'A HISTORY OF...'//'CASE STUDY: TWININGS'//OUGD504-SUMMER

TWININGS:

http://www.twinings.co.uk/about-our-tea/twinings-tea-tasters/oolong-chinese-green-tea-twinings-tea-tasters

BLACK TEA - RUSSIAN CARAVAN - TWININGS TEA TASTERS

In this month's edition of Tea Tasters, we taste the romantic Russian Caravan tea, a blended tea from Twinings.

A blended tea is a mixture of single origin teas all put together to yield a magnificent taste and flavour. Russian Caravan is a perfect example of a blended tea.

THE STORY

Russian Caravan has a really interesting story to it. As the name would suggest, Russian Caravan was made for the Russian market. It would take several months for this tea to make its' journey from the heartland provinces of the south east and the southern coast of China right the way into Russia.

The story would have it with this tea that as the tea was making its terrific journey and going through all the different tropical and cold climates, it would start to condition. In fact, at some point during this journey, the tea would become wet or damp, and start to absorb moisture. 

As tea is hygroscopic, this would spoil the quality of the tea. Big bundles of tea were very often left around the traders' campfires overnight.

The overwhelming smoke coming from the damp logs would be sucked in by the tea, giving it a very delicate, campfire, smoky aroma evident in some of the texture and taste as well.

We can think of no better way to be able to pay homage to those journeys than tasting some of this Russian Caravan, and maybe having a look at how people in Russia or this part of the world would have been drinking this tea at that time.

ORTHODOX TEA PROCESS & THE TEA BLENDS

Previously on Twining's Tea Tasters, we've looked at the different types of tea that are used in the industry and we have talked about CTC tea being very finely ground. In some respects, CTC is an almost powdered tea but this is orthodox.

Russian Caravan has been rolled between two flat rollers and this gives the tea a lovely whole leaf look and feel. It's a blend of two different teas that are easily distinguishable on closer examination. We have got an Oolong tea coming from the south coast of China and Keemun, which of course, is in the Anhui Province. This tea takes its name from its' journey to Russia.

BREWING OUR TEA

We are going to use a nice heaped teaspoon per person in a teapot using hot water that's just off the boil.

Russian Caravan tea has a fantastic taste profile to it, that's good with milk, without milk and of course, sugar lovers can add a spot of sugar as well. It's not uncommon to use a bit of honey with this tea just to give it a natural sweetness.

Give your Russian Caravan just a shade over three minutes to diffuse.

The first aroma coming from the infused tea will be the Oolong tea that is letting off that heavy scent.

Pouring the tea into your cup you will notice a beautiful golden hue coming from the liquor. It's almost like Californian sunshine gold in colour.

Have a taste and for us it's fantastic. As expected from the initial aroma from the infused leaf, it's a powerful mouth experience, not so much in the head but in the main body of the drink. A couple of seconds after entering through the lips, we're getting a nice feeling around the jaw and cheeks. This is a really wholesome, chewy tea, one you can really enjoy. It's not particularly delicate but will definitely fulfill your caffeine yearning.

Although you can put milk in, we would be slightly inclined not to because the creaminess and the dairy profile of the milk may throw off the balance and destroy some of the complex flavours from the blended Oolong and Keemun teas.

RUSSIAN TEA DRINKING SAMOVAR

We have had a look at our Russian Caravan's taste profile and a little bit about its history. Let's have a look at how this drink would have been, or still is drunk in Russia using a Samovar.

Samovar is a Russian word meaning 'Self cooking' or 'Self boiling'. In the base chamber, the water is consistently kept very hot, (just below the boil). In this more traditional samovar, you would have fire cones or coals kept in a tube or pipe that runs right the way through the centre, but this modern version has an electrical element instead.

A teapot would have been kept on the top and this part will contain a very strongly brewed tea. In here, our Russian Caravan has been brewed for four or five hours. Using the zavarka, we'll pour out the tea. It's so strong like black syrup. You then mix this syrup with a bit of hot water from the samovar, again, creating that Californian sunshine colour.