What makes it black tea
Black tea is not a plant, a region or a strength — it is a processing decision. The withered leaf is rolled or cut so its cells rupture, then held in warm humid air until the exposed compounds have browned all the way through, and only then fired to stop the change. Green tea is the same leaf with that step prevented; oolong is the same leaf with it halted partway. One species, Camellia sinensis, produces all of them, and a bush that made black tea last week could make green tea this week if the factory decided to.
A short history, and why it is younger than people assume
Tea was drunk in China for centuries before black tea existed. The category emerged in Fujian in roughly the seventeenth century, with Lapsang Souchong generally cited as the earliest example, and spread because it travelled: fully oxidised leaf is stable in a way green tea is not, which mattered enormously on a sea voyage to Europe. Indian production is younger still, beginning in earnest in the nineteenth century when the British planted Assam and Darjeeling. Keemun, now the aromatic core of traditional English breakfast blends, dates only from the 1870s.
How it is made
Four steps in sequence: wither to soften the leaf and reduce its water, roll or cut to rupture the cells, oxidise in a controlled room, then fire to arrest the process and dry the leaf. The rolling step is where the biggest fork lies. Orthodox manufacture twists the leaf and keeps it largely intact, so extraction is gradual and a garden’s character survives. CTC passes the leaf through toothed rollers that cut it into uniform granules, giving fast, strong, deeply coloured extraction — which is what almost every teabag in the world contains.
What it tastes like, and how the origins differ
Malt, dried fruit, cocoa and a brisk drying astringency are the family traits. Beyond that the origins diverge sharply. Assam is heavy and malty; Ceylon is brisk and citrus-edged, with elevation mattering more than any other variable; Darjeeling is light and aromatic, and its first flush is barely oxidised at all; Keemun is cocoa-and-pine sweet; Yunnan’s Dian Hong is thick and sweet-potato sweet with almost no grip. Anyone who has decided they dislike black tea has usually met exactly one of these.
Brewing, and where it differs from the other categories
Black tea is the most forgiving category and wants the hottest water — 95 to 100 °C for most of it, three to four minutes in a western pot. The main exceptions are worth knowing: Darjeeling first flush prefers 85 to 90 °C and a shorter steep, and bud-heavy Chinese blacks such as Jin Jun Mei turn sour at full boil. Chinese blacks also reward gongfu brewing, which most Western drinkers never try with them. If a cup is harsh, shorten the steep before you add water — dilution makes a weak bitter tea rather than a mild one.
Common misconceptions
That black tea always has the most caffeine: leaf material, quantity and steep time move the figure far more than category does. That the leaf grade is a quality score: FTGFOP and its relatives describe leaf size and tip content, not how good the tea is. That English Breakfast is a recipe: there is no standard, and two packers' blends may share nothing. And the terminology, which genuinely is confusing — English 'black tea' is Chinese 'red tea', while Chinese 'black tea' is what English calls dark tea.