What is black tea?
Black tea is defined by one thing: the leaf is allowed to oxidise completely before drying. Everything else about it — the malt, the colour, the fact it takes milk, the fact it keeps for years — follows from that.
tea type
What is being compared
Why these get confused
In Chinese, black tea is called hong cha — red tea — and 'black tea' names what English calls dark tea. The collision causes real confusion on Chinese menus.
Point by point
| Aspect | Black tea | Green tea |
|---|---|---|
| The defining decision | Oxidation is allowed to run to completion over several hours. | Oxidation is stopped within hours of picking, by heat. |
| Why it looks dark | Oxidised polyphenols turn the leaf coppery-black and the liquor red. | No oxidation, so the leaf and liquor stay green. |
| Shelf life | Long. Full oxidation is chemically stable, which is why black tea became the export tea. | Short. Green tea is best within months and is often refrigerated. |
| Milk | Traditional, because astringency is high enough to need softening. | Almost never. Milk buries the flavour that green tea is drunk for. |
| Where it is grown | Everywhere tea grows, and it is the majority of world production. | Concentrated in China and Japan, though grown widely. |
The short answer
If you have only drunk tea from bags, you have almost certainly only drunk black tea. It is one of six categories rather than the default.
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