Friday, January 04, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 08:30 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink
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Although green tea is highly valued in both China and Japan (the two great tea-drinking nations of the world) it is black tea that made its way to Europe and it is black tea that is generally drunk in England. The reason is simple: green tea is delicate and would not survive the long sea voyage from Nanking to the tea houses of London. While it is generally advised to drink green tea within 6 months of the leaves being plucked, black tea will last a year or more.

The advent of airfreight has meant that green teas have been available in the West now for some decades, yet sales of green tea never took off.  The difference in taste between green tea and black tea is as great as that between fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, and to an Englishman brought up on black tea, that difference is startling and unwelcome.  Chinese black teas are generally sweeter and smokier, and may have the scent of dried fruit or flowers; on the other hand green teas tend to be much lighter, with a fresher fragrance and a savoury taste, like that of cooked meat or fish, which surprises the English palate.  Most green tea sold in England is therefore heavily scented with flowers or fruit, often completely disguising the taste of the tea; and it is the purported health benefits of green tea (protective effects on heart disease and cancer), not its taste, that have made it popular.

The archetypal Chinese green tea is probably 龍井 lóngjǐng, which originates from 杭州 Hángzhōu province.  The dried leaves are pale green and entire, with a characteristic “teardrop” shape (淚形); the liquor is pale green/yellow and the fragrance is that of fried chicken or steamed fish.  The archetypal Japanese green tea is 玉露 gyokuro.  The dried leaves are dark blue-green broken fragments; the liquor is green, slightly salty and the fragrance is strongly reminiscent of steamed fish or seaweed.  寧可一日無食，不可一日無茶 “Better a day without food than a day without tea”: for the tea lover, tea is both meat and drink.

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