Assam black tea

 

The twirling brown leaves and golden tips of the world’s greatest Assam black teas yield lovely honey and malty flavors, a little like the maltiness of a good beer. Assams are also among the most assertive and brisk of the black teas. It’s no accident: The more quickly a tea is made, the brisker its body. And everything about Assam tea is fast.

 

Assam is India’s tea basket, a hothouse region that generates astonishing quantities of tea in just six weeks. Assam teas derive from Camellia sinensis var. assamica, a large-leafed variety of tea discovered only in the 1830s by British botanist-adventurer Charles Bruce. As in Darjeeling, the British were quick to establish massive tea plantations, which today grow many different clones of the wild original. (Assam also has a very large field of natural gas, so in an awkward—though safe—arrangement, today the tea plantations alternate with gas refineries.)

 

In Assam’s subtropical conditions, the plants suffer for nothing, least of all water: Assam is one of the wettest places on the planet. The mighty Brahmaputra River cuts right down the Y-shaped northeastern region, brimming with melted Himalayan snows and the region’s rains. The weather is fairly consistent: It either pours down rain or it is sunny and steamy. In the tropical moisture, the tea bushes draw from the rich, alluvial soil to generate thick, big leaves from May through June. In the humid air, tea makers have to rush to process the tea.

 

Assam makers both wither and oxidize these leaves in less time than for just about every other good tea. In contrast with oolong leaves, which benefit from multistage withering, or Darjeelings, which require a hard withering, Assam leaves are limp and ready for rolling after just eighteen hours. As a result of this soft wither, Assams are more muted, more soothing, and a darker, richer brown color.

 

Assam makers roll and oxidize their teas quickly as well. While most use CTC machines, a few great Orthodox Assam makers apply traditional rolling to macerate the large, thick assamica leaves. First they roll the leaves in large batches in strong machines that apply plenty of pneumatic pressure. The leaf morsels that are the first to break down are considered the best and are called “fines” (see “Mangalam FTGFOP OR 815,” page 146). The remaining leaves are run through a conical sieve called a “dhool.” This sieve pulverizes the leaves much as a ricer does a potato. Some leaves are still too tough and are sent through the rolling machine and then the dhool a second and third time. The thoroughly crushed leaves then oxidize very quickly, taking on strong, brisk flavors.

 

Orthodox Assams are the finest of the region, but they are risky to make. Indians drink primarily CTC tea, most often as chai, intoxicating with spices and hot milk. But as a result, the domestic market for whole-leaf, Orthodox Assams is tiny. The best Orthodox Assams come from large industrial gardens that can afford to take a chance. Belying the usual assumptions about artisanal teas, some of Assam’s finest Orthodox teas come from enormous multinational corporations. The two Mangalams in this chapter come from Jayshree Tea & Industries, a publicly traded company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of over $50 million.

 

These companies have helped improve the quality of the region’s teas dramatically in the last fifty years. Though Assams have changed considerably, I have a nostalgic affection for them. I start my day with an Assam. Of the pure teas I trade in, Assams most resemble the dark black teas of my childhood. Only today they taste so much better.

 

What follows are four Assams, arranged in order from most honeyed to guttiest and most robust. The first, Golden Tip Assam, is a recent innovation, as the name suggests, made entirely of golden tips. The next two Mangalams represent more traditional, robust Orthodox teas. The fourth is a top-notch (though strong and uniform) CTC .

(THE PENGUIN PRESS)

Cooking with tea : the possibilities

You can also eat tea, using it in everything from stir-fry to muffins. This is really not such a far-out idea, since people were eating tea a couple of thousand years ago. It’s relatively simple to substitute concentrated tea for liquids in many baking recipes. Sweet breads and muffins seem particularly suited to this substitution.

Diana Rosen, coauthor of Cooking with Tea , suggests that if you slowly brew tea at room temperature for about twenty to thirty minutes, the resulting infusion will be free of bitterness and astringency and will be even better than quickly brewed tea in various recipes. Of course, you wouldn’t want to drink tea brewed like this, as it would be much too strong. She also suggests using spring water instead of distilled water for a superior product.

Brewed tea can also be used in marinades and basting sauces, or as flavoring for stir-fry. Just be sure to choose a flavor of tea that will enhance your meat or poultry.

