Home » Food & Cooking

All About Black Tea

0 Comments

0 Like

Like 0

Pin It

Ranked #38,925 in Food & Cooking, #1,027,028 overall

A Voyage Across the Seas

The Chinese are particular to green tea, whereas the Western world tends to drink mostly black tea. Historically this was because transporting tea usually meant a deterioration and oxidization of the leaves that were being transported by cutters and other ships that were trading centuries ago between the Orient and Europe. The ships of long ago had no way to keep tea cool and because they were sailing from the tropics, their cargoes would have been subject to very high temperatures and the dense humidity found these parts of the world for weeks and maybe months at a time. This meant shipping green tea was a difficult prospect for the traders of yesteryear. The process for making green tea, which is most common in the East still today, requires steaming, drying, and rolling, then storing cooled leaves so that they retain their color and flavor. Black tea on the other hand does not get such careful treatment, making it cheaper and easier to mass produce. Black tea gets its dark color from oxidization at room temperature whereby some of the important medicinal qualities are unfortunately destroyed. It does however retain some in small amounts.

(image by Badagnani)

From Green to Black

When the Europeans first encountered tea, it may well have started off as a green tea when it left the harbor in China; by the time they received it in the west, a month or so later it had most likely degraded by oxidation into black tea. Green tea would have been very expensive in Europe back then. Black tea is flaky and crumbles easily, and these days it is mostly contained in a teabag enabling smaller grains to be used. This 20th century method to infuse water without adversely affecting the tea due to suspended granules is the norm. Those who partake in more formal tea drinking might well use loose leaf which is of a better quality usually, requiring a strainer to prevent leaves getting into the cup. In general black tea is dried and crushed to form a coarse powder; the dust was previously discarded and made for a very bitter cup if used but there is no waste these days and the dust is used to make instant teas, cheap teabags and similar products. Recent times have seen an invention that further revolutionized tea drinking.

Bagged up

The tea bag was first introduced as a hand-sewn drawstring silk bag that could be filled with blends of leaves and left in the pot to brew. The first were introduced in the very early 1900's and were the preserve of the wealthy. Over the years this idea has been developed until now there are numerous shapes and sizes of teabag available. Some can be filled by the preparer to allow combinations of tea varieties to be tried. The most common is the factory sealed hemp-based paper teabag. Appreciated for their convenience, teabags are sold in the billions annually worldwide; they make up a considerable chunk of the tea market. For those making an individual cup and not using a teapot, the tea bag is ideal as it is designed for a single serving. When making a pot of tea the amount to add is no longer a mystery as one bag per person (plus one for the pot for those who like stronger brews) is the recommended usage.

Preparation

Unlike green tea, which tastes bitter after brewing in boiling water, black tea is best brewed with the use of freshly boiled water. Tea is usually made by adding boiling water to a teapot which already has approximately one spoonful per person of loose leaf black tea or one teabag per person. The tea is left to brew for a couple of minutes in the teapot before being poured into the cup and, when cool enough, can be enjoyed with or without milk and sugar. Many in the US drink their black tea cold, iced with a slice of lemon.

One Lump or Two

People in Britain and Europe who drink tea add often add milk or cream with many adding sugar as well. "One lump or two?" is the common question heard on serving tea, referring to sugar lumps, a common method of serving this sweetener in the form of cubes of sugar accompanied by a pair of tongs in a bowl and a small jug of cream which is used very sparingly to avoid making the tea too "rich".