STRONGEST BLACK TEA ON THE MARKET

[tazochai]

My wife has tea every morning using at least 2 of each: Tazo Earl Grey and Numi Gunpowder Green Tea bags in about 14 oz. of hot water. She uses it throughout the day, re-adding water. My question out there folks, is there a tea stronger or equal to the combination above that last just as long, as ONE tea bag and has great strong flavor? Much oblige.

[jogrebe]

Strong in what sense, taste or its ability to be infused multiple times? If you want a tea that is strong in taste I'd recommend lapsang souchong if you can handle the smoky flavor, or irish breakfast. If you want a tea that can be infused multiple times, I'd recommend pu erh which lates for 2-3 times and is still be reasonably strong. Although in my experience ti kuan yin (an oolong) is the best for multiple infusions as I was once able to get 5 infusions out of a single teaspoon and the 5th still tasted fine and I'm fairly sure that I could have gotten at least another cup out of it if I wanted to. Finally unless you are going to be reinfusing the tea within a short period of time (around an hour) it is probably best to discard the tea and use fresh each time as wet tea leaves sitting around are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and other things and the chance of getting sick from it (along with the medical costs if you do) far outweighs the mere pennies that one would save from reusing tea as many times as possible.

[jogrebe]

Oh, I just realized are you by any chance referring to the Russian Samovar style of making tea, which involves making a small pot of super strong concentrated tea which is diluted to taste with boiling water by the cup when it is served? If that is the case I'm sure that pretty much any black tea if you use enough to make it strong enough will work out fine.

[teaspoon]

To add to John's posts, I'd also try a good Assam. It's generally got a rich, malty flavor, as well as a ton of caffeine.

~teaspoon

[Ghost of Tea]

Assam is a good idea. I like the Lapsang too. For flavor you really can't beat it, especially on a cold day (wintertime is here!).

[john]

don't forget leaf size's affect on strength as well. since most of the caffeine is concentrated towards the tips of the leaves, you'll get a much stronger cup with BOP and C.T.C. processed teas. if you want pure strength then you're in luck, since both of those are cheaper than the full leaves.

[chefmom]

I always start the day out with a pot of East Freisen. If I'm out of that, I use Irish Breakfast. I was under the impression that East Freisen was the strongest black tea. Am I wrong on that?

[Warden Andy]

I always start the day out with a pot of East Freisen. If I'm out of that, I use Irish Breakfast. I was under the impression that East Freisen was the strongest black tea. Am I wrong on that?

Freisen was by far the strongest black tea I've tried. I also had some Irish Breakfast at the time (Assam, Nilgiri and China black teas) which I thought it couldn't get any stronger, but was proven wrong after trying a sample of Freisan that I got.