Black Tea
BLACK TEA - fascinating in its diversity
Floral-scented Darjeeling, dark, spicy Assam or tangy Ceylon - black tea delights with its diversity of aromas.
To produce black tea, the tea leaves are wilted after harvesting and then rolled to release the cell sap, which in conjunction with oxygen triggers the fermentation of the leaf and gives it its characteristic colour and flavour.
The wide colour spectrum of dried black teas ranges from bright rusty red to a deep, dark brown. After fermentation, the tea is dried and sorted by leaf grade, from large-leaf teas and broken to powdery fannings and dust.
Black tea is not only highly appreciated because of its aroma, it also contains tannins, minerals and vitamins as well as essential oils and caffeine. The latter is only released slowly into the body, unlike with coffee. The tannins has a soothing effect on the stomach. In general the following applies: Tea that infuses for up to two minutes has a stimulating effect. If the infusion time exceeds five minutes, the effect is more soothing.
Black tea was probably discovered by a happy accident. According to a 16th century legend, an error during production led to a batch of green tea fermenting too long. But instead of throwing the tea away, the tea farmers drank the withered leaves and were surprised by the delicious aromas.
For about 200 years, the tea has been fermented deliberately to obtain the aromatic black tea that has become so popular around the world. Over time the fermentation process has been refined, which has led to different methods and therefore different tea varieties.
To prepare a Black Tea pour freshly boiled water over the leaves. The lighter the tea the shorter the infusion time. Darjeeling e. g. needs 2 to 4 minutes. Malty powerful Assam however will need easily 5 minutes to brew.
As a general rule: A shortly brewed black tea is stimulating because of the contained caffeine. After a longer infusion time the caffeine is more and more tied by the tannines and therefore less and less stimulating. After more than 5 minutes infusion time the tea can take in a bitter note.