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Dreams of Islay - Loose Tea
£24.32 -
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Learn More About Black Tea
Learn More About Black Tea
When there are so many black teas to choose from, we hope to help answer some of the basic questions that might help you find just the teas you're looking for.
What is black tea?
Black Tea is probably the most popular type of tea in Western culture. While, like white tea, green tea, and oolong tea, the leaves are from the Camellia sinensis plant, it is the way the tea leaves are processed that results in black tea. One such process is called oxidisation where the loose leaf black tea leaves are put through a process so that the leaves become fully oxidised. This oxidisation process is similar to what you see when the skin of an apple is broken and you see the flesh of the apple start to turn brown - in the process of making black tea, the surface of the leaves are broken and so start to turn brown.
The origins of black tea
There are many processes used throughout the world, which is why there are so many types of black tea, but why have black tea in the first place? Well, some 5,000 years ago, tea in the form of green tea is believed to have originated in China and as tea's popularity grew, exports of tea leaves started to spread. However, the length of time it took to ship green tea was often too long for the leaves to arrive in good condition but it was discovered that if the tea leaves were fully oxidised, they were able to endure longer journeys and better retain their freshness and flavour.
The many forms of black tea
As there are many tea-growing regions in the world, so too are there many forms of black tea. Such diverse elements such as the location of the tea bushes, the altitude at which they are grown and the method of production all add to the resultant unique flavours and characteristics we all know and love. Through our selection process, we are pleased to present our best black tea collection. Whilst we have grouped our Breakfast Teas in a category of their own for ease of searching on our website, teas such as English Breakfast tea are black teas using leaves from various tea growing regions to create the unique Breakfast Blends. Learn more about our Breakfast Teas
In addition to black tea blends, we also sell single Estate Black Teas from tea growing regions such as Assam or Darjeeling - Assam (India) teas are known to be strong and malty in flavour where as Darjeeling teas are known as the Champagne of teas with their very distinct muscatel flavour. When you consider the brisk Ceylon teas and the smoky Chinese teas such as Lapsang Souchong, or the earthy Pu-Erhs you can see what a wide choice of loose leaf black teas are available to enjoy.
There are many black tea blends that include natural flavours and herbs and spices such as Kuchipudi Masala Chai which tastes great with milk and sugar when made the traditional way. If you drink black tea and are concerned about the caffeine content, whilst black tea contains around 27- 35mg of caffeine per cup, the caffeine is released at a much slower rate than coffee, so you do not experience a rush of caffeine.
Reported health benefits of black tea
Black tea has many reported health benefits too. One 15 year study found that a chemical compound, flavinoid, present in black tea helped reduce the production of LDL cholesterol (known as bad cholesterol). There's also scientific studies suggesting drinking more then 3 -4 cups of black tea a day could significantly reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease. We've written more on this in our Health section in the Tea Hub. Here's the link to Health benefits Of Black tea
What food pairs well with black tea?
Like wines, teas are often paired with food. Black teas are great with full flavoured foods such as red meat, spicy foods, English styled breakfasts and fried foods. If you'd like to learn more about teas and food pairings, check out our post at the Tea Hub: Tea And Food Pairing
UK's love of tea!
Black tea has always played an important part in everyday life in the UK and never more than during World War II. In our history section in the Tea Hub learn how tea was protected during the war in our post: Drinking Tea During the Blitz And World War Two .