Here’s my favourite black tea varietals by order of preference:
1- Dianhong
2- Sun Moon Lake
3- Darjeeling
4- Nepali
5- Assam
6- Qimen/Keemun
7- Yingdehong
8- Nilgiri
9- Congou
10- Jaekseol
I prefer my tea leaves uncut and loose leaf, brewed with boiling water for 3-5 minutes in a red clay teapot.
I don’t just like black tea. I also love white, yellow, green, oolong, and pu-ehr tea.
Generally, the best tea grows in China.
But if you want quality and consistency at a low price, Japanese tea is good.
Indian tea can be good but you have to work harder to find it. That’s because most Indian tea importers just don’t give a damn. They just keep sending us CTC. Not that CTC is inherently bad, just that I would never drink it without milk or other accoutrements.
