Note: this article is also a part of the the TeaFrog.com/Wondermoms.ca online contest! Details here
Black Tea, Green Tea, White Tea, Red Tea...
HELP!
It is easy to get overwhelmed with the
number of teas that are available for you to drink. The media tells you that you need to drink Green Tea for your health,
but you are most familiar with Black Tea, but then there is this mysterious White Tea, and what about Red Tea, or Herbal,
or a Tisane! So what is the difference? I mean, tea is tea right? Wrong.
Not to make your choice more complicated, but not only is there a difference between TYPES of teas, but there
is a difference even between where the teas COME from! For example, a Black Chinese tea tastes different from an Indian Black
Tea, and in India, an Assam Tea tastes different from a Darjeeling Tea, AND an Assam Rani Estate tea tastes different from
an Assam Banaspaty Estate tea! Yikes, how are you supposed to distinguish between them? Well, lets start with the differences
between the TYPES of teas.
As in my first article, I will
re-iterate what TEA is. Aficionados will tell you that tea is an infusion of the Camellia Sinensis plant - the tea bush (or
tea tree if your gardener has been on vacation for 20 years). I however, define tea as anything that you steep to create
a flavourful drink. I consider that tea, because YOU consider that tea. The general population defines a term, not some
mucky muck tea snob! So that out of the way, lets look at the different kinds of tea.
BLACK TEA
Black is the most processed
type of tea, the most oxidized of all the teas. You see, when teas are being made, the biggest difference between them is
how long they are allowed to oxidize, or convert the green in the leaf for the black. You can see that black tea leaves are,
well, black, while white tea leaves, the LEAST oxidized, are very green indeed.
All tea is started in the same way, picking the leaf off the bush, and from there, things get different.
For black teas, we move to rolling. This is done by hand (Orthodox) or by machine (CTC - crush tear curl). In most cases,
Orthodox rolled tea is generally higher quality, due to the care taken in the process.
Next, the all important oxidization. A tea master with many years experience decides when to halt
this process, and it largely determines the quality and taste of the black tea. The process of oxidization starts when the
leaf is first rolled, and is halted when we move to the next step, drying.
Drying the tea is done in ovens, or using special machines. It has to be done quickly, so that the oxidization
is completely halted at the point the tea master wants it to be. It is a delicate balance, and determines not only the final
quality of the tea, but the final price as well.
Once
the tea has been processed, it is graded. Grading differs from country to country, and even region to region. For instance,
in the Ceylon region of India, an "Orange Pekoe" can be the lowest grade of tea, or a BRAND of tea that is very
high quality indeed. In the Assam region, Orange Pekoe is only a grade, but not the lowest grade. Confusing? Yes. Standardization
in the tea industry is only one of the frustrations consumers and retailers suffer for!
You are probably familiar with the store bought, Tetley Orange Pekoe or similarly branded teabags.
To give you a frame of reference on quality, teabags are generally produced using the "Fannings" of the tea, these
are the smallest pieces, lowest quality, often called "dust". If you open up a teabag, you will see there is nothing
resembling a leaf. You pay about 20-30 cents a cup for that tea. On the other hand, TeaFrog's Darjeeling Goomtea FTGFOP,
a high quality, full leaf tea is $12 for 100grams - approx. 70 cups, or 17 cents a cup. So tell me again why you prefer your
Tetley tea? ;)
Black teas are
generally named according to blend, region, estate and quality. English Breakfast tea is a blend of black teas from different
regions, put together to create a "level" flavour, not distinctive to any one estate. When you purchase an "Assam"
tea, that is a blend of tea from Assam estates, similarly "Darjeeling Tea" is a blend of teas from Darjeeling estates.
When you purchase estate teas, they are named for the estate. For example,
TeaFrog's Assam Banaspaty Organic FTGFOP-1 is a tea from the Banaspaty Estate in the Darjeeling Region of India, with the
grading of FTGFOP (Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - 1st grade) - what does the grading mean? In this case it is the
highest quality produced by that estate.
Of course, in
addition to straight black tea, you have flavored teas, and in the thousands! Flavoured black tea is most often a blend of
flavoring, flowers and/or fruits. The base tea is an Orange Pekoe most of the time, to keep the cost reasonable, and provide
an even base for the addition of flavours. Earl Grey is one type of Black Tea that is most familiar, but there is everything
from Chocolate and Cream, to Mango, to Jasmine, literally there is no end to the possibilities of blended, flavoured black
tea!
Of course, not all black tea comes from India. There
are some beautiful black teas from China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and many many other regions, all with different flavour profiles,
different growing methods and different gradings. One thing that they all have in common, the methods of processing the tea
leaves, into a black tea.
Well, so much for a short article
covering all the different kinds of teas. It looks like we will have to do a type of tea per blog post here! As you can
tell, there is a lot of information pent up in my brain, just eager to get out to help you all choose the best tea for you.
Next time I will write about green tea, and hopefully we can keep that under 100,000 words! In the meantime, if you have
a question, please do not hesitate to email me at: mike@teafrog.com - and don't forget your FREE Beginners Guide to Tea that contains all this information and more, available on our website at http://www.teafrog.com.
