Is Darjeeling black tea really black?

Jayesh has hit the nail on the head. Very hard wither causes some fine leaf to be so dry it cannot ferment, so remains green. For those who are picky about nomenclature these particles are actualy White Tea. The moisture, less fine leaf, does ferment to become Black Tea. Unlike an Oolong which may be 50% fermented overall (all the particles the same fermentation) the early flush Darjeeling is 50% fermented on AVERAGE. I resurrect an old post (10 Jan 2004) below - Darjeeling results from Cause No. 6. Incidently the main reason for change from a fully fermented to a patchily fermented Darjeeling was that Lyons imported vast amounts of fully fermented Darjeeling into UK for their Maison Lyon blend - fully fermented as in those days Darjeeling was taken with milk. When Lyons discontinued their blend (in the 1960s (?)) the Darjeeling producers had quickly to find a new market - they found Gemany and had to lighten the cup as it was to be drunk without milk. Anyone looking for the "old fashioned" Darjeeling taste should specify an Autumnal flush - for example Darjeeling Autumn Leaves (Code: BI07) from

Quote from rfdt Archives:

Yes Jon, these teas are indeed less fermented "greenish blacks". There are several ways to make a "green" tea (which is essentially a tea without oxidation) or a "greenish tea" which is a tea with minimal oxidation. In a tea factory some of these are purposeful methods, others the results of poor processing.

The main causes are:

1. Inactivate oxidising enzymes before rolling using steam (Japanese method)= green tea
2. Inactivate oxidising enzymes using dry heat (Chinese panning or roasting method) = green tea
3. Avoid initiating oxidation by very gentle handling and drying white tea (a variant of green).
4. Oxidise for a very short time (minimal rolling, or CTC cutting) - dry as soon as short rolling or CTC cutting is complete insufficient time for full oxidation to black = anything from a green to a greenish black tea.
5. Oxidise at low temperature - this slows down enzyme action partial oxidation only = greenish black.
6. Hard wither (to a very low leaf moisture content) - this inhibits enzyme action = partial oxidation only = greenish black
7. Insufficient oxygen present during oxidation (fermenting layers too thick) = partial oxidation only = anything from green to greenish black

The partially oxidised oolongs fall into group 4. above though they have other processing inputs (sun withering and leaf agitation and high firing) that give their unique character.

The "greenish blacks" you find at high elevations in Sri Lanka and Darjeeling are the result of partial oxidation due to very hard withers and cool ambient temperature. It is perfectly possible to make a fully oxidised (black) Uva or Darjeeling, and in fact during the rains in Darjeeling when a hard wither cannot be achieved, this is exactly what happens (but these are not exported). Similarly we had to heat up fermenter air to 90 deg F in early spring in Turkey as the cool weather gave us a greenish tea - not at all what the Turks like to drink.

The type of tea and degree of oxidation required is driven by the market (or the producer's perception of the market). As increasingly Darjeelings and flavoury high grown Ceylons are bought by non-milked tea markets, so the dark srong liquors required in the English market have given way to lighter ones, and the dry leaf shows green colour rather than jet black . Producers could revert if the market required

- the process is flexible and a skilled manager can alter his teas at will. My point (in my previous posting) was to remind tea lovers that a tea's characteristics may change with time even if the names stay the same.

Unquote

Nigel at Teacraft

On May 31, 12:48 pm, teapandya wrote: