Tea and Cookies (3 page)

F
ORMOSA
M
ILK
, from Taiwan, has a surprising milky aroma and buttery mouth feel. These attributes are the result of a sudden climate change that occurs during the plant’s growth.

BLACK TEA

Black tea leaves are allowed to oxidize to the fullest, a process that includes wilting, rolling, and drying. This combination of treatments deepens the tea’s flavor and darkens its brewed color. Although the other teas are increasing in popularity, black tea accounts for over 90 percent of sales in the West. Unblended black tea is often identified by its place of origin. Different kinds of black tea can be combined to create blends, or mixed with flavorings.

Brewed black tea actually has a reddish color—in fact, it is called “red tea” in China. (In the West, red tea refers to rooibos, which is not a tea at all.) The term “black tea” probably refers to the very dark tea leaves.

As tea leaves can be crushed and broken during processing, leaf size is the main quality indicator for black tea. The best class is whole-leaf tea, which indicates careful handling. Orange Pekoe is not a specific kind of tea, but a size of tea leaf. (The “Orange” in the term probably is a nod to the royal family of Orange, who were in power when the British tea trade was becoming a major commercial force, and has nothing to do with citrus flavor.) You may find some teas labeled with an acronym such as TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe), an even more specific grade, which in this case denotes that, along with the leaves, the tea includes the desirable golden tips and flowers of the tea branches.

Clockwise from top left:
Jasmine, Golden Monkey, Black Snail, Lapsang Souchong.

Broken leaves can be sold as a less expensive, but still good-quality tea. Fannings (small pieces of leaves left over from processing larger-leaf teas) and dust (even smaller particles of leaves) end up in tea bags. Small-leaf particles have harsher flavors. This is one reason why tea bags, which have traditionally been filled with fannings and dust, have a bad reputation among tea connoisseurs. On the other hand, the small pieces have more surface area to come into contact with hot water, and thus release their flavor quickly for a fast cup of tea. The commonplace black teas are often sweetened and doused with milk to help soften the rough flavor, but high-quality black tea can be savored plain. Here are some familiar black teas:

Chinese Black Tea

K
EEMUN
, named for its place of origin in Qimen (Keemun being its colonial period spelling) county in eastern China, is full-bodied and strong when brewed, with aromas of pine and fruit. Its strength made it a popular tea for blending, but now it is appreciated as a single-leaf tea.

Y
UNNAN
, from the traditional birthplace of Chinese tea, is malty with spicy notes.
Y
UNNAN
G
OLD
tea includes the golden tips of the plant buds; pricey
Y
UNNAN
P
URE
G
OLD
is composed exclusively of these carefully harvested buds.

S
NAIL
tea is made from leaves that have been hand-curled into tight spirals;
G
OLDEN
S
NAIL
tea includes a high amount of leafy tips. The curly leaves unfurl slowly in hot water, making this one of the few black teas that can take to two or three consecutive brewings, similar to the method used for some white teas.

G
OLDEN
M
ONKEY
, from the Fujian province, is hand-plucked to include only one leaf and one bud. The dried leaves, with golden highlights, are said to resemble a monkey’s claws.

Indian Tea

D
ARJEELING
tea is processed from small-leaved Chinese tea plants planted in this region of West Bengal in the mid-1800s by the British. The best Darjeeling comes from small plantations called tea gardens, many of them with romantic names such as Margaret’s Hope or Happy Valley, and identified by the time of their harvest (first flush through autumn). The brewed tea is light-bodied with a winelike aroma that reminds many of muscatel.

A
SSAM
tea is made from large-leaved tea plants native to India. The dried leaves are sizable and twisted, and brew into a reddish-brown beverage with the slightly astringent “brisk” flavor that makes it a fine morning eye-opener.

C
EYLON
, the colonial name of the island Sri Lanka, grows tea in six different regions. For a variety with the classic black tea “brightness” of flavor, look for one from the Central Highlands region. Sri Lanka is the third-largest producer of tea in the world.

Blended Black Tea

E
NGLISH
B
REAKFAST
tea blends various Indian black teas to make a robust flavor that does well with milk and sugar.

I
RISH
B
REAKFAST
tea is even stronger than its English counterpart, and usually has a base of Assam tea. To mellow its assertiveness, it is usually drunk with milk and sugar.