Next time you are boiling eggs and want to add something a little unusual, boil the eggs in dark tea, and during the last few minutes of cooking, remove the eggs, crack the shells, and return them to the liquid to continue to cook. This results in a beautiful “marbled” look.

Tea chai with food

Different teas taste best with different kinds of food. As with wine, much depends on personal taste, but these combinations are worth trying. As a general guideline, try pairing teas with foods from the same geographic region. For example, Japanese green teas taste wonderful with many of the foods indigenous to that country. Here are some other ideas:

Japanese green teas such as sencha, bancha, and genmaicha with seafood, fish, and rice, or to balance out foods high in sodium

Oolong tea with shellfish such as lobster and shrimp

Black teas or a smoky tea such as Lapsang souchong with meat dishes

Pu-erh with meats and poultry

China black teas such as Keemun or Yunnan, or Taiwan oolongs, or Lapsang souchong with hot, spicy foods

Jasmine tea with delicately flavored cooking

BEST TIMES OF DAY
FOR SIPPING VARIOUS TEAS

Breakfast. Try any of the “breakfast” blends, including Irish breakfast and English breakfast, or black teas from Sri Lanka, India (especially from Assam or the second harvest of Darjeeling), or the Yunnan region of China. Prince of Wales and Earl Grey are also good for an early start.

Midmorning and lunch. Green teas, particularly sencha or gunpowder, are appropriate. These are actually great to sip up until midafternoon. Green tea aids digestion and is beneficial when taken with food.

Afternoon. For an afternoon tea, serve an early-harvest Darjeeling or a black tea from China, such as Keemun. For a special occasion, you might serve a special white tea such as Silver Needles or White Peony.

In the late afternoon, try an oolong from Taiwan such as tung ting jade or Iron Goddess of Mercy. Oolongs have less caffeine than black teas. Rooibos, actually a tisane rather than a true tea, makes a sweet addition to an afternoon tea. It is completely free of caffeine but does contain antioxidants, making it a great choice for any time of day and a good tisane to give to children.

Evening. Because most teas contain caffeine, don’t drink them late in the day or evening, if you are sensitive to the effects of caffeine.

Caffeine in Tea

The amount of caffeine found in any one cup of tea depends on brewing time, the amount of tea used, and whether the tea is loose or in tea bags, so it’s difficult to put a specific number on it. In general, however, black tea contains less than half as much caffeine as coffee. A six-ounce cup of black tea contains about 40 milligrams of caffeine, while a comparable amount of coffee contains between 100 and 120 milligrams. The same amount of green tea contains about 30 milligrams. In general, green and white teas contain the least amount of caffeine, then oolong.

Decaffeinated teas still contain some traces of caffeine. There are two different methods of decaffeinating: using ethyl acetate, which is an organic solvent, and using water and effervescence (carbon dioxide). Both remove caffeine, but only the latter process retains the beneficial polyphenols in the tea. It pays, then, to read labels and determine just how a particular product has been decaffeinated, before purchasing. Herbal teas made from plants other than Camellia sinensis usually contain no caffeine, although yerba maté, made from Ilex paraguariensis , is quite high in caffeine (or mateine).

Yellow chai tea

A 'proper tea' is much nicer than a 'very nearly tea,' which is one you forget about afterwards.

-A.A. Milne, Writer

 Yellow chai tea is grown and produced only in China, and not much of it is exported, making it the rarest of the major tea types covered in this book. It is processed in a way that is similar to green teas, but before the leaves are dried, they are allowed to turn yellow. Yellow chai tea is milder and sweeter than green tea chai .

Yellow chai tea should be brewed in much the same fashion as white teas. Boiling water will ruin the delicate taste of the yellow leaves, so be certain that you are using water that has boiled and cooled to about 170 degrees F. Steeping time should be between 1 and 3 minutes, with longer steeping allowed each time you reuse the Yellow chai tea leaves. As far as how much tea you should use per cup, it is really a matter of personal taste, use the information on the package as your starting point and experiment to find out what you like the best.

Typical Preparation

Temperature: 170-180°F (77°C-82°C)
Time: 1-3 Minutes
Milk/Cream: Never
Honey/Sugar: Never
Lemon: Never

Mount Meng Yellow Sprout (Meng Ding Huang Ya)

Mount Meng Yellow Sprout is a delicate, grassy-flavored tea with a nutty aftertaste. It is named after Mount Meng, where it's harvested, and it's considered an Imperial tea, which means that it has a large, loosely rolled leaf.

