Look Ma! There’s no milk in my tea!

Black tea without milk? Feeling naked? You shouldn’t be, because good black tea doesn’t need any dressing – milk, sugar etc!

A tiny bit of history – Why is milk added to tea?
In the olden days when tea was expensive, and the intense heat from hot tea might have caused the fine china to crack, the aristocrats decided to add a bit of milk in the cup before pouring the hot tea in. Gradually this became the custom of “taking tea”.

While Chinese have always been selling their tea with an emphasis on the product origin (provinces such as Yunnan, Keemun), the Indians and Sri Lankans are only starting to market their tea with a locational focus in the recent decade or so.

The most notable single estate black tea range is probably Darjeeling from India. Darjeeling is regarded as the “Champagne of tea” and its signature is lightly smoky with a touch of muscatel flavour. Its golden colour brew tends to be of medium strength best enjoyed on its own, or with a slice of lemon.

Our Margaret’s Hope and Organic Snowview Darjeeling are well-made exemplary Darjeeling.

Sri Lankan (Ceylon) black tea is well-known for its balance amongst flavour, strength and aroma. Some Ceylon tea is good on its own and they are typically of OP or other larger leaf grades, such as our Ceylon Classic OP from Nandana.

Assam is well known for its red coppery brew that is deliciously malty and great with milk, although again if you find a larger leaf grade like our Assam Banaspaty FTGFOP1, then you are in luck for a nice treat – no milk required.
Writer: teas.com.au
Source: teas.com.au Oct2011 enews