Talk:Black tea

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[edit] Caffeine

Does anyone have any factua basis for Black tea containing more caffeine than other genres? As I understood it, this was common misconception, and in fact caffeine content is independent of processing method. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 03:45, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

According to this, black tea's average caffeine content is 40 mg (range 25-110) while green is avg 20 (range 8-30). They cite a International Food Information Council reference book, which sounds fairly authoritative.
One point worth noting though (which is missing from the aforementioned page) is that teas also contain significant amounts of theophylline and theobromine, which have similar pharmacological actions to caffeine. Black tea is particularly high in theophylline. Jpatokal 05:24, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)
My concern is that studies may be unknowingly offset by variations in brewing time, etc. for different kinds of tea, and also that I don't know what the "International Food Information Council" is and I'm not sure I trust it. There are other sites that give contrary information. (e.g., Twinings (battle of the tea brands)--[1], though I suppose they don't have a Council backing them up.)
I did research on this at one point, and iirc, the processing method has no effect on the caffeine (and related chemicals) content, but as a typical beverage, black tea has ~2x as much caffeine. This is, again iirc, due partly to the types of leaves typically used for each style, and partly due to the longer steeping time for black tea. --Delirium 07:40, Jan 14, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Tea in the West

This articles says, "Traditionally, black tea was the only tea known to Western culture." However, the article on Sweet tea says , "The oldest known recipe for sweet ice tea was published in 1879 in a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree. This recipe calls for green tea. In fact, most sweet tea consumed during this period was green tea. However, during World War II, the major sources of green tea were cut off from the United States, leaving them with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India which produces black tea. Americans came out of the war drinking nearly 99 percent black tea." Which is correct? WilliamBarrett 21:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Considering the Sweet Tea claim is actually sourced (from the cookbook), I say we remove the sentence. It's entirely too sweeping anyway.--Scott5834 22:39, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Varieties Vs. Types

I would like to note that I think and it is probably common sense that varieties refer to different tasting teas i.e. Keemun v. Darjeeling (there is a biological variety there too, is this case) and types refer to their common processing. This is less confusing that the current setup which is. --Iateasquirrel 04:38, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Varieties

I've made the varieties list look more like the other articles, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Tea/Type Guidelines for guidelines, add comments to the talk page.--Iateasquirrel 05:43, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] new formatting

Just to explain the new formatting. It's alphabetical, thats why China comes first. There will probably need to be some discussion on how far to go creating new articles on types of tea. --Iateasquirrel 00:20, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ceylon classifications

These use the word 'liquors' several times and appear to be a description of the leaves. Is this the right word? The link points to distilled beverages. PerlKnitter 17:11, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

"liquor" in tea jargon refers to the tea-infused hot water after steeping, but I agree it's confusing since the more common use of "liquor" among the general public is for distilled alcoholic beverages. --Delirium 05:33, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nutritional Information

Tea of all kinds has no calories, sodium, or carbohydrates (although sometimes you see "less than 1g" on a package). Tea is considered an "empty drink" because it has no basic nutrients.

--Moop stick 16:39, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Brewing

Can someone add information about the typical temperature of water (boiling or under boiling, as with green tea?) and brewing time of black tea? Badagnani 01:47, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I've added a a couple guidelines for brewing black tea. Scott5834 15:52, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inferior to green tea in Asia?

I just read that in Chinese culture black tea is generally considered to be "very inferior" to green tea. Is this correct? If so, this should be added to the article. Also, tea experts out there, could you please look at the above comment and add to the article accordingly? Badagnani 09:43, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is true. There are lots of famous "red teas" (as it's known in China). If you can find a reputable source for this, feel free to add it to the article. Scott5834 15:52, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
In China the teas viewed as the most sophisticated and refined are invariably greens and oolongs. That doesn't mean black tea is considered bad, per se, but it's not the kind of thing you serve at formal occasions or to guests you wish to impress. Flourdustedhazzn (talk) 22:49, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Do we have "lots" of Chinese "red teas" listed here? I think we only have a few. Can we add more? Badagnani 22:04, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Classification

The information here seems to conflict with the information on the Orange pekoe and Dust (tea) pages. This page says that B.O.P. and B.O.P.F. are much sought after/the most sought after, whereas the other two pages seem to say that B.O.P. and the fannings are a low-grade product. The orange pekoe page does mention that there are different grading systems for CTC, orange pejoe, and "orthodox" teas, but not what the differences are. Any experts care to make this all more clear? --75.35.5.141 05:01, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

This has been rectified Basejumper123 16:58, 3 December 2007 (UTC)