Tea tasting 101: characteristics of a good quality black tea.

Elizabeth Urbach.  Black tea.

First things first: what is black tea? Black tea is tea that has been fully oxidized, or allowed to interact with oxygen until the tea leaves darken to a black color, before drying. After being picked from the tea plant or bush, the leaves are crushed or rolled, by hand or machine, to break the cellular walls inside the leaves and cause them to wilt. The crushing and wilting process releases the natural juices and moisture from within the leaves, which can then absorb and react with the oxygen in the surrounding air. This develops the robust, full flavor that is characteristic of black tea.
Some people describe black tea as being “fermented”, but that is an inaccurate way of describing the process; fermentation involves the interaction of yeasts and molds with sugars and water to create alcohol, and that is not what happens with black tea when traditionally processed. Pu-erh tea and Kombucha, which is a tea-based, mildly alcoholic, beverage, do experience fermentation to a certain degree, and they will be discussed in future articles, but black tea is the product of fresh tea leaves and oxygen, not yeast.
Depending on the place where the tea was grown, the time of year it was harvested, and other factors, the flavor, fragrance and appearance of the leaves and liquor – or liquid infusion – of black tea will fall within an established range of characteristics; the tea’s place within that range help the professional tea tasters determine which teas are of superior quality, which are good or standard quality, and which have been ruined by improper processing or storage, and are unfit for sale. They use a specific vocabulary to describe the tea, terminology which is also used by the best tea vendors and understood by the most ardent tea lovers. Here is a list -- from the Nothing But Tea website -- of the most common terms used to describe desireable qualities of black tea:
Biscuity or Malty - A pleasant aroma or flavor occasionally detected in the leaf or liquor of well-fired Assam tea.
Body - A liquor having both fullness and strength as opposed to a thin liquor.
Bright - Sparkling clear liquor[, not dull looking].
Brisk - Pleasantly astringent, not flat liquor. Usually of pungent character.
Full - Strong tea, without bitterness, having color and substance.
Light - Liquor lacking body or thickness.
Mature - No flatness or rawness in the liquor.
New - Term used to describe a tea which has not had time to mature. Usually denotes some rawness in the infusion which may disappear when the tea is kept.
Pungent - Pleasantly astringent in the mouth.
Sappy - Full, juicy flavour.
Smokey – can refer to a tarry taste purposely introduced into certain blends. [Has the flavor of wood smoke.]
Strength - Thick liquor, pungent and brisk.
Sweet - A light and not undesirable characteristic in a liquor. Nilgiri teas are particularly sweet.
Tip - The bud leaf of the tea plant ... it varies in colour in the made tea from silver to gold. The tip has the finest flavour.
Tippy Teas - Highly desirable teas abundant with silver or golden tips

For more info: Tea Tasting 101: How to choose a tea to taste
Glossary of Tea Terms from the Nothing But Tea website
“Tea Dictionary” from Bigelow Teas
“Tea tasting: a man’s art”, by Doug Spiers
“Dictionary of Tea Terms” from Upton Tea Imports

Environment Day Recipes

Smita Mishra

The best place to make a new beginning is the hearth, say the ancient treatises. The saying holds truth even today when bestsellers have taken the place of those "mundane" books with pithy sayings. Believe it or not kitchen still is the place which a family uses the most, so it’s the perfect place to start something new.

Our loyalty to the cause of environment can best be begun here by just following a little bit of discipline.

To begin with, there are five basic mantras that must be followed:

Use pressure cooker as much as possible.
Do not wash fruits, veggies, and utensils in running water.
Use cloth instead of disposable paper napkins.
Cook in the day instead of night, so that you can save electrical energy.
Eat one uncooked meal everyday.

Following are some recipes that save both time and energy as they require very little or no cooking and are filling as well as healthy. Cheers for Environment Day!

Mango Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup ripe mangoes cut in cubes
½ cup roasted cashews
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp pepper powder

Procedure:

Mix together all the ingredients. Sprinkle pepper and brown sugar in the end. Serve immediately.

Roasted Potato with Almonds

Ingredients:

2 potatoes cut in thin strips (so that they need less time in roasting)
4 tsp almonds soaked in milk overnight(blanched , pealed and chopped)
1 tsp chopped cilantro
½ tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp pepper
Salt to taste


Procedure:

Roast potatoes till they are brown and crispy (this will happen quickly as the potatoes are in thin strips). Now place them in a bowl. Sprinkle all other ingredients and serve.

Musical Notes In The Garden

I think I've struck a right chord with this shrub
called Musical Notes. I bought it as a small plant
last December thinking it to be a variety of Cleome.
The person at the nursery couldn't tell me what it
was. There were a few blooms and the sight of the
long stamens was enough for me to decide it had to
come with me!



It was only recently that I found out, after googling
like one possessed, that it is actually a plant which
comes from the same family as the Bleeding Heart Vine.
It's Clerodendrum incisum a.k.a Musical Notes, Morning
Kiss, and Witches'Tongue.

The buds look like musical notes, hence the name. Here,
the buds are just starting to open up.





In full bloom. The blooms,in this case, lasted only for
a day. It made me wonder whether the wind and rain that
very night hastened their fall!!



Clerodendrum is a genus consisting of 400 tropical and sub-
tropical trees,shrubs and vines, and herbaceous plants
primarily from south-east Asia and Africa. Their general
characteristics include showy flowers and a lack of
tolerance to cold. The origin is Africa and it belongs to
the family Verbenaceae. Clerodendrum incisum can be pro-
pagated from cuttings and suckers.



I wonder how I didn't see the similarity. I also have
two other members of the same family blooming right now!!



Like white strands of thread, the short-lived blooms lie
scattered on the ground. The shrub is growing in full sun
although I've read that it does well in partial shade too.
It's growing pretty fast and for support I've planted it
next to the Cordyline.



But as the last blooms fall, the new buds appear and the
cycle continues. It's showtime again, folks!