Assam tea

Thé d’Assam

What it is

The plant is not the Chinese bush but large-leaved assamica, growing wild in Assam and reported to the British in the 1820s by Robert Bruce through the Singpho, who were already drinking it. It is grown low on flooded plain and its flush is heavy in tannin — exactly what a tea needs to survive milk.

In the kitchen

For chai, boil the leaf in water first with bruised cardamom and ginger, add the milk only at the end and let it rise once — milk from the start blocks extraction and gives a pale, sweet drink. Use CTC granules, not orthodox leaf, if it has to stand up to sugar.

Goes with

Cardamom Ginger Cassia Clove Black pepper Cream White sugar

Same species

Ceylon tea Da Hong Pao Darjeeling tea Earl Grey Genmaicha Gunpowder green tea

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