Best black teas for Black Friday energy, gifting, and holiday sipping
Happy Thanksgiving! We hope the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and the rest of it—including plenty of tea!—thrill you all.
And then, the day after the deep sleep, the slumber that will at least get started on digesting the mountain of food, it’s time to pivot. Because Black Friday lands. And this annual launch of the holiday season serves as a big deal for most retailers. The sprint from Black Friday through Christmas Eve turns many books from red to black.
Like many retailers, we anticipate this kick-off to the holiday shopping season with keen anticipation. It always brings new guests through our doors, and shepherds visitors to our busy website. And our regulars, too, visit us more frequently during the month than otherwise. It’s all cheery and light and convivial—we adore it. All of our stores, of course, will be open on Black Friday. Swing by for samples of hot tea and a blizzard of gift choices!
All of our newsletters and blogs during the next four weeks will revolve around the holidays. You’ll find many thrilling new teas, accessories and more.
Today, in honor of Black Friday, we’re showcasing bold black teas and pu-erhs—brews that wake you up, keep you going, and thrill your tastebuds with every sip.
Happy Holidays!
Black Teas for Black Friday: Mini Puerh (Assorted), Mini Puerh (Individual)
It’s hard to imagine somebody receiving a gift of mini pu-erh tea cakes and shrugging, yawning, broadcasting boredom with the gesture of friendship.
For one thing, it’s pu-erh, China’s famous fermented tea. With many recipients, it will mark the first time they’ve ever even heard of pu-erh. For another, pu-erh is delicious! Complex, earthy, bold—there’s a reason tea aficionado around the world collect pu-erh cakes, and age them for years, even for decades. Finally, these mini pu-erh cakes are impossibly cute!
What’s not to love?
Both options above are wonderful gift ideas, and that includes stocking stuffers, of course. One sip of a pu-erh brew, and the imbiber is sure to become a pu-erh fanatic.
Black Teas for Black Friday: London Fog Black
We’ve all had plenty of black tea in our lives. Most iced tea, for example, gets brewed from black leaves. The bagged tea you sipped in a diner? Probably black. It’s ubiquitous.
Unfortunately, most of the mass-produced black tea isn’t any good. It’s so many scraps, swept from factory floors, funneled into tea bags and packed into boxes destined for supermarket shelves.
But black tea should be spectacular—rich, proud, vigorous. Good news—that’s the only style of black tea that we sell!
One favorite black tea, London Fog, combines outstanding black tea with lavender, calendula and vanilla. It’s assertive, yet seductive. Both gutsy and nuanced. A perfect tea for you, and for anybody lucky enough to be receiving your tea gifts.
Black Teas for Black Friday: Assam Superior
Tea from India is best-known for two styles: Assam and Darjeeling. We carry several iterations of both, and consider all of our Indian teas rock stars. With its bright, malty flavor and resonant body, our Assam Superior might be the bass player.
Our Assam Superior comes from the famous Meleng Estate, along the Brahmaputra River in the lush, tropical northeast corner of India. The tea holds generous golden tips, and brews into a dazzling amber liquor with rich, smooth and sophisticated flavors. Fruity and chocolaty aromas round out the exceptional tea-sipping experience. This Assam, slightly sweeter and with more depth than many Assams, is a perfect gift. Black tea fanatics will geek out over its beauty.
Black Teas for Black Friday: Yunnan Black Tea
Much of the black tea that gets consumed in the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand comes from India and Sri Lanka, with a smattering, too, from Kenya. We roundly applaud all of the above.
But let’s not forget about Chinese black tea. Artisans in China have been growing and curing black tea for centuries. We think the country crafts some of the finest black teas in the world.
Our Yunnan Black Tea, fittingly from China’s mountainous Yunnan Province, brews into an elixir flooded with delicate, sweet and floral flavors, while also standing up rich and full-bodied. While many black teas call for cream and sugar, due to higher concentrations of tannins (and thus, bitterness), this one comes across as a bit more subtle. It stands well on its own.
Savor it! We recommend a cup in the morning before any day headed out to the stores for holiday shopping!
