Connoiseur-Level Black Teas and How to Brew Them
Tea is so simple, really, just leaf and water. Yet the complexity of taste, the variety of types and the seemingly unending ways to savor it make it intriguing, mysterious and provocative.
Once a tea lover graduates from an English Breakfast blend teabag to loose-leaf English Breakfast, he or she is on the way to nirvana. Then, if fate intervenes and one lucks into an educated purveyor or thoughtful mail-order source, loose leaf choices will stagger the imagination and stymie the most astute decision maker.
Black teas, called red by the Chinese for the color of their liquor, are summarily dismissed in China where green teas are paramount, and Pu-er and oolongs come in second and third place. Blacks are, in fact, the first world-wide effort at marketing teas. In the early days of shipping teas around the world from China to Europe, the green teas lost their luster, flavor and appearance. No wonder early devotees buttered and salted the leaves, eating them and throwing out the liquor.
What was China to do? The answer: intentionally wither the tea. Using sun-drying methods or hot woks, creative hand twisting and curling of the leaves, the Chinese tea men developed many ways of converting their beloved greens into oxidized new products: black teas.
Should one continue to explore black teas? Black teas are what most of the world outside of China drinks. In Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), the most famous names include Uva, remarkably fragrant, Dimbula. mellow yet with a lovely lingering aftertaste, and Nuwara Eliya, well-known for its sweetness. Each of these fine CTC (cut-tear-curl) teas do their plantation areas proud. These are rich-tasting teas, that stand up well with milk, but are refreshing and refined all by themselves. Other fine teas are from the regions of Kandy and Ooty, and each Ceylon tea is blessed with intoxicating aroma and full-bodied flavor that never fails to enchant.
In India, Assam is perhaps the heartiest and most well-known black tea, and is the key tea ingredient in most Irish and English breakfast blends and most commercial Irish labels. An absolutely eye-opening tea, it is perfect for that first cup of the day.
Nilgiri, a high-grown tea from the Blue Mountains in southern India, is easy to drink and astonishingly soft. It is impossible to over-brew (unless you really work at it), and is best alone, without milk. Traveling through India we can savor many other varieties, like one of my personal favorites, from the Indian principality of Sikkim, its sweetness and beautiful reddish-orange color are always satisfying.
The joke among tea professionals is that there is more Darjeeling sold than is grown in India. That is because pure Darjeeling is hard to find, and is so frequently adulterated with other teas to make a "Darjeeling blend". While I am hardly an Darjeeling enthusiast, I have come around after tasting pure-estate selections made with cooler water and with far less than the recommended five minute steeping time. I use three minutes, and am much pleased.
I have mentioned just a few of the hundreds and hundreds of varieties of black teas now available from nearly 40 countries in the world. As always, the best come from Sri Lanka, China and India, and any category of tea comes in a variety of grades, from poor to superb. Most teas are picked several times during a year, with the first and second "flush" or plucking being the most prized. As with wines, one can not always be sure that the 1996 Goomtee estate Darjeeling will be as breathtaking as the 1994, or that the Dimbulas of this season stack up to last. That is part and parcel of the fascination of tea, one never knows what to expect, yet one always hopes for the best, the most perfect cup.
Nearly every tea blender and many tea shop owners will espouse the traditional method of boiling water, a teaspoon of tea per cup and perhaps one for the pot, when making black tea. I say, "hogwash!" This started as a way to sell more tea, rather than to help consumers get the most enjoyment out of tea. The low to medium grades of tea that these blenders sell require more leaf to get substantial flavor. Caveat emptor: the better the tea, the less you need. Also, when using fine spring water, one needn't bring the water to a boil, but just to when the bubbles first start to appear. Too active a bubble, and you'll "bruise the leaf" and promptly drain out the flavor instead of luring it out to linger awhile.
It is important to heat both the teacup and the teapot. I pour hot water into each cup, place the saucer atop to keep in the heat and dump the water out when ready to pour the tea. As for the pot, it is a good idea to warm it up with hot water, place the lid on firmly, then dump out the water when ready to put in the tea.