R
USSIAN
C
ARAVAN
tea mixes very strong black tea with Lapsang Souchong to give the brew a smoky aroma reminiscent of a caravan campfire. Russians love tea, which is brewed very strong, then diluted (preferably with water from the family samovar, which is heated all day to stand at the ready), and served highly sweetened with sugar or jam.

E
ARL
G
REY
tea is a blend of black teas processed with oil of the bergamot orange to give it a unique fragrance and flavor. It is named for the British prime minister of the 1830s.

Flavored Teas

Many popular teas are flavored with fruit or spices—currant, peach, blueberry, cinnamon, and orange are just a few of the ingredients that you will see on tea labels. To provide the flavor, the tea leaves (usually black) are often sprayed with natural or artificial oils. In some cases, the leaves are mixed with dried peels or spices or dehydrated fruit.
J
ASMINE
, one of the best-known flavored teas, is green or black tea stored with actual jasmine blossoms to absorb the flowers’ strong scent and mild flavor.
L
APSANG
S
OUCHONG
is black tea that has been smoked over pine to give it a very smoky flavor.

PU-ERH TEAS

Fermentation and aging after oxidation both contribute to pu-erh tea’s woodsy flavor and aroma. The large leaves are from a wild tea tree that grows in the Yunnan province. There are actually two types of pu-erh. Green (also called “raw”) pu-erh is unoxidized, then fermented to give it a particularly earthy flavor. “Cooked” pu-erh has been lightly oxidized, and is then fermented before being pressed into various shapes (such as disks, nests, bowls, mushrooms, squares, or bricks) that can be aged for years. These molded, compact shapes made the tea easier to transport by horse. Today, the molds are often wrapped in paper for selling. To brew pu-erh, the leaf is chipped off the mold and then steeped in water.

Even though cooked pu-erh is essentially an oolong tea, it turns black during aging, so the Chinese refer to it as “black tea.” Pu-erh tea is said to have extraordinary health properties, and it is renowned in China as a diet tea.

Top
, Seven Sisters;
bottom
, Tuo Cha.

T
UO
C
HA
is pu-erh tea pressed into a bird’s-nest or bowl shape. The molded tea bowl can be as small as 3 grams or run up to 3 kilos or more.

S
EVEN
S
ISTERS
is an example of raw, loose-leaf pu-erh tea that has not been molded.

HERBAL “TEA”/TISANES

To be utterly correct, a beverage made from anything other than the leaves of
Camellia sinensis
should not be called a tea. We use the term “herbal tea” to cover a large group of beverages, even if they are not actually made from herbs (the leaves of aromatic edible plants) but bark, flowers, roots, or seeds. The French name for this type of brew is
tisane,
a word that appears on many restaurant beverage menus.

In addition to a huge range of enticing flavors, herbal tea is popular for two reasons. First, with the exception of yerba maté (described on page 20), herbal teas do not contain caffeine, and are perfect for those wishing to avoid this stimulant. Also, some tisanes have reputations for being especially effective digestive aids, so they are the ideal after-dinner beverage. When I was a student in Mexico, my tummyaches were not treated with medicine from a bottle, but with copious cups of
manzanilla
(chamomile) or
menta
(mint).

Herbal tea can be steeped according to taste to make a lightly or deeply flavored brew. Sweeten it with a bit of honey or sugar, if you like, but few of these infusions are good with milk. Here are some of the most popular tisanes:

Clockwise from top left:
Chai, Hibiscus, Rooibos, Chrysanthemum.

C
HAMOMILE
, with its familiar applelike aroma, brews into a mild tea that is sometimes combined with stronger herbs, such as peppermint.

C
HRYSANTHEMUM
tea consists of the dried flowers, and is prized as a gift in Chinese culture.

H
IBISCUS
flowers (actually the sepals) are dried to brew into a delicious, if tart, magenta-colored tea. At Latino grocery stores, hibiscus may be labeled
flor de jamaica,
and Caribbean markets may sell it as sorrel or red sorrel. It is especially tasty when sweetened and iced.

O
SMANTHUS
, an evergreen shrub, has very aromatic blossoms that are used to add fragrance to black or green tea leaves in a manner similar to producing jasmine tea. The blossoms can also be tied with green or white tea leaves as a presentation tea.

P
EPPERMINT
makes an herbal tea that is equally good hot or iced. Fresh mint leaves are blended with green gunpowder tea to make the favorite tea of Morocco. The traditional Moroccan tea ser vice is impressive, as the server pours the tea from a pot held at eye level into glasses a few feet below to create a foam.