Drink
Tea
Also called black tea, gunpowder tea, loose tea
Dried leaves of Camellia sinensis. Moroccan mint tea wants a Chinese green, often gunpowder; Irish barmbrack wants a strong black brew to soak the fruit. This is the drink leaf, not matcha powder and not herbal hibiscus.
Origin
China, then a global cupboard. The leaf is the same species whether it is green or black; processing differs.
Flavour
Astringent, floral or malty. Green is grassy; black is malt and dried fruit. Stewed tea tastes of metal.
How it is made
Leaves are withered, then steamed or pan-fired (green) or oxidised and dried (black). Gunpowder green is rolled into pellets. Bags are often broken leaf — faster, rougher.
How to use it
Water just off the boil for green, and do not stew it into medicine — Moroccan mint tea is sweet, repeated, poured from a height. Rolling boil for the black tea that soaks barmbrack fruit overnight; you want strength. Sugar belongs in the Moroccan glass, not in the soaking bowl unless the recipe says so. A second steep of a cheap bag is brown water.
Storage
Airtight, dark, away from spices and coffee. Green fades faster than black. An open box by the kettle tastes of the kitchen.
Recipes using it
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