Alice Walker, poet, and novelist, once very famously said: “Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.” The Chinese may be credited with discovering tea, and the Indians for drinking it in copious amounts, but the world over, every culture has contributed to making various versions of tea popular.
It’s hard to determine the best tea in the world for its appeal is too personal to its drinker that it all boils down to what your favorite is. We can, however, list down some of the most popular tea blends and famous teas in the world.
Teas around the world
The English Breakfast Tea
This tea blend usually consists of varieties that have a rich flavour and a dark brown or coppery colour and is one of the best tasting teas in the world. Malty Assam blacks, some Sri Lankan teas, mixed together with some Kenyan grades – this is what makes the English Breakfast tea flavorful and strong even with the addition of milk. Some blends use the China Keemun tea as a base for their Breakfast Tea, and this gives the drink an earthy and rich flavor which can be had with or without milk.
The Irish Breakfast Tea
A tribute to the Irish’s love for strong, dark tea is this version of the English Breakfast tea. The Irish Breakfast tea is a comparatively stronger blend made with malty Assam black tea and higher grades of the Kenyan Broken Pekoe. Best drunk with milk.
The Earl Grey
This tea is a blend of any black tea and the oil of bergamot, derived from the citrus tree found in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and the Ivory Coast. Over the years, many other variations of the Earl Grey tea have been made, some becoming popular on their own – Lady Grey, Yorkshire Grey, and Roobios Grey are among the ones that are well known.
Russian Caravan tea
The Russian Caravan tea is a heady blend of Keemun, Oolong, and Lapsang Souchong teas. It is often described as a full-bodied tea, and the Lapsang Souchong gives it a rich smoky flavour. The tea is Chinese in origin but its name comes from the transcontinental Russian caravans that plied the tea trade route from Europe to Asia, via Russia. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the smoky flavour of the teas could also come from the campfires during the half-year-long trade journey. Some varieties of this blend also use Yunnan black tea instead of Oolong for a stronger, copper-colored tea with a mellow aftertaste.
Moroccan Mint Tea
You can make your own Moroccan Mint tea with crushed mint leaves at home, but the blend is so popular that it is also available in packaged form. One of the most popular types of Moroccan Mint Tea blends uses gunpowder green tea hand rolled with Moroccan nana mint leaves, which makes for a truly refreshing and heady cup of tea. Moroccan mint tea is mostly drunk hot in colourful glasses, but it can also be used to make a delightful iced tea for summers.
Indian Chai
The Indian chai is one of the most famous exports from the subcontinent. Milky and heavily spiced, the chai has the rare distinction of being the drink that cools you down even when drunk hot. There are many ways to make chai, but each variation begins with boiling milk, water, and tea leaves together until the desired milky-brown color is achieved. Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and even bay leaves can be used to spice up this concoction
Here are a few good to know facts about the popular teas of the world
- The largest exporter of tea in the world is now Kenya
- Some of the best black tea in the world come from major tea exporters like China, India, and Kenya, to name a few:
- Keemun from China
- Assamic from Assam India
- Darjeeling first flush from India
- Ceylon leaf tea from Sri Lanka
- Earl Grey Black tea
- The best quality tea in the world or the finest tea in the world comes from regions like Assam, Darjeeling, China, Africa and Indonesia.
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