Black Tea

Black tea, know as Red Tea in China (红茶 Hong Cha), includes many varieties of dark teas, although in English, "Red Tea" often refers to rooibos, a Souther African tea.  Black tea, like green and oolong teas, comes from the (C. sinensis sinensis) tree, the only difference being the amount of oxidation that occurs in the leaves after harvesting.  Although recently green tea has made a resurgence in the west, black tea remains the most popular.', 'Black tea became popular in the west due to its long shelf life.  Green tea will start to lose its flavor after one year, while black tea can retain its flavor for several.  This was a great advantage for European traders who would have to wait several months for a ship to depart from the orient and arrive back in its home port.  Often green teas would spoil onboard the ship or shortly after arriving.  This difference clearly contrasts the Russian tea room experience where green teas were often served.  This was possible due to overland trading roots to Moscow.

In ancient China tea was paid as tribute to government officials. One way to make sure the tea arrived unspoiled was to take the black tea and press it into cakes.  The cakes would then be crumbled apart and put into a tea pot for steeping.

Processing Black Tea

The first step is to harvest the leaves.  Most lower quality teas that end up sold in tea bags are harvested by machine, while higher quality teas are hand picked.

Then the tea leaves are broken to start the oxidation process.  The methods for doing this is also determined by the quality.  Lower quality teas are machine processed by the CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) method, while high quality teas are processed by hand.  Most connoisseurs prefer the hand methods because the tea grower will know the best way to brake the leaf in order to produce the most flavorful brew.

The leaves are then left in a climate controlled area for the oxidation to continue.  Sometimes this is also know in the tea industry as "fermentation" although this is a misnomer because no actual fermentation takes place.

Tea leaves are then dried to stop the oxidation process.

Lastly, the leaves are sorted and separated according to sizes.  The leaves can also be subdivided if necessary.

Brewing

While most green tees should be steeped at about 175ºF (80ºC), black tees are best steeped in fresh, boiled water.  Approximate measurements are a teaspoon of tea per 6oz (177ml) cup of water.  Black tea made from loose leaves should be steeped for around 4 to 5 minutes.  Delicate teas or tea made from broken leaves have a shorter brewing times due to larger surface areas.