Six teas to pull you through the long winter
Tired of coffee? Brew some of these classics instead
With cooler weather coming, warmer beverages sound better every day. Still, you can drink only so much coffee, and some of us are perhaps already a little, um, over-caffeinated. Maybe it’s time to consider a cup of tea, the world’s second-most-popular beverage (after water).
With hundreds of teas out there, you might conclude that they come from different plants. But in fact, all tea comes from one plant: Camellia sinensis, a species of evergreen that grows worldwide in warmer cli- mates. Tea’s wonderful variety results from the terroir — where the plant grows — and the way the leaves are processed.
Here are six classic teas to check out: Assam: If you’re transitioning to drinking less coffee and more tea, Assam is a good gateway beverage that’s hearty and deep-flavoured. Named after its home region in northeastern India, this malty brew is used in Irish and German breakfast teas, an indication of its potential, like coffee, to stimulate. Pu-erh: A reddish-black Chinese tea, pu-erh is aged, hardening as it dries, then pressed into regular shapes for shipping. Like wine, puerh improves with age. You’ll some- times see vintages on the packaging, and because pu-erh’s so dry, you can hold it for a little longer than most teas, and it may even continue to improve with age. Darjeeling: A product of West Bengal, India, Darjeeling is usually a black tea, but when the leaves are very young, they can be used to make a white tea, which is much lighter in taste. Compared with Assam and puerh, Darjeeling tea leaves yield a lighter liquor, with a flowery nose and slight astringency. Sencha: A rich, fresh-tasting green tea from Japan with low astringency, sencha, as with most green teas, can be reinfused two or more times. Aficionados appreciate the changes the tea goes through after each succes- sive infusion. Gunpowder: Several types of tea may be called “gunpowder,” which refers to the tight balls into which the tea is sometimes rolled to preserve the fresh taste of the tender leaves. This is a rare green tea, sometimes with a greyish cast and an almost sweet aroma and taste. Oolong: Kind of a cross between green and black tea, oolong leaves are more oxidized than green, less oxidized than black, which means it’s somewhat stronger and more astringent than green tea but less strong and astringent than black tea. If you usually prefer black tea, oolong is a fine place to start experiencing what green tea offers.
There are a lot of teas out there, and it could be a long winter, so you’ll have plenty of time to learn about teas as you enjoy their immense, incredible variety.