Should one use strainers to catch the leaves once they are allowed to steep unfettered or do you use an infuser, which holds the tea leaves and, admittedly, makes a neater tea-brewing experience with a sacrifice of flavor? Allowing the leaves their "agony," or dance as they unfurl and give their all for us is, I find, essential to getting the most flavor out of the leaves. To brew, put into a warmed teapot, one level teaspoon per six ounces of water; pour the hot water atop, and allow sufficient time to brew (usually three to five minutes is ideal). Using a strainer, pour the tea into a second, warmed teapot. From this second teapot, pour tea into the waiting teacups. This may seem a bit of a fuss, but it makes one helluva better cup of tea. To reinfuse, pour water on the spent leaves, steep three to five minutes again, and repeat the process.
Milk and sugar seem to make Assams taste rich and smooth, but, basically, again, the better the tea, the less one needs any additive. I would never add milk to Darjeeling, particularly when brewed lightly as described above. The sweet aftertaste and spectacular aromas of most Ceylon teas are not harmed by milk, but I think they are, nonetheless, unnecessary.
Should you suffer separation anxiety about leaving your trusted teabags or continue to seek Darjeeling "blends" or other popular blends, please be aware that like everything else in this world, you get what you pay for. The better teas will provide infinitely more cups of tea than the mediocre ones, and, quite ironically, don't cost much more. A box of your typical 20-teabag teas in the supermarket cost about $2.59 per package. These are usually blended with up to 60 varieties and frequently dust and fannings (the pathetic remains of the vibrant leaf). That's about 13 cents per cup. If you figure the value based on its per-pound cost of about $68 per pound, that's about $1.70 per cup. At $68 per pound, you can get a premier black tea, with its full sized, beautifully processed leaf, that will give you cup after fragrant cup, usually about 200 cups per pound, at about 34 cents per cup, and you will be drinking a tea equivalent of a Lafite Rothschild wine.
Where to find these wonders? The following mail-order sources ship anywhere in the U.S. and specialize in premium, high-grade teas. They will gladly send a price list, and most sell by the ounce so you can sample many types without breaking the bank. Do your palate a favor and thrill your senses. Try connoisseur-level black teas.
Mail Order Tea Sources
Chaiwalla
1 Main Street
Salisbury, CT 06068
(203) 435-9758 or (203) 229-8088
Equator Estate coffees & teas
5034 Paradise Drive
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(800) 809-POUR or (800) 809-7687
Freed, Teller & Freed's
PO Box 640189
San Francisco, CA 94164
(415) 673-3436 or outside of San Francisco (800) 370-7371
Golden Moon Tea, Ltd.
PO Box 1646
Woodinville, WA 98072
(425) 820-2000--phone
(425) 821-9700
www.goldenmoontea.com
customerservice@goldenmoontea.com
India Tea Importers
1629 Bate Street
Montebello CA 90640
(213) 722-9438
fax: (213) 722-6368
Robert & Joseph, Ltd.
6281 Martin Lane
Redgranite, WI 54970-9533
(414) 566-2520
Upton Tea Company
231 South Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748
(800) 234-TEAS
The Teacup
2207 Queen Avenue
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 283-5931
One tea that is intentionally made for large amounts of sugar and milk is genuine Ostfriesen tea from the House of Bunting. The Ostfriesans represent 25 % of Germany's tea consumption though they are barely 2% of the population, and this is their favorite tea. Not for delicate palates, or for those who revel in pure tea, but for those who love to stand their teaspoon on end to show the strength of their tea. To order, call (800) 946-3329.
Diana Rosen is a freelance writer for eZines, web site copy, and print magazine articles on food, beverage, and other lifestyle topics. The veteran journalist is also the author of 10 nonfiction books and the co-author of three others. For more information, visit www.dianarosen.com
Note: This information was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the businesses in question before making your plans.
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