For true connoisseurs, tea is not just a strong black drink. This is a tradition that has a thousand-year history. To choose quality black tea, it is worth asking how it is made.
Raw materials go through all stages of processing - withering, rolling, fermentation, drying and sorting - in order to end up with the best variety of black tea. This type of tea is the most difficult to manufacture, while making green tea requires only three phases - rolling, drying and sorting.
Types of tea
There are three types of high-quality black tea - leaf, granulated (so-called STS-tea) and pressed. The first two are known in the CIS, and the latter is used only in China. There is also a powder - packaged - tea. But it does not belong to the elite species.
Packaged and granulated teas, in comparison with the large-leaf type, differ in strength. They are in no way inferior to him in taste, but during processing they lose most of the aroma.
Quality black tea in dry form has a dark color. Mostly black or brown-black. If the tea leaves have a red tint, this indicates a low quality of the product. The gray color indicates the deterioration of the tea, for example, that the tea leaves are damp.
High-quality black tea has a characteristic pearlescent tint, called by professionals a spark. And the presence of white villi, called tips, is permissible only in tea with floral additives.
Indian varieties
The finest black tea produced in India is called Darjeeling Tea. Darjeeling gets its name from the province where it is grown. Refers to elite varieties. It is not very strong and does not differ in astringency, but its aroma has characteristic floral-almond notes. To buy a real "Darjeeling", you need to take tea from the first or second harvest.
Indian "Assam Tea" has a richer tart flavor compared to Darjeeling. But its faint malt aroma is no match for the heady Darjeeling Tea. Assam tea is often sold as a mix under the Irish Breakfast label, containing up to 80% of the original raw materials.
Nilgiri Tea is not considered elite. Has a rough taste and weak aroma. And “Sikkim Tea”, although of high quality, is not very popular in Russia.
Ceylon varieties
High-quality black tea from Ceylon came to the expanses of the former Soviet Union thanks to producers from England. Before that, the CIS had a wide selection of mediocre drinks made in Sri Lanka.
Today elite Ceylon tea is produced by Ahmad Tea and Twinings. The rest of the teas labeled "Orange Pekoe" are just a mixture of crops from ordinary plantations.
Chinese varieties
Green tea is preferred in China. And black, or as they are called at home, red varieties, are more common in the CIS countries.
The most famous Chinese black tea is Lapsang Souchong Tea. Lapsang sushong is fumigated with pine smoke during the drying process, which gives it a special aroma.
Keemun Tea is often included in a variety of English Breakfast mixes. Keemun is rarely sold in its pure form. It tastes more like Georgian black tea, which radically distinguishes it from Indian varieties.
