Green Tea vs Black Tea

Which do you prefer and why?

I've fallen head over heels in love for black tea this year. With breakfast, I take a malty Assam blend (India) and mix it with a brisk Chinese Keemun. The aroma is incredible, dark chocolates and burnt caramel with strong floral notes. No need to add cream or sugar. I brew western style, loose leaf of course.

I'll sip cup after cup for an hour or two while solving tactics, flooding my brain with caffeine and theanine. In doing so I achieve some sort of blissed-out, quasi-chess nirvana. Not quite sure what it is, but it's powerful. It's been my summer morning ritual and I enjoy it immensely.

Although I can't tell a heck of a lot of difference, I prefer black tea - dargeeling.

only recently have i discovered assam, and the malty falvours are truly a delight.
never tried keemun but sounds super tasty

@JunoCunerino Do you mean you cannot tell much difference between black teas, or between green and black? I assume you mean between different blacks. A floral Darjeeling would be a gin and tonic, while a high quality Assam can be compared to a 16 year old single malt Scotch.

@eatchipss Are you using tea bags or brewing loose leaf? This is a judge-free zone so feel free to answer honestly! The Keemun I'm using is quite weak in taste compared to most Keemuns, but it has an intense floral aroma that compliments the Assam nicely.

Most Indian teas are made from Camellia sinensis variation Assamica, while Chinese from Camellia sinensis variation sinensis. Variation Assamica is a larger plant that tends to produce bolder teas while var. sinensis tend to make for more floral, delicate teas. This is a huge generalization since the process in which the teas are manufactured have so much to do with flavor. That being said, Darjeelings, although produced in India (Himalayan foothills) are actually from the Chinese, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, which makes sense why it is so floral.

White tea, green tea, oolongs and blacks are all made from Camellia sinensis. They are all the same plant! The difference is in the oxidation process. Tea manufacturers will bruise the leaves, either by hand or machine, starting the oxidation process. There are so many processes, but letting the leaves dry in the sun or cooking them in a huge wok are common methods.

White teas are hardly oxidized.

Green teas are around 20% oxidized.

At between 20-80% oxidation levels exist the world of oolongs. These are like a mix between green and black teas but the 60% difference in oxidation make for oolongs that differ greatly in flavor, aroma and color.

My favorite, blacks, are 80% oxidized or more and have the boldest flavor, aroma and color. Contrary to popular believe, they still pack many of the health benefits the cherished green teas do.

@eatchipss I have learned most everything I know about tea from the guys @MeiLeaf. I really love their videos. They have a tea shop in London, in Camden. You should stop by! They have a tasting bar so you can try out their selection. Here's a recent mini documentary they did:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKJdOPk7cGc

I am going to make larch tea on this ablessed day. But first I will have to venture to the fabled location where the larches are.

For I know where they are...
I shall harvest the foliage, take it BACK to my abode, boil water and throw it atop the foliage. The result shall be green, fully qualifying it for this piece of tea research.

I will subsequently provide the world with an exhaustive assessment of its aromatic spectrum!

So as not to leave you without the STUFF until then:

arbolesmadrid.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/larix_decidua_aletschwald.jpg

@Camellia_sinensis thanks for the above explanations.
i use tea bags, have no experience making tea with loose leaf.

will try and check out the shop next time im in the area!

Ok.

I made two kinds, chopped larch tea and crushed larch tea.

I was fully set to create a vast slab of text about it having tones of this, notes of that and hints of so and so.
But it didn't let me. Larch tea tastes of exactly one thing. Grass. Grass on a stick, aromatically speaking, is how I found it.
The chopped version was slightly more hayish, but that's it. I'm having a larch crisis at the moment.

@Camellia_sinensis, I meant that I couldn't tell much difference between green and black, not to say that you couldn't. Also I've tried assam and oolong, but I prefer Darjeeling.