The
Story of Black Tea
Kohei
Iwamoto
The
dry tea plant’s leaves and buds completely ferment them. This is the way how
the black tea leaves are made. As we suppose, black tea is very popular for
European people and especially British and Irish. British people drink black
tea every time when they’re taking rests. Moreover, the only exception is their
sleeping hours. British teas and cakes are highly developed and elegant. The culture
of drinking tea was brought to Ireland in the 18th century (citation).
In 2008, the amount of black tea consumption per national in Ireland was higher
than British’s which means that Ireland is the most tea consuming country.
Black tea was traditionally produced from
shrub tea plants from China. However, in 1823, taller tea plants were found in
Assam which locates in the North of India (citation). After the discovery, the
cultivation of Assam tea leaves became popular in India and Sri Lanka.
Darjeeling which is Chinese species of tea and some other kinds of teas are
cultivated in various places. It’s generally said that Assam is bitterer than
Chinese one, so Assam or mixed tea leaves are cheaper than other kinds
(citation).
India and Sri Lanka are the two largest
producing countries of black teas. India is very famous for two popular tea
leaves which are known as Assam and Darjeeling. In addition, both are produced
in the North of India. Assam is fitted for milk tea for its thick taste and
sweet aroma. Darjeeling is suited to straight tea because it has typical aroma
like muscatel which is called world’s best aroma of tea and pungency (some call
this “exciting astringency”). Sri Lanka is well-known for Ceylon tea. It has
five kinds of leaves. Uva and Dimbula are the most famous leaves. Uva is
cultivated in the southeast of Ceylon Island. Uva and Darjeeling and Keemun
(Chinese black tea) is called world’s best 3 top tea leaves. In addition, Uva
is good for rich milk tea and known for its mellow flavor and sweet smell like
flowers. Dimbula is raised in the center of Ceylon Island. It smells like roses
and matches with straight tea (citation).
Blend tea is made to enjoy tastes and flavors
which cannot be recognized single leave tea. Moreover, blend tea which is used
herbs or essences to flavor is called flavor tea. Major packers use blend tea
or flavor tea to provide stable tasted tea in low costs. Earl Grey is the best
known flavor tea and blends Keemun with bergamot to flavor citrus smell.
Furthermore, the name of Earl Grey is derived from the British president in the
19 century (citation).
In
the United States, hot coffee is far more popular than hot tea. Nevertheless,
in term of iced drinks and iced tea is more popular than iced coffee. In
addition, in France, coffee is also popular than tea. The culture of tea
drinking was fixed as the culture of bourgeoisie (citation).
The
culture of tea drinking is very different from countries and it’s very
interesting. I want to search for it more.
Interesting topic Kohei. Personally, I am a tea lover and my favorite teas are Morrocan Mint, Earl Grey and Darjeeling. I feel that the appreciation of tea is an art, one which demands a lot of dedication and research in order to understand what the tea leaves truly encompass. It's not just plainly the flavor. You get a sense of the culture, the lifestyle and the beliefs of the people who planted the tea leaves. Each brew of tea brings a different flavor and there will never be an identical brew. I hope you can bring out more insights and information regarding the way tea and people are connected.
ReplyDeleteTo Kohei. I really enjoyed reading this essay which you wrote about the srory of black tea. There were a lot of things that I did not know about it. Howwever, the things that I want to mention here is about the citations and references. I am actually the person who checked your essay, and I am pretty sure that I added some suggestions. I now want to mention again that when I typed (citation) to your essay, it meant that you should definitely add some resources where you found that information. you should follow either MLA or APA style format. in addition, you should also add more references, and I personally think that your references are not enough to have information about this topic. However, over all this essay was pretty interesting.
ReplyDeletei alsways reading blog related to food. and after i read, i want to try those kind of foods.
ReplyDeleteby the way, ur blog gives a lot of new information to me. since only coffee is famous in korea, i was hard to meet other teas. i want to try the black tea soon