Les thés noirs

The Chinese know it as ‘red tea’ given the colour of the brew. Europeans gave it the name of ‘black tea’, which is the most widely drunk tea worldwide. Sri Lanka, the plains of Assam in India and Darjeeling produce some of the finest varieties, rivalled only by China with its famous Yunnan and Keemun.

The Yunnan region also produces a triple-fermented black tea known as Pu-Erh, originally used for “tea bricks” carried across China in caravans.

It should be noted that black teas can be smoky. Since the 17th century the Fujian region has been producing the famous Lapsang Souchong variety which is smoked using spruce wood. The ancestral recipe may have come about by accident. A harvest intended for the emperor was a little too late; tea had to be submitted as quickly as possible and with the best of intentions tea was dried out using spruce wood fire… The emperor was won over and Lapsang Souchong recognised.