23 December 2025
Tea is the drink of wizards, sojourners, and fearsome twelve-year olds (like I once was) alike. It has both coffee's energy and wine's allure. For those it suffices, connoiseurship of tea is more prestigious than oenophilia and can be even more expensive.
My forte in tea-connoiseurship is Chinese teas. I most cetainly do not deny that many other parts of the world have great tea, but Chinese tea is specially fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly.
I am drinking some maocha (that is, atypically loose-leaf style pu-erh tea) that I purchased some years ago in Granada during my studies in Andalusia. It tastes of sourdough.
It was from one of those tea-market-types. The store was full of blends and the like of black teas and flavorings. But I spotted some interesting 'te de fermetnacion especial de puer'. That is what pu-erh tea is all about.
I tried to ask the shop-owner about it, but I didn't really get anywhere.
To this day, though, it has been an unforgettable tea.
Flavored tea (much like flavored coffee) seems to me to be an inferior form of the drink. I do not deny that many different flavors go well with a cup of tea, but there is artisanship in cultivating the leaf in such a delicate manner to produce the flavors afforded to additives without the cumbersome addition foreign objects. I would rather the skill of the cultivator than the artifice of the blend-master.
I would hesitate to recommend a wine that has been made with anything other than grapes (or whatever other fruit). Likewise, my tea taste can be considered elitist. But what magnificence does good leaf produce!
Most Americans believe tea to be dirty-leaf water. It is sad that most people here spend their lives not knowing the wonder of high-quality tea!
American society has economized to the point of calling the droppings from the tea-factory floor the components to a brew. Lipton is notably a perpetrator in this. So too are the hotels that claim to have a high-quality tea selection when they offer Earl Grey, or restaurants who offer the same four herbal teas.
Iced tea is tasty. Especially on a hot day. But iced tea does not extract the same flavors as hot tea does. And in a similar vein, iced tea normalizes the quality of tea. The difference between a masterful leaf and tea-factory dust is astronomical when brewed hot; there is less of a difference when brewed cold! I tend to cold brew the teas of which I am no particular fan.
I do not deny enjoying a glass of iced tea with lemon and sugar, too, sometimes. But to do so to fine leaf would be the equivalent of asking for ketchup to put on a filet mignon.
There is enough variety between tea processing methods that deserves to be recognized in comparison to light-roast vs dark-roast coffee.
Green tea is the most stereotypical 'Asian'-perceived of teas, but the difference between a Chinese and a Japanese green is much greater than the difference between a Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc.
Black tea is the one commonly assaulted with large amounts of foreign additives such as cream and sugar or lemon or flowers. Its characteristics are uniquely hidden when such affronts are made.
Oolong tea is nice and oxidised. No one seems to know about it in the West, though.
White tea is fine and delicate. It goes with many things. It is highly underappreciated.
Pu-erh tea can be the subject of its own analysis. It is complex and medicinal which adds to its unique charms. I cannot recommend it enough.
Don't assault it with additives, though.
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