It is not too late for someone to reply to this...?

"Jon Nossen" > wrote in news:...
> With all due respect, I find that a little bit hard to
believe.
> That's because during a recent trip to Sri Lanka, all the teas
I
> could find from the highest growing area (Nuwara Eliya, 2.000
> meter above sea level) were "greenish blacks", similiar to
> Darjeelings (yet also quite different). I also had a couple of
> teas of the same type from the Uva district, which I supposed
> were from the highest parts of the district (which goes from
mid
> to high level). And it's clear that both Sri Lanka's internal
> tea market and export market prefers *black* teas, mainly of
> broken grades. So for this reason I have thought that tea from
> the highest growing areas simply do not get fermented to the
> same degree as teas produced in other areas.
>
> Jon
>
> "Nigel at Teacraft" > wrote in
> om...
> > 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
> >
> >
> > J Boehm > wrote in message
> >...
> > >
> > > I stick my head out for a bet that most English people do
> not know the
> > > term Darjeeling, same as with most Germans. Nothing wrong
> with that, if I
> > > am correct. I always found it not easy, to say the least,
to
> find
> > > Darjeeling tea, or loose tea generally apart from the
> Twinings and similar
> > > mass product teas. Single estate teas are a rarity to find
> in England,
> > > although they exist. Most people, as far as I can tell,
have
> tea bag teas
> > > with milk and/or sugar. Earl Grey is common as well, then
> without milk.
> > >
> > > JB
>
>