Everybody loves Black tea, Coffee & Chocolate, the premier beverages. Of all of them Black tea (Oxidized tea) is the most consumed & healthiest beverage. While Green tea (minimally oxidized tea) from Japan & China has gained popularity, Oolongs tea (semi oxidized tea) from Taiwan too has achieved its rightful place amidst the beverages. Meanwhile White tea (unoxidized tea) has been reaching out for a share in the tea market. All of them are products of the leaf from a single plant: Camellia sinensis, popularly called Tea plant.
Sri Lanka & India are the leading producers of quality Black tea. Of all the Black tea produced in the world, the finest Black tea is from the Indian ocean of Island of Sri Lanka branded & marketed “Ceylon tea” with unmistakable logo of a stylized, upright lion bearing a sword & depicting a steadfast stand.
Black tea by another name. i.e. Red tea
Black tea when served plain without milk is called Red tea in some of the Middle Eastern countries & Asian countries in view of the reddish tint of the beverage.
Rooibos tea aka Red tea is not Black tea
To mince no words, Rooibos tea aka Red tea is no Black tea. To pull no punches, Rooibos tea aka Red tea has nothing to do with Black tea or Green tea or White tea at all. To hit the last nail on the coffin, so called Red tea aka Roobios tea is not manufactured from the tea plant Camellia Sinensis. Rooibos tea is a bush tea manufactured in the wilderness of South Africa & marketed mainly in U. S. A. As such, herein we pay last respects to Roobias tea aka Red tea. We make a steadfast stand & tolerate no fakes.
The finest Black tea in the world: Ceylon tea
Ceylon Tea, the finest tea in the world has been a cornerstone of the economy of the island since beverage from Sri Lanka rose to prominence in the world. Sri Lanka, the 3rd largest producer of Black tea in the world, has a total extent of 187,309 hectares of Black tea plantations, with most of it the running along the railway line & motorway from Kandy, medieval royal capital to Badulla of the central highlands of the beautiful tropical island of Sri Lanka. Country railway line, country road twisting, winding & climbing hill after hill are overwhelmed with vast tea plantations that follow the contours of the land with incredibly trim & tight bushes of tea plants. So trim, so tight, so neat, so vast, so green hill after hill lulls you into a dreamy world. Streams & falls awake you to the reality. It’s for real.
Fine plucking Ceylon tea
Sri Lanka’s seemingly seamless shimmering Black tea plantations, that if left untended shoot up to become tall trees, are immaculately pruned to waist height so that manual fine plucking of two tender leaves and a bud are carried out with great swiftness. Plucking is done throughout the year except for a short period following pruning. No less than 300,000 plantation workers in Sri Lanka pluck millions of superior quality Black tea by hand on daily basis. The swift hands of the women tea pluckers flit over the tea shrubs as if all of those thousands of women are equally ambidextrous. Their busy bee, butterfly soft mode of nipping off the youngest and topmost leaves (to maximize the flavour & aroma) by snapping the stem with the index and middle fingers, then tossing their pickings into large baskets on their backs takes you by surprise. It takes the pluckings from some 150 tea bushes to make one pound of Black tea. The small & swift feminine hands coupled with the superior temperament in womanly virtue of patience are instrumental to great extent for high yield plucking. What would we do without women?
Black Tea processing: as green as you would like
In Black tea processing leaves and flushes from the tea plant Camellia sinensis are transformed into the dried leaves for brewing tea. Processing tea consists of important stages: oxidizing the leaves, stopping the oxidation, forming the tea and drying it. That’s it: not overly complicated; still better, no artificial additives at all. Black tea is as green as you would like. Of these steps, the degree of oxidation plays to a great extent in determining the final flavor of the beverage, with rest of the process being instrumental to a lesser extent.
Black tea manufacturing process: withering
Each & every major tea plantation of Sri Lanka has its own airy fairy factory by the side of a stream. On wide lofts one above the other with abundant space the Black tea leaves are spread on long tables to wither in warm dry air for twelve hours.
Black tea manufacturing process: rolling
Then the leaves are subjected to a slow rolling process by means of heavy machinery making the tea leaves roll over & around in a twisting and crushing action till each leaf end up with an attractive twist. After all, everybody loves a twist. The rolling process breaks up the cells of the tea leaf, releasing moisture, enzymes (the flavenoids and alkaloids) & Tea tannin. The distinctive flavour of the beverage comes out in rolling.
Black tea manufacturing process: roll breaking
Roll breaking process breaks up the twisted balls or lumps of leaves and allows them to cool. The roll-breaker is a long mechanised sieve that vibrates while pushing the leaves over the sloping mesh from one end to the other.
Black tea manufacturing process: fermentation
Then the mass of twisted green wisps are sifted according to the size & placed in a very cool room to ferment for a short time. Since there is no growth of yeast in the process, fermentation is a misnomer. The process herein is oxidation. Following the release of chemical enzymes from the ruptured cells, the mass of twisted & crushed tea leaves undergo an oxidation of the Tea tannin. Oxidation changes the leaf to a coppery red-brown.
Black tea manufacturing process: firing
It all ends up with fire: following the fermentation is the torment. The leaves are fired and dried for 21 minutes in an enormous dryer on a series of trays exposing them to temperatures as high as 260°F (120°C). The tea leaf now goes black & brittle, the Black tea we know, ready to brew.
Ceylon tea: Premium Black tea
The ordinary beverage of tea consumed from Colombo to London is not brewed of premium quality Black tea. While the affluent society would enjoy premium quality tea, some humble folks too find themselves lucky to live in areas where the tea sold for everyday consumption is premium quality. Residents at Sri Lanka’s hill country resorts & Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela, Sri Lanka would agree, to the boot.
Ceylon tea: High grown, medium grown & low grown tea
Sri Lanka’s varieties of Black tea draw their distinctive essence and flavour from the climatic conditions of the tea growing areas of the tropical island. Sri Lanka’s tea branded & marketed Ceylon tea is categorised high grown, medium grown & low grown in line with the altitude of the area. High grown teas from Nuwara Eliya, the hill country resort are the finest Black tea in the world.
