Assam: The Coffee of Teas

Assam: The Coffee of Teas

Assam is my favorite tea, a statement perhaps just a little less preposterous than saying that some food – a Oaxacan tamale, for example – is my favorite thing to eat.

There are thousands of teas out there, and each has a place, whether it’s a musky Pu-erh or some variation on a delicate green or white. More often than not, though, I find myself grabbing for the Assam.

I just bought 100 grams of Nahorhabi Estate FTGFOP1 (finest tippy golden flower orange pekoe, graded #1) from Upton. Peeking in the silver bag, I was reminded of the first time I looked into my grandfather’s tobacco pouch: this is powerfully aromatic stuff, with blonde and chocolate-colored threads weaving throughout, a gorgeous mass of dried vegetable tissue.

Assam, the Indian variety that is the foundation of many “breakfast” teas (English, Irish, etc.), has enough guts to take a splash of milk, no problem (if that’s what you’re into). I prefer it straight up, the better to savor the steaming malty goodness, which is perhaps not as subtle as some of the Chinese breeds of camellia sinensis, but there’s a lot going on in each cup. Though it has maybe one quarter the caffeine of coffee, Assam delivers a formidable wake-up punch and is probably the closest tea to coffee in the sense that it has a dark density, a deepness, gravitas. You just have to drink four cups or to get the requisite morning buzz…which, when you have a tea this good, ain’t hard.

My bag of premium Assam was the most expensive variety of this tea offered by Upton ($16.50 for 100 grams), and a good value: check out the Upton Tea Site: http://tinyurl.com/tcd9l

Hammond

i was in darjeeling in march last yr. brought some of the local namesake home and some assam which i'm holding @ this moment. thanks for reminding me it's in my cubbard. can't wait till it gets a bit colder out to enjoy.

Hammond, curious title – did you mean 'cream' of teas?
(It's probably mostly common knowledge) Assam tea is arguably the most flavorful tea. Darjeeling teas however are more aromatic/fragrant. Some of the best drinking teas are judicious blends of the two. I'm not much of a tea drinker*, though my Dad is. I know he used to favor Makaibari estate (Darjeeling) teas mixed with an Assam tea and he used to have different blends (proportions) for his morning and evening cups.

Btw, your link doesn't go to a specific tea, if that was what you intended. Upton seems like a good website with info, though it incorrectly mentions the state of Assam as a district in India. Anyways, here's another site you may find interesting with a selection of estate teas -Jaya Teas. I've never bought from them, but I heard of it from the feature on eatfeed – that I learnt from this thread.

*I mostly drink the CTC swill, though I'll occasionally break out the Castleton (Darjeeling) my Dad gave me – nice fragrance but not that much flavor for me the coffee-drinker. (oh, maybe now it dawns on me)

sazerac wrote:Btw, your link doesn't go to a specific tea, if that was what you intended. Upton seems like a good website with info, though it incorrectly mentions the state of Assam as a district in India.

Right, yes, I was directing people to a place to acquire good tea at good prices. I wouldn't vouch for the quality of information on the site.

David "I deal in curious titles -- you didn't know that?" Hammond

Talk about teas, there's an East Coast tea company called Tealuxe, that sells unusually-flavored tea. When I was in Boston, I bought a tin of their Creme de la Earl Grey and have been enjoying it immensely. It has the strong Earl Grey flavor and it tastes creamy at the same time (without milk!). I haven't tried their other teas but they look interesting. Check it out!

www.tealuxe.com

On a somewhat related note (I see that a couple of people talked about not having milk/cream in their coffee) . . . I heard a BBC story on the radio which reported the findings of some British sceintists. They studied the health benefits of tea when consumed with milk and then compared that to the health benefits of tea without milk. Their conclusion was that milk somehow neutralizes the many beneficial properties inherent in tea. Interesting....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6241139.stm