long-lasting.

Jin Jun Mei: One other top quality tea from China, this time the Wuyi mountains, the place teas that develop on rocky cliffs develop distinct mineral flavors to enhance deep honey notes and, in really top quality jin jun mei, intense sweetness. High-notch jin jun mei is stuffed with golden suggestions and may yield deep, lasting honeylike finishes in your throat. Like many nice Chinese language black teas, it is {smooth} and rounded however highly effective stuff.

Lapsang Souchong: This tea is a smoke bomb, constructed from Chinese language black tea leaves dried over smoky pine fireplace. Low high quality variations can style as harsh as lighter fluid, however in higher lapsang souchong, the leaves’ inherent sweetness stands as much as the smoke for a potent campfire brew that warms your cheeks like an excellent Scotch. The unique lapsang souchong hails from these minerally Wuyi mountains, like jin jun mei, however as of late the tea is produced throughout.

The place to Purchase It

Now that you have seen a few of what the broader world of black tea has to supply, listed below are some commendable distributors price searching for out.

• Upton Tea Imports: All kinds of black teas from 13 nations, together with some rarer choices like Japanese black tea, however the pleasure of the gathering would be the Darjeelings, which embody among the district’s highest regarded tea estates.
• Simpson & Vail: An incredible choice of Nepalese black teas for these on the lookout for excessive elevation Himalayan types loaded with cocoa, pine, and that signature excessive elevation mistiness.
• Verdant Tea: Chinese language black teas from fashionable areas (Wuyi) and extra obscure (Laoshan), all fragrant and smooth-drinking. There’s an inexpensive jin jun mei that makes a wonderful introduction to wonderful Chinese language black tea, and a smoked Wuyi tea that reveals simply how good lapsang souchong-type teas can get.
• In Pursuit of Tea: Top quality choices from China, Sri Lanka, and India. One enjoyable factor to strive with this vendor: evaluating two flushes (harvests) of Darjeeling from the identical property, which may present how the tea’s taste evolves over the rising season.
• Music Tea: Wonderful high-end Chinese language black teas that you just will not discover from most different Western-facing distributors. Additionally some exemplary renditions of Taiwanese cultivars that convey heat honey and macerated cherry flavors alongside for the trip.

Disclosure: Some tea samples offered for evaluate.

August 2015