Assam Tea,
Or, When to Drink Tea with Milk

Assam is the single largest tea-growing region on Earth, a rainy tropical plain adjacent to Bangladesh and Burma bordering the Brahmaputra River. Assam produces only black tea and proves that great tea does not always need to be high-grown. Like Keemun or Taiwan oolong, this is low-grown tea and it deserves its reputation as one of the world’s strongest. It is unfailingly full-bodied and prized for a malty characteristic all its own.

The dry leaf is sometimes full of tawny-colored tip, like Yunnan. Extremely tippy Assam is always beautifully manufactured and can taste unusually fruity. As far as one can tell, there are no poor crops or years, although for some reason Assam is rarely sold as First Flush or Second Flush.

Any Assam will produce a sturdy, pungent liquor, orange-red to dark red in color, which takes well to milk and sugar because of its unusual astringency. This is why the better Assam teas are prized, especially in Germany’s Ostfriesland on the coast of the North Sea and in U.S. blends for Irish breakfast teas. Both the Ostfriesian and Irish Tea traditions exalt milk tea, of which Assam is perfect. Milk turns Assam a bright red-brown, in contrast to the bright golden color that Ceylon teas become with the addition of milk. When milk is added to Darjeelings, they take on a grayish cast and they are generally unfriendly to milk anyway.

One-Minute Tea Tip 2003

Assam Tea