Coffee 2 Tea

If you’re looking to branch out in your tea repertoire, try oolong tea. It is a traditional Chinese tea that’s somewhere between green and black in oxidation. It has a taste more akin to green tea, but lacks its grassy notes. It’s commonly brewed strong and has a bitterness that leaves a sweet aftertaste. In fact, oolong tea is unique in that high quality oolong can be brewed multiple times from the same leaves, and the flavor improves with reuse. Typically the third or fourth steeping is the best.

Oolong tea is often scented with jasmine flowers. A popular jasmine-scented tea is known as Dragon Pearls, which come rolled into tiny balls of leaves. When you add water to them, the pearls (or leaves) unroll. This is a fun way to make oolong tea, since it provides not only a delicious drink, but entertainment as well!

There are six types of tea– Black, Green,White, Oolong and Scented and Compressed.

Black tea includes Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri form India: Ceylon and from Sri Lanaka; and keemun and Lapsang Souchong form China. Each has its own distinctive flavor and aroma. The leaves undergo four processing stages: withering (which happens when the leaves are laid out to dry), rolling, fermenting (a process that makes the leaves turn their familiar brownish color and imparts a healthy flavor), and drying. Darjeeling – considered to be the Premier of teas – is grown at varying altitudes in the Himalayas; the higher up it is grown, the lighter the tea. Especially prized by connoisseurs is the new season’s tea, the light and fragrant first flush Darjeeling, picked in April.

Green tea, which is paler and milder than black tea, was the first to be enjoyed throughout the world, but its popularity waned as peopled showed a preference for a stronger brew. There are only two processing stages involved in producing green tea: rolling and drying. Varieties include gunpowder form China and Matcha and Sencha from Japan.

White tea is produced in very small quantities in China and Sri Lanka and is available from specialist tea suppliers. A tea for the connoisseur.

Oolong tea is semi-fermented and is generally the most expensive type of tea. The best varieties are produced in Taiwan and include the exclusive Monkey picked.

Scented teas are made from green, oolong, or black tea flavored with fruits, herbs spices and flowers, such as roses, orchids, and jasmine.

Compressed teas are formed into ball, brick, hest, and cake shapes. These are produced in China.

Blended Teas

Blended teas have an important place in modern tea-drinking, particularly the English Breakfast tea blend. Originally a mix of black Indian and Chinese teas, today Assam, Ceylon, and African teas are blended to provide drinkers with the three elements they require – strength, flavour and colour. More exotic sounding is the blend of Chinese tea called Russian Caravan tea, which is named after the camel caravan that bought Chinese tea to Europe along the silk and spice trade route.

Earl Grey, so called after Charles, the second Earl Grey who was the Prime Minister of Britain between 1830 and 1834, is a popular blend. Made with Indian and Chinese teas, flavoured with bergamot oil, it is a refreshing tea, best served black or with lemon.

The basic rules that most people follow today includes using freshly drawn and boiled water and allowing one scoopful of loose tea or a one tea bag per person.

Brewing time is, it is agreed , all-important and depends on the type of tea you are brewing, Darjeeling requires from 3 to 5 minutes, Kenya form 2 to 4 minute and China Oolong 5 to 7 minute. At what point you add milk, however, has been a contentious subject for decades, Victorian etiquette was definite on the matter; the milk or cream had to be put in last, so that its addition could be rejected or limited.  The British novelist and essayist, George Orwell, who also published his own eleven golden rules for a “nice cup of tea’ in 1945, had equally firm views. Last was best, he wrote, for “by putting the tea in first and then stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk.” The last word goes t Nancy Mitford, the English aristocrat novelist and biographer, who claimed that “milk in first,” know as the “MIF” debate, was without doubt, not the “thing” to do.

Excerpt form Where to Take Tea: Susan Cohen