Mount Jun Silver Needle (Junshan Yinzhen)

Also named after the mountain from which it was harvested, Mount Jun Silver Needle has a very delicate taste and because of its silver appearance, it is sometimes sold as white tea.

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Tea History: Yellow chai tea is also the name for the teas that were served during the rule of China's Imperial Court. The Imperial Court can refer to any period of dominant rule between the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BCE) and Yuan Shikai's rule in 1916.Given the high-standard of royal ritual in place during that time, delicate and bright Yellow chai tea were a perfect fit.

also read about :

•   Yellow Chai tea health FACTS

• White chai Tea

White chai Tea

A woman is like a tea bag – you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

-Eleanor Roosevelt, Former First Lady

White tea leaves are plucked much more discriminately than other tea leaves. To begin with, they are only plucked on a few days of the year in the beginning of spring.

Only the top leaves and immature buds are picked, and of that harvest, only perfect specimens make it to the basket – no leaves that are damaged in any way will be sold. After harvesting, leaves are barely processed; it takes an experienced eye and a watchful laborer to steam, and then dry the leaves just enough to allow them to be transported. For all of these reasons, the price of white teas is, on average, much higher than other teas.

White tea leaves are processed the least of any variety of tea, without any rolling or oxidation. Although the leaves and buds are silvery white in color, the tea is a light yellow when it is brewed. White teas have higher levels of antioxidants and lower levels of caffeine than any other type of tea. The silver effect is caused by minute stirrings of new growth in the form of delicate, white hairs on the outside of the tea leaves and buds.

When brewing white tea, be careful not to pour boiling water on the leaves, which are too fragile to handle that kind of heat. Boiling water on white tea leaves will result in a bitter tea. White teas are very subtle in flavor and it is not uncommon for people who are used to stronger teas to think the flavor of white tea is too faint.

Typical Preparation

Temperature: 170-180°F (77°C-82°C)
Time: 3-5 Minutes
Milk/Cream: Never
Honey/Sugar: Never
Lemon: Never

Silver Needle (Bai Hao Yin Zhen)

Silver Needle tea comes from the Fujian Province in China and is regarded as the best of all white teas. It is comprised of only buds and has a very subtle, mildly sweet flavor.

White Peony (Bai Mu Dan)

White Peony tea is considered the second finest white tea from China. This one is made up of buds and leaves, but the leaves are covered in the fine, white hairs that envelope the buds. The flavor is a bit more robust than Silver Needle tea.

Long Life Eyebrow (Shou Mei)

After Silver Needle and White Peony teas are harvested, the remaining white leaves are gathered for Long Life Eyebrow tea. The flavor of Long Life Eyebrow is stronger than White Peony, but still delicate compared to other tea varieties, like black tea.

Tribute Eyebrow (Gong Mei)

The lowest-grade white tea, Tribute Eyebrow is made from a slightly different tea bush than the other three. It is comprised of mostly broken leaves with few, if any buds. The flavor is the most robust of all four of these white teas.

Basics of chai Brewing

I got nasty habits; I take tea at three.

-Mick Jagger, Musician

Now that you know ty, where it comes from, and how it's made, we can move on to the exciting part: the basics of brewing a great cup of tea. The below terms will help you make an informed decision the next time you pick up a box of tea.

While there are no worldwide standards for grading teas, they are typically evaluated and labeled in terms of their size and appearance. Tea blends range all the way from dust and fanning, the lowest quality, to 100% buds, the highest quality tea available. The size of the leaf after processing determines how quickly it brews when hot water is added: the smaller the leaf, the faster the brew time.

Knowing how teas are graded informs you about the leaf size (and related brewing time), country of origin, and flavor intensity. Tea grading is often indicated on the packaging, allowing for a more complete understanding of the tea you buy beyond whichever name for the tea that the manufacturer decides on.

Water

Whether you are brewing CHAI tea from loose leaves or teabags, there are some basic steps that we recommend you follow. You should always start with fresh water that has a good taste; hard water or water treated with chlorine will affect the taste of your tea, so if the water in your area falls into one of those categories, it should be passed through a filter.

