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The English way of drinking tea?
Nigel at 12/23/03
> Because a thing is so now does not mean it was ever thus. Teas also
> change with time.
> Going back 40 years or so the UK was the major importer of Darjeeling
> tea much of which went into the hugely successful Maison Lyons blend,
> universally drunk with milk in the English way. However it was not
> the Darjeeling tea that you would now recognise as such; it was a
> truly black fermented tea with an orange liquor - properly oxidised,
> much like a rains Darjeeling is nowadays when hard withers cannot be
> achieved (these rains Darjeelings are sold domestically in India - not
> exported as).
> Then one day Lyons switched their house blend away from Darjeeling -
> whose producers had quickly to find another market. North Europe was
> targeted but required a lighter cup that would drink in the European
> way - without milk. And so the nearly green, hard withered, Darjeeling
> tea was developed and became universally recognised as "the"
> Darjeeling. But how will it be forty years hence?
>
> Nigel at Teacraft
Nigel, that's extraordinary. Thanks for sharing it. It had never occurred to
me that the Darjeelings I drink might be so new a style. I especially enjoy
Darjeelings prepared in the "oolong" way, as developed for example at the
Gopaldhara gardens. Perhaps, the wave of the future. Who knows.
Also, your explanation might begin to explain a puzzlement: Why Darjeelings
so often classified as "black" tea, when in fact -- currently, as you point
out -- they are not.
Michael
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