The history of English black tea and how to make it

The History of English Black Tea and How to Brew It

The Culture of English Black Tea

English Black Tea is a kind of fermented tea, with different degrees of fermentation, showing a different color, aroma and taste, just like wine, so that people can catch the taste.

The British are world-renowned for their love of black tea. At many different times of the day, the British take the time to have a cup of tea. Such a tradition, in fact, spread as early as the 18th century. In Europe in the 18th century, in addition to wine, which was widely brewed by missionaries, the cup of tea that was highly prized by the British aristocracy at the time, and even used as a way to show off their aristocratic status, was a cup of aromatic black tea, and it had to be brewed with the finest black tea from China or India. Black tea became the most popular drink in England at that time, and replaced wine in the dining. The most popular drink in Britain was black tea, which replaced wine in the dining room.

The most traditional afternoon black tea, without question, is the English afternoon tea. Although the complicated etiquette of the English afternoon tea has been simplified, but the correct brewing method, elegant tea setup, sumptuous tea, these three points are regarded as the tradition of tea and passed down, but also become the orthodox British black tea culture.

English black tea shows a gentleman's taste and luxury temperament.

British black tea brewing

The traditional British black tea requires a set of complicated tea sets to brew taste. The beautiful and noble bone china tea set is painted with exquisite British plants and flowers, simple and elegant. English tea sets are collectible because they come in sets of cups with gold rims. To add flavor, milk can be added to black tea to make milk tea, but should be added to the milk first, can avoid the surface of the tea to produce globules of grease. In a proper English tea party, adding lemon is discouraged so as not to ruin the flavor of a good tea.

The history of English black tea

Everything related to England is genteel and noble. Polo, English whisky, and of course, the world-famous English black tea are all the more charming and gentlemanly. A cup of rich flavor, deep color of the British black tea has poured over countless royalty, more British black tea culture has added a charming color.

When it comes to British black tea, many people stubbornly believe that its birthplace is in England on the European continent, but in fact it is produced thousands of miles away from China. You won't find the world-famous English black tea plantations in the UK.

It is because of the British love of black tea and the long tradition of drinking it that black tea, which originated in China and was grown in India, is prefixed with the word "British", and the name "British black tea" is misunderstood by many people to this day.

The reason why black tea has become a worldwide beverage is closely related to the Sui and Tang dynasties in China and the expansion of the British Empire. In the 5th century AD, Chinese tea was shipped as far as Turkey, and since the Sui and Tang dynasties, China's interaction with the West has been uninterrupted. Although the trade in tea has long existed, China at that time only exported tea, not tea seeds.

By the 1880s, a British tree planter collector named Robert Foo, tea seeds into a portable insulated box made of special glass, secretly brought on board the ship to India, and then cultivated more than 100,000 tea seedlings in India, so that large-scale tea gardens appeared.

Its production of black tea was shipped to the British mainland for sale. Because of the long-distance transportation, the number of black tea arrived in the United Kingdom doubled in value, only the rich British aristocrats can taste this precious luxury "Indian black tea", and since then gradually formed a black tea culture in the United Kingdom.

At that time, the British Empire by virtue of its strong national strength and advanced means of trade, in more than 50 countries around the world to plant tea, tea will be promoted as an international beverage. The birth of black tea solved the problem of the loss of flavor due to long-distance transportation. The Qing Dynasty was the most prosperous period of China's tea trade.

At that time, due to the increasing demand for black tea from the British and even European royalty, European merchant ships loaded with tea sailed all over the world. During the heyday of the world tea trade, 60% of China's output was black tea.

Later, Britain, France and other European countries began to buy tea from India and Ceylon and other regions. Through the years and the precipitation of time, to date, produced in India, two famous producing areas of fine black tea, has long become the world's best "British black tea".