Assam Orthodox
· Assam
Black
In 1823 a Scottish trader in the Brahmaputra valley found tea growing wild. The Singpho people living there had been drinking it for generations. Britain had been buying all its tea from China and wanted another source, and within twenty years company gardens across Assam were shipping leaf home.
The plant was not the Chinese bush. Assamica has broad leaves and grows well in lowland heat that would kill the small-leaf China plant. That is why it worked here and why nothing else does.
This is the tea that breakfast blends were built on. Dark and strong in the cup, malty, with a biscuit sweetness, and strong enough to take milk without thinning out.
- malt
- biscuit
- brisk
- Origin
- Assam, India
- Water
- 95°C / 203°F
- Ratio
- 4 g / 100 ml
- Caffeine
- High
- Rinse
- Not needed
One of the world's great black teas; the breakfast-tea standard
How much leaf
Gong fu brewing is leaf-heavy and short. Set your gaiwan or pot size and this is what to weigh out.
Vessel volume
100 ml
Recommended dose
Use ~4.0g of tea
The session
5 infusions, about 2m of total contact time.
- Steep 110sMalt and heat, gathering fast.
- Steep 215sBriskness peaks, bright and full.
- Steep 320sBiscuit sweetness rounds the edge.
- Steep 430sThe body eases, still malty.
- Steep 545sA sweet copper water remains.
Also sold as
Orthodox Assam, Assam Black
Steaper times this session for you
A countdown per infusion, a gong when each one is up, and the whole library in your pocket. Coming to iPhone.
Get notified at launchThese numbers are a median of independent gong fu sources, not a law. Leaf age, vessel and water all move them. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.