You also should be mindful to use the correct amount of water for the amount of tea you are planning on using. A good rule of thumb is to use about one teaspoon of loose leaf tea or one teabag per cup. Keep in mind that some lighter teas (greens and whites) have delicate taste so you may want to use less water per teaspoon of tea. Similarly, some darker black teas have a strong taste so you may want to use less tea or more water per cup. Experiment and find out what you like best.

The most important "water rule" you need to remember is that different teas require different water temperatures and brewing times. The darker teas, like black and oolong, generally require higher temperatures and longer brewing times, while the lighter teas, like white and green, require lower temperature water and shorter brewing times. Before you brew your tea, be sure to find out the recommended temperature and duration for the tea you are getting ready to prepare. This information is usually printed on the package.

Also, water reacts best with the tea if there is oxygen in it, so always empty the kettle and refill it with fresh cold water before boiling. Do not re-boil water in the kettle twice.

Chai Tea : Milk

For many years there has been a debate about whether you should pour milk into the cup first or whether you should pour in the tea and add the milk second. Traditionally, the milk was added first to prevent the hot tea from cracking cheaper ceramic cups. Today, most cups are more robust, so cracking them isn't a concern.

Many people think that milk mixes into the tea better if it is poured into the cup first. However, others find that it is easier to judge how much milk to put in if it is poured in after the tea. In the end it is entirely a matter of choice. While most black teas are taken with milk, green teas and other lighter teas are usually drunk without milk.

Chai Tea : Honey

Honey has many varieties with different flavor notes, making for hundreds of possibilities when it's combined with tea. Tea and honey are also both well-known for their myriad of health benefits; oftentimes, the two are combined to help with ailments from the common cold to lack of energy. Some great combinations are clover honeys with citrus or minty teas, orange blossom honey with black teas, and Tupelo honey with Jasmine tea. 

 

Chai Tea : Lemon

Lemon has always been a natural addition to tea as a flavoring agent. A recent study by Purdue University, though, proves that this combination is not only tasty, it's very healthy. Their study was conclusive in finding that lemon and other citrus juices added to green teas facilitated increased time that the antioxidants in the green tea stayed in the digestive system. Citrus juice added to green tea accomplishes this by allowing catechins to remain in the digestive system longer, which have such healthy properties as reduction in the risks of cancer and stroke.

( tea chai majestic blog )

What is chai Tea ?

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.

-William Ewart Gladstone, British 19th century Prime Minister

Chai Tea Cultivation

On a cool morning in the mountains of China, a peasant tea plucker wakes at sunrise to begin her daily task of harvesting tea. She is just one of many pluckers who have gathered in the morning to begin the daily tea harvest. A lingering morning haze protects the delicate leaves of low-lying tea bushes that her experienced hands pass over with care. Only the best quality leaves are acceptable for harvest.

For good quality black or oolong teas, only the bud and the next two leaves are plucked – a process known as "fine plucking," or the "orthodox method." She wears a wide-brimmed hat to shield herself from the intense sunlight. Harvesting is a labor intensive process requiring some skill and our tea plucker moves along slowly and methodically. This is highly repetitive work, but not overly-taxing and she may continue this work until well after turning 60. 

Harvesting lower-quality teas means that more and coarser leaves are plucked as well as the bud. This is known as coarse plucking. Sometimes additional, mature leaves are plucked deliberately to prune the bushes, which enable nutrients to be absorbed by newer leaves.

This is a sight that is familiar to many rural areas in India, China, Africa, and other countries around the world where more than 3,000 varieties of tea are grown. It is best grown at higher altitudes, with frequent, regular rain. Mild and misty mornings are beneficial because they protect the bushes from the burning sun, enabling the plants to develop more slowly. An average tea bush will typically produce about 3,000 tea leaves each year, which becomes approximately one pound of ready-to-brew tea.

Our plucker carefully fills her baskets with the leaves. Once full, baskets are inspected for quality and dispatched to a tea processing factory. Different methods of processing raw tea leaves produce different tea varieties. As soon as they are picked, fresh green tea leaves begin to oxidize and wither if they are not dried. How that process is managed and controlled determines the type and nature of the tea produced.

Plucking by hand is reserved for only high-quality teas these days; modern technology harvests and processes most lower-quality teas now.