Darjeeling Black Tea

Tea (Camellia sinensis)Blackvariety

Darjeeling black tea is a black tea made from the tea plant grown and processed on recognized estates in the hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts in West Bengal, India. It is prized for a light, aromatic cup, and the name is a legally protected geographical indication. It is usually brewed and drunk on its own rather than masked with milk and sugar.

Documented in

Usage in beverages

Its main use is as a hot black tea infusion, typically steeped at about 90–95 °C for three to four minutes. The more delicate first flush is steeped slightly cooler and shorter. It is customarily taken plain, or occasionally with lemon. Lower-grade monsoon leaf goes into commercial black tea blends, and Darjeeling is one of the Indian teas sometimes used in chai. Its aromatic profile also suits iced tea, cold-brewed tea and tea-based non-alcoholic mixed drinks.

In depth

A Himalayan tea made for export (1840s–1880s)

Darjeeling tea began as a colonial experiment. In the 1840s the British were looking for a supply of tea that did not depend on China. They planted both Chinese-type and the newly identified Assam-type bushes in the hills around the new hill station of Darjeeling. The cool winters, cloud cover and steep, well-drained slopes favored the smaller-leaved Chinese variety, which became the backbone of the gardens. Commercial estates appeared from the mid-1850s, and by the 1880s there were about a hundred of them. Most of the labor force were Gorkha and Lepcha migrants from Nepal and Sikkim. From the start the leaf was processed as black tea: withered, rolled, oxidized and fired. Full processing made the leaf stable enough to survive the long route down to Kolkata and by sea to Britain. The hill railway, steamships and the Suez Canal later shortened that journey.[1]

The cup of Victorian afternoon tea (Britain, 19th–20th centuries)

As Indian teas displaced Chinese imports in Britain in the late nineteenth century, Darjeeling found its place at the more refined end of the tea table. The afternoon tea meal spread from the aristocracy to the middle classes in the 1860s and 1870s. It favored lighter, more aromatic black teas than the robust brews served at breakfast, and Darjeeling became one of its standard choices alongside Assam, Ceylon and bergamot-scented Earl Grey. Its delicacy encouraged drinking it plain or with a slice of lemon rather than with much milk. The drink appeared at teas in homes, tearooms, hotel lounges, railway stations and social events. In the twenty-first century the hotel afternoon tea has revived, and Darjeeling remains a near-universal entry on tea menus there, sometimes chosen with the help of a dedicated tea sommelier.[2]

Blends and the everyday pot

Not all Darjeeling leaf reaches the cup under its own name. The rapid, rain-soaked growth of the July–September monsoon flush gives larger, less aromatic leaves. Much of this tea has traditionally been sold cheaply for blending and for the Indian domestic market. Commercial blending of black teas aims to keep a branded mixture tasting the same from batch to batch. It produced the robust, milk-friendly breakfast blends built mainly on Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan teas, as well as lighter 'afternoon' blends in which more delicate teas such as Darjeeling suit the gentler style. Darjeeling's reputation also invited abuse, because blends were sometimes passed off under its name. To counter this, Indian authorities introduced exporter licensing in 2000, including authentication and a ban on blending for tea sold as Darjeeling.[3]

Chai and tea at home in India (20th century onward)

Within India, tea drinking spread widely only in the early twentieth century. The industry promoted tea breaks in factories, mines and mills and supported vendors along the expanding railways. Street sellers soon adapted the drink to local taste, boiling the leaf with plenty of milk, sugar and spices such as cardamom, ginger and cinnamon to make masala chai. Strong, granular Assam is the usual base for this style. Darjeeling is nonetheless counted among the three Indian teas most commonly used for chai, together with Assam and Nilgiri. Purists, however, regard the finer flushes as too delicate for boiling with milk and spice and prefer them simply steeped. This split remains characteristic of Darjeeling's place in Indian drinking culture. Lower grades can go into the everyday milky pot, while premium estate teas are kept for plain infusion and gifting.[4]

Shifting markets and the rise of flush connoisseurship (1947–present)

After Indian independence in 1947, the gardens passed into Indian ownership and the industry came under national regulation. The Soviet Union replaced Britain as the largest buyer, and some gardens added Assam-type bushes to suit Soviet taste. When the Soviet market collapsed around 1990, Western Europe and Japan became the principal customers. They valued Darjeeling as a specialty tea rather than a bulk commodity. Estates could not compete with other regions on volume or price, so they emphasized quality, and many adopted organic and biodynamic farming. Drinkers increasingly learned to distinguish the seasonal pickings. The bright, floral spring first flush is brewed slightly cooler and shorter, much like other early spring teas. The second flush of May and June is valued for its muscatel fruitiness, while the autumn flush is softer and darker. Legal protection as a geographical indication, granted in India in 2004 and in the European Union in 2011, reinforced the idea of Darjeeling as a terroir drink, often marketed as the 'Champagne of teas'.[1]

Iced, cold-brewed and mixed: contemporary uses

Darjeeling is still drunk mainly hot and unadorned. Its low bitterness and fruit-and-flower aroma have also carried it into the wider world of cold tea. Iced tea has been popular in the United States since the later nineteenth century and has since spread in different forms worldwide. It is normally made from robust black teas. Specialty tea drinkers, however, also chill lighter teas such as Darjeeling, either by pouring strong hot tea over ice or by long, low-temperature steeping in the refrigerator. Slow cold steeping tends to give a smoother, less astringent cup that keeps the tea's delicate aromatics. In this form the tea can serve as the base of sparkling tea drinks, tea-and-citrus coolers, or alcohol-free mixed drinks that use its muscatel character in place of wine.[5]

Part of Darjeeling

References

  1. [1]EncyclopediaDarjeeling tea — Wikipedia↑§1↑§5
  2. [2]EncyclopediaTea (meal) — Wikipedia↑§2
  3. [3]EncyclopediaTea blending and additives — Wikipedia↑§3
  4. [4]EncyclopediaMasala chai — Wikipedia↑§4
  5. [5]EncyclopediaIced tea — Wikipedia↑§6