Last Updated on 11/10/2020 by Desmond
Black tea lovers may be familiar with Assam black tea a lot. It comes from the largest tea producing region in India – Assam. The broken leaf tea produced there often took as the main ingredients of British breakfast tea products, with Ceylon tea. People deeply love the unique malty flavor and a strong taste. Especially when it mixes with milk, you can’t refuse its tempt.
Assam is famous as the largest black tea producing region in the world. It is located in the northeast of India, the zone of Himalayas. Where the temperature varies widely from day to night, rich rain and sunshine. Under such a suitable climate, tea trees growing strong, and make a special astringent taste and deep aroma of Assam tea.
According to recent statistics, India’s tea production is ranked only second to China, second in the world. If only talking about black tea, it is the champion. India is not only the most beginning country that produces black tea except for China, the flavor and characteristics of each production region also affect the world’s tea industry a lot.
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Development History Of Assam Black Tea
The history of India tea seems to begin in modern times. However, according to archaeology research, there are records about Indians had picking tea leaves to make the drink at 700 BC. At about the 16th century, people also take tea leaves, oil, and garlic together for cooking, by the recordation.
The tea industry began in the late 18th. At that time, the British Empire has become the largest tea consuming in Europe. Due to the growing consumption, for balancing the huge trade surplus, except for exchange tea with opium in China, it also plans to cultivate tea trees in its numerous colonies. No doubt, India seems to be the best choice because of its tropical location.
In the 1780s, East India Company tried to cultivate tea trees in Calcutta’s plantation, with the seeds from China, but the result was disappointing.
1832, a Scotland explorer, Robert Bruce, found a local big leaves type tea tree in Brahmaputra Valley by accident, and the aborigines have drunk that tea long ago. After picking the sample and authenticate, he thought it got the potential vast to cultivate. With the help of the local nobleman, Maniram Dewan, they began building the tea garden and employ tea masters from Fujian to teaching. Therefore, in the future, people called the big leaves type tea tree as an Assam type.
In 1838, the first batch of tea harvested and shipped to London; in 1840, the Assam tea company found and extended the tea plantation to other parts of India. The golden age of India tea coming.
From Production To Market
Over 90% of Assam black tea was processed in the CTC method, most of them are for domestic consumption. Less than 10% was processed in the Orthodox way.
Related Reading: 4 Black Tea Processing Methods.
The tea gardens are mainly distributed on two sides of the Brahmaputra River valley so far. The temperature and humidity are high, suitable for tea trees growing. Every year, from March to November is allows for tea picking and processing. And the best season is the last ten-day of April to the end of June when the hot, dry days before the rainy season comes.
According to the statistics, the tea yield of Assam was high to 700 million kg in the past 2019, was the top of all the India tea-producing regions. And on the export volume, it has surpassed Sri Lanka, took the second position of the world, only second for China. Before that, even though the tea yield is huge, the domestic market consumed most of them; and tea planting most for export in Sri Lanka.
Worth to say, except for the traditional strong taste, Assam also produces few high-grade black teas with golden buds. The flavor not only strong but with full flower and fruit aroma, taste softer and mellow, popular in people.
What Is Assam Black Tea Good For
Assam black tea belongs to completely-fermented tea. Most of the ingredients have been transformed during processing. But many polyphenols are still retained, such as theaflavin, theabrownin, and various flavonoids. All of them got powerful antioxidant effects, thus to bring benefits to the human body below:
- sobering up your mental
- prevent cardiovascular from aging
- keep heart health
- anti-age
- potential anti-cancer effect
Due to most Assam black tea processing in CTC ways, it can maximum dissolves the caffeine it contains(see more about the factors influence the caffeine in tea.) That’s why many British breakfast teas take Assam tea as the main ingredient. Having a cup in the morning, the high-concentration caffeine will sober you up at once and expel the sleepiness.
Besides, with caffeine’s help, the digestive ability also boosted, better to transform the energy of breakfast, and offer enough power for your morning job.
You may ask, can Assam black tea help weight loss? In most cases, true tea exactly gives a favor on it; black tea is no exception. But in fact, almost everybody will flavor with milk when having Assam black tea, somebody may add sugar. In India, the local masala tea is even made with various spices and nuts. Intake such high-calorie and fatty food at the same time, what I thought, the weight loss benefit is negligible.
Assam Tea Side Effects
Tea is recognized as a kind of healthy beverage. As a general rule, it would not cause severe side effects or lead to disease. But when we talk about Assam black tea, some people still need to pay attention to the dosage.
Assam black tea offers lots of caffeine. When it sobering your mental up, it can also stimulate your nerves and make it in a state of excitement. To insomniac, is better to avoid drink, especially before bed.
I used to have a high-concentration cup of Assam milk tea in the afternoon, about 3 P.M; as a result, I can not fall asleep at all that night. So, when you make CTC Assam black tea, take care, and not make the concentration high, avoid consuming too much caffeine.
Besides, black tea contains more tea tannins than other types of tea, that’s why it tastes bitter. According to related research, tea tannin is easy to combine with the iron from food and influences absorption.
And iron is a kind of microelement that the human body needs; it’s related to the hematopoietic function. So, women during menstrual, or people who got a blood-related disease, are not recommended to take Assam tea. Of course, in most cases, this side effect of black tea effects few to people.
How To Prepare Assam Milk Tea
With a strong flavor, Assam black tea is very fit to match milk. A marvelous chemical reaction will happen when they mix, create a more delicate taste.
Ingredients:
- CTC Assam Black Tea 5g;
- Pure Milk(non-skimmed) 125g;
- Syrup 25g;
- Hot Water 350-400g;
- Ice Cubes;
Steps:
- Steep the Assam black tea with hot water about 3 mins;
- Use a strainer to filter out the tea leaves, get the tea infusion only;
- Put the tea infusion into a cocktail shaker;
- Add syrup and ice cubes, then shake;
- Add the milk in, and stir the tea with a straw;
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