Next Level Black Teas, and One Oolong, For Glorious Cold Brew Tea
The final week of Cold Brew July is here. We hope readers tried at least a few of our suggestions. For those who did, we trust that you found the elixirs ambrosial. Chances are you’ll add iced tea excellence—rather than iced tea mediocrity—to your repertoire. Join the club!
This week we explore a spectacular rock oolong and two black teas—one from China, and the other from India. One quality all of these teas share: boldness. And all of them get brewed using the cold-brew method, which mitigates bitterness and enhances flavors.
Tea power!
These teas’ robust properties align with some of the features common among the kind of iced tea that are commonly for sale in grocery stores and restaurants. While we don’t favor this style of tea, it certainly isn’t timid. The poor quality black tea used to make them is harsh and bitter. And the brewing process renders the too-bold tea even more caustic. Most of the time, it requires sugar and artificial flavors to soften the beverage.
But not all black tea plantations yield inferior tea. Au contraire! In fact, black teas represent some of the finest versions of Camellia sinensis in the world. A beautiful black tea will present strong flavors of mocha and leather, of malt and caramel.
Meanwhile, the rock oolong featured below, while not a black tea, does present powerful flavors. It’s delicious.
Just in time for the rest of summer, we bring to you another installment of Cold Brew July! May you heed this clarion call for action, and continue it across all of the warm months! You may even decide you’re a year-round iced tea kind of person. We support you!
Cold Brew Iced Tea Excellence: Da Hong Pao oolong
Farmers in Fujian Province’s Wu Yi Mountains produce some of the finest, and most famous, oolongs in the world. Whenever you encounter a “rock oolong,” it’s from the Wu Yi Mountains. Among rock oolong’s range of styles Da Hong Pao, or “Big Red Robe” in Chinese, has received the most international attention. It’s a fabulous tea, possessed of a heady fragrance and a rich, roasted flavor. It also leaves behind a pleasant, lingering sweetness. Records of tea aficionados praising Da Hong Pao stretch back to the early 18th century. It’s a true Chinese classic.
Given its punchy, commanding taste Da Hong Pao also produces a potent iced tea. But when cold brewed (link to cold brewing here), the tea’s brawniness presents as complex and compelling—and not bitter!
Cold Brew Iced Tea Excellence: Golden Eyebrow black
Just as rock oolongs hail from China’s coastal Fujian Province, so does this marvelous black tea: Golden Eyebrow. We are excited to add this tea to our cold brewing series, for several reasons. One of them: It’s strong! If you aren’t careful brewing this one hot, it can taste far too bitter. But when brewed with care it sings. With cold brewing, the room for error is much more expansive. Instead of 30 seconds making a difference in its beautiful flavors, it’s more like hours. As with all cold brewing, the whole leaves will swim in a pitcher of water in the refrigerator overnight—ideally, between 8 and 10 hours. The result will not betray the tea’s inherent bitterness. Instead, it will go down smoothly, and refresh.
Golden Eyebrow produces a golden cold brew, and offers a luxurious finish reminiscent of honey.
Cold Brew Iced Tea Excellence: Darjeeling 1st Flush black
Here we go! At the conclusion of Cold Brew July, we present the general category of tea that gets used to make most commercial iced tea: black tea grown in India. If you’ve sipped iced tea from a bottle or in a restaurant before, chances are it came from India. However, Sri Lanka and Kenya also grow an enormous amount of black tea for the international tea market.
Have you ever tasted iced tea made from premium Indian tea leaves? Probably not. Now’s your chance.
Farmers pick this special tea during the first flush season, which is late February through early April in the high-altitude plantations of Darjeeling, India. They then roll and elongate the silvery tea buds. When brewed, Darjeeling 1st Flush produces a full-bodied, honey toned brew, with notes of muscatel grape and pronounced fragrances and flavors suggestive of ripe tree fruit like apricots, pears and plums.
Compare this culinary treasure to the black teas you’ve gulped from bottles snagged from vending machines. Big difference! This is a glorious tea, and one that brews into an especially rich and delicious cold-brewed beverage.
