Black Teas

Black teas warm you up… and carry you through the day.

Nothing tastes better on a cold day than a cup of hot black tea. Earl Grey or Assam… when you hug the mug and feel the warmth go all through you. When you want that classic, timeless taste of tea, a nice black is just about perfect.

Some Famous Black Tea Varieties

Here are the most popular varieties of green tea. Each offers its own unique pleasures. And you’ll find a green that matches any mood:

• Earl Grey, the ultimate classic! What People Talk About when they Talk About Black Tea. Infused with the scent of the bergamot orange, and beloved of bald spaceship captains
• English Breakfast Tea, like a kick in the pants in the morning, only polite
• Darjeeling Tea, from the eponymous teagrowing lands of India~ one of the most refined of teas~ a tea for sophisticated palettes~ a tea for impressing the hard-to-please in-laws~ unless they are best avoided~ in which case enjoy some black Darjeeling tea by yourself in peace~
• Keemun Mao Feng Tea , one of the most treasured Chinese teas. This Keemun (also spelled Qimen) has a deep red color and goes well with dark chocolate
• Assam Black Tea, from the tea fields of Assam and the tea plant C. sinensis assamica! Yes, Assam teas come from a different variety of tea plant, with larger leaves. Its taste? Heartier- stronger- robustier.
• Lapsang Souchong black tea, among Chinese black teas, Lapsang Souchong stands alone. This black tea is smoked over pine needles to give it the evocative aroma of a campfire, a pine campire, when that delightful person you’ve fancied for so long sits down right next to you and perhaps it is time to make your move~

How to Brew Black Tea

With feeling!

You may have noticed, white teas, green teas, oolong teas all have specific brewing times and temperatures. So do black teas. BUT~ the rule of thumb is simpler!

For most black teas, brew a great pot like so:

• Boil that water! Use a solar stove, charcoal, or your basic hot plate and teakettle
• Warm the teapot with a splash of hot water, swished around inside. Bonus points for a tea cozy
• Place loose tea leaves in your infuser/tea ball/teapot. How much tea? Let’s say “one teaspoon for each cup, and one for the pot”
  
• Steep it. This requires patience… between 3 to 5 minutes of patience.
• Yank out the infuser/teaball, or just pour out the tea.
• Enjoy!

Yet there is some lingering controversy I must address… for the milk-drinkers among you:

Do you put the milk in the cup first, or put the milk in the tea in the cup?

This is a hugely divisive issue among tea drinkers. So divisive, that I am not answering it. Do what you like! I take my black tea black.

Black Tea’s Health Benefits

What a minute– does black tea eve have health benefits?

You’ve heard about green tea’s health benefits, over and over again in the media. Unfortunately, many of the things green tea’s praised for– like the antioxidant EGCG– are present in black tea in greatly reduced amounts. So some people have assumed black tea has nothing healthy inside, just caffeine and the jitters.

The good news is, they’re wrong!

When black tea is processed, the chemical compounds inside don’t get destroyed. They recombine into new chemical compounds. So antioxidants like EGCG get changed fundamentally.

The most important new compounds in black tea are theaflavins and thearubigins. And most of the clinical research into tea’s health benefits has focused on heart and circulatory health. For instance, a study conducted at the University of L’Aquila suggests black tea has a positive effect on cardiovascular function.

Research is preliminary, and as always you should talk about your health with your doctor. So you can know what to talk about, check out my blog for the most up-to-date findings in black tea research.

About Black Tea & Tea Bags…

Most people’s first exposure to tea comes in a tea bag. Some dusty, flavorless tea that barely turns the water brown. Probably decaf teas, too.

Yuck!

Even though tea bags can’t be beat for convenience and speed, I urge you to try some premium loose leaf tea brewed in an infuser. Or loose in a teapot. At the very least, try some English Breakfast tea in a tea ball.

The difference in taste and aroma is truly astonishing.

Most tea bags contain “fannings,” the dust and broken leaves left over after the good-quality leaves are processed. Because they’re like dust, they brew fast. They also have virtually no flavor compared to the better leaves.

Compare loose black teas. The tea leaves can open up in the water, easing out the flavors, scents and antioxidants. What’s more, you can get so many more types when you lose the bags! They just don’t bag very many of the best black teas.

At the very least, consider some of the recent advances in teabag technology.

Often called “sachets” because French sounds fancy, a pyramid tea bag lets the water flow through better. And when the tea leaf can open up, you get more flavor. Generally, Chinese black teas need more room to expand. Indian teas (think “English black teas”) need less because they’re mechanically processed with the CTC method (“Cut, Tear, Curl”).

Still, there’s not a tea bag on earth that compares with good loose leaf tea.

Where to Buy Black Tea

Of all the types of tea, black’s the easiest to find. Honestly, most folk just go to the grocery and buy some junky, dusty black in a bag. Because they want to make the world a less flavorful place, I guess. When you’re ready for the best black teas, though, you can go to one of the finer online retailers. You’ll get a wider selection and fresher teas.

When looking for a retailer to partner with for TeaHawk.com, I chose the Art of Tea. Why? Because they carry super-high-grade premium black teas. And because I was already drinking their teas, and loved them.

Click Here to Buy Black Tea

Now, when you visit their tea store, remember to take a look at their tea infusers… and their oolong teas… and even the commemorative tea bricks. I mean, you can drink nothing but black tea for the rest of your life and be quite happy with it. But why not drink some herbal teas and some high-antioxidant green teas while you’re at it?