I really knew nothing about tea except that I didn’t like the smell or taste of coffee, hot chocolate was becoming too sweet and was too high in calories! So all that was left was tea. So tea is what I started ordering during the cold winter months whenever I went to a coffee shop. But I always stuck to green tea because I heard that it was really good for you; or herbal teas, like peppermint or chamomile.
Slowly other types of teas were appearing, rooibos, black teas and even white tea. I had no idea what they were but I would try them. I also thought tea didn’t have caffeine in it. Was I ever wrong! I had jasmine tea in Chinese restaurants and thought it was nice, but didn’t really know what it was. I pretty much drank anything that was tea. But again, just figured it was a leaf soaked in hot water and if the name of the tea was different, the leaf was different. Well, to my surprised I found out that all teas came from the same plant, camellia sinensis.
The first time I saw these two words, I thought it was some woman’s name. It’s not. It’s a plant, a species of the evergreen shrub but what makes it so popular is that it’s leaves are buds are used to make tea. From what I understand, there are two different varieties of this plant, camellia sinensis var. sinensis and camellia sinenesis var. assamica from which white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, pu-erh and black tea come from. From what I understand, the way the leaves are processed results in different levels of oxidation which gives the different teas. That’s a whole other story. Black tea, however, is the story we’ll take a look at, or at least, part of it’s story.
What is black tea?
Black tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant as we have established, but it has been oxidized the longest. This gives it it’s stronger flavour. The camellia sinensis var. assamica variety of the plant is the variety that is normally used to produce black teas because of it’s large leaves. Different countries refer to black tea in different ways. In China it is referred to as the “red tea”, in japan and korea as hongcha, in Bengali as Lal cha. All these names refer to the colour of the liquid that results from steeping the tea leaves. In the west it is called “black tea” which refers to the colour of the oxidized leaves. Black teas retain its flavour for several years, unlike green teas which are oxidized less. Common black teas are English Breakfast and Earl Grey blends.
What exactly is oxidation?
It is a process where the oxygen interacts with the tea plant’s cell walls to turn the leaves into that dark brown/black colour that black teas are known for. This oxidation process changes the flavour profile of the tea leaves and thus the tea, creating a malty, fruity and even smoky notes of flavour, depending on the tea.
There are two common ways of producing black teas:
Orthodox method:
which is more time consuming. In this method the tea leaves are left whole or partially broken during the processing. The tea leaves are picked from the plant; withered to reduce the moisture content; rolled around to bruise the leaves and start the oxidation process; oxidized to create the colour and flavour profiles; fired, which is heat applied to stop the oxidation; then graded for quality (this is another topic, grading of teas.).
Non orthodox or crush-tear-curl, CTC method:
is the second method for producing tea. This is a speedy version of the production process to get the leaves in and the tea out as quick as possible. This process involves, cutting the tea leaves into fine pieces. The smaller pieces oxidize quicker but also produce a single, consistent, strong, bold black tea. These cut pieces also are easier to package into tea bags which are more commonly used among the casual tea user. The non orthodox method is the same as the orthodox method except instead of rolling the leaves to bruise them, the leaves are cut, torn and/or curled. The firing temperature to dry the leaves and stop the oxidation process is now at a higher temperature of 90C-130C.
Types of black tea
Black tea is produced and grown all over the world in different climates and topographies. The three largest black tea producers are India, Sri Lanka and Africa and half the world’s tea production comes from India. From here different types or styles of black tea are produced, Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon and Kenyan.
Assam tea
is from the Assam region of India. It is the largest tea growing region in the world. This region has a rainy and tropical climate and as a result it produces a place tea that has bold and malty characteristics that go well with milk and sugar.
Darjeeling
is grown in smaller, mountainous regions of India. It is a softer and more herbaceous black tea, that is dependent on the season it is grown in and the climate. It’s commonly used as a tea base for Chai.
Ceylon black tea
is from Sri Lanka. A big part of Sri Lanka’s economy depends on it’s tea gardens. These tea gardens are in locations that range from cool and mountainous to humid and tropical. Most the tea produced in these tea garden is black tea and known as Ceylon tea. Because of the variety of locations and climates of these tea gardens, the Ceylon teas vary greatly but in general are strong and a slightly spicy.
Kenyan
black tea is from Kenya. Kenya came into tea production in the early 1900s. The are the leaders in Africa and the industry in the CTC, the non-orthodox method of tea production. Kenya produces and exports mostly black tea which have an assertive and full bodied style.
Tetulia
in northern Bangladesh while not a top producing tea region is home to Teatulia is a USDA certified organic tea garden. The camellia sinenesis assamica tea plant is produced here using natural farming methods that cause no hard to the environment. The orthodox method is used to produce black teas creating a fresh, sweet tea with notes of apricot and honey.
Caffeine content of black tea
Finally, we’ll end with the caffeine content in black tea. Compared to coffee, tea has much less caffeine, but it does have a little and the different types of teas, have different levels of caffeine. Below is a chart with the type of tea and their caffeine content in an 8 ounce cup of tea. The caffeine content in an 8-ounce cup of coffee is also given just to get a sense of the different between coffee and tea. As we can see, black tea has the second highest caffeine content of the different types of tea. I talk more about caffeine in tea in my post Does tea have caffeine?
|
Beverage |
Caffeine content (milligrams/8 oz) |
|
Coffee |
95-200 |
|
Pu-erh tea |
60-70 |
|
Black tea |
40-70 |
|
Green tea |
35-45 |
|
Yellow tea |
33 |
|
White tea |
15-30 |
|
Oolong tea |
37-55 |
|
Herbal |
0 |
References:
Camellia Sinensis, Wikipedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis
Black tea, Wikipedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_tea
Different Types of Tea and Caffeine Content, Garfield Medical Centre, Oct. 30, 2016, URL: http://www.garfieldmedicalcenter.com/GMC-Blog/2016/October/Different-Types-of-Tea-and-Caffeine-Content.aspx
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