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Exploring Tea Types: Black Tea
a quick-start guide
Author: Max McPartland
Introduction
This is the fourth of five articles that explore the well-recognized categories of tea: Green, White, Oolong, Black, and Dark/Puer. Though all true tea comes from the same plant species, Camellia sinensis, each type varies dramatically in taste, aroma, and chemical composition due to differences in how the leaves are processed.
Black tea is the world’s most widely consumed tea and the most oxidized of all the tea categories. Its deep flavors and characteristic richness come from a carefully managed process that transforms fresh tea leaves into a coppery drink recognized across cultures.
What is Black Tea?
The defining step in black tea production is oxidation, an enzymatic process that turns bitter, astringent catechins into theaflavins and thearubigens. These compounds create the color, body, and reduced astringency that set black tea apart.
A typical processing sequence looks like this:
- Withering (6–8 hours): Leaves are left to lose some moisture and become pliable.
- Rolling (about 1 hour): Intense rolling, with greater pressure and longer duration than for white, green, or oolong teas, breaks down cell walls and encourages mixing of enzymes and substrates.
- Fermentation (3–4 hours): Humidity is kept above 90%, sometimes with wet cloths, to ensure proper oxidation. During this stage, leaves take on a coppery color as PPO (polyphenol oxidase) enzymes react with catechins. Producers carefully monitor aroma development to know when to halt oxidation.
- Drying: Once theaflavins and thearubigens peak, the leaves are dried to lock in flavor before degradation sets in.
Roasting
After drying, some black teas undergo a light roast to finish the leaf. This step is not always applied, but when it is, roasting helps stabilize the tea, deepen its aroma, and add subtle notes of caramel, malt, or toast. The roast is much gentler than the firings often used in oolong teas; here, the goal is refinement rather than transformation.
- In regions like China, roasting is common and gives teas such as Dianhong or Keemun their layered aromatics.
- In India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, roasting is less typical—most teas are dried and shipped without additional heat finishing.
- Whether or not a black tea is roasted depends on producer tradition, regional style, and the intended market.
Origins, Styles and Methods
Crush-Tear-Curl (CTC) vs. Orthodox
- CTC (Crush-Tear-Curl): This method chops tea leaves into small particles designed to maximize flavor extraction and yield more cups per gram. CTC teas are efficient and bold, commonly used in ready-to-drink beverages, tea bags, and lower-grade chai.
- Orthodox: The traditional method of gently rolling whole leaves to initiate oxidation. This preserves leaf integrity and allows for more nuanced flavor development. All of Hugo’s black teas, and nearly all specialty teas, are produced using this method.
Major Origins
While black tea is produced across the globe, four origins dominate world supply and heavily shape the black tea most people are familiar with:
- China:Central to black tea production,Chinese black teas are typically orthodox and frequently roasted to enhance depth and aroma. Unlike CTC-driven markets, Chinese black teas highlight terroir, cultivar, and artisanal processing. All of Hugo’s black tea comes from China.
- India: Home to famous regions like Assam and Darjeeling. India produces both orthodox teas and CTC teas, which dominate in tea bags and ready-to-drink products. Assam alone has more than 800 plantations.
- Kenya: The world’s third-largest producer, specializing primarily in CTC teas.
- Sri Lanka (Ceylon): About 95% of production is orthodox, with teas known for their bright, brisk character.
Most breakfast blends are constructed from these origins. Merchants adjust blends harvest to harvest, combining teas from India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya to maintain a consistent flavor profile year after year.
Gao Wen
GAO WEN is our flagship black tea from central Yunnan province, China. A dianhong ("Yunnan red") production from da ye ("big leaf") cultivar bushes, this lot is distinguished by a unique processing step atypical of most dianhong production: several rounds of high-heat roasting to finish. Through on-site collaboration with the tea makers of Ma Wei Shan, we developed this process to smooth out the bright fruit notes of dianhong in favor of the malty and complex floral qualities older tree Yunnan black tea is lauded for. The result is an ideal breakfast tea we'll bring back year after year (Yunnan weather pending).
Conclusion
The craft of making black tea lies in striking balance: applying pressure, time, and humidity to encourage beneficial enzymatic reactions while halting the process at just the right moment. The result is a category of tea that is both versatile and foundational, with styles ranging from delicate Darjeeling to bold Assams and finely tuned blends that anchor global tea culture.
FULLY OXIDIZED TEA: BLACK TEA
Black Tea Overview:
Black tea is the most consumed tea in the world, defined by its full oxidation process that transforms fresh leaves into a rich, copper-colored drink with deep flavor. Its production involves withering, rolling, fermenting, and drying, with some teas undergoing light roasting to refine aroma and add subtle notes. Learn more about black tea in our article here.
