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Strong, robust. Puts hair on your back.
Black Tea.
Rrrgh!
Since the same plant accounts for green & black tea both, what’s the diff? Well, black tea’s heavily OXIDIZED. (They also call this “fermented,” though it’s not a proper fermentation as with the beers.*) In this process, the leaf gets transformed from the more delicate buds of green into a stronger, chunkier leaves of brown.
Also, there’s often a Time of Roasting involved.
Some varieties, like Lapsang Souchoung, are even smoked.
This also covers most Bagged Teas– many of the popular scented teas, like Earl Grey– and your basic standard workhorse like a PG Tips or a Twinings. I have nothing against those staid teas of the everyday.
Still, in my heart of hearts, Black Tea has an eternal reservation at the Ritz Hotel Tea-Room in my left ventricle…
…for some High Tea.
I mean, look at the picture. A steaming-hot cup of black tea, heavily oxidized and therefore BURSTING with the alkaloid compounds like caffeine and tannins that make tea crazy-healthful and, well, crazymaking if you drink to much and are prone to twitch. And lots of tasty things that give you cavities.
Heaven in a cup. At the Ritz.
In my heart.
And this doesn’t even get into the Chinese varieties of black tea… or the ever-growing Kenyan tea industry…
So much to drink, so little time…
*Anybody out there who wants to invent a Beer Tea, CALL ME
