I have to agree with some of the points highlighted by George Orwell. I was lucky enough to spend some time working in Sri Lanka - back in my youth - on a tea plantation. I got to appreciate the finer points of black tea and the predominant picking method of Orange Pekoe, where the 3 newest leaves are picked from each bush.
while many of the flavoured teas are great as a variety in your diet, and I drink a lot of everything from Earl Gray to cheap stuff poured out at all our local Chinese Dim Sum restaurants, I find that nothing is as soothing or enjoyable as a plain cup of freshly steeped orange pekoe, no sugar, no milk. The fragrance and the colour is all part of the experience.
What I did learn while on the tea plantation is a lot along the lines of what Orwell mentioned: loose leaves left to steep in a warmed china (or earthenware) teapot and poured into a cup with the leaves.
The point that was always hammered into me was to take the water off of the stove AS IT COMES TO A BOIL. Do not let the water actually boil as the oxygen is (apparently) depleted, affecting the taste of the brew.
Another (ironic) point was that I drank my tea straight up. no milk or sugar. This is totally at odds with the local culture. the custom was to pour half a cup of strongly brewed tea, top up with condensed milk AND add sugar. Stir for a while (sometimes whisking) and then pour from the cup into a saucer and drink out of the saucer. At the same time the drinker would place a piece of fudge (jaggery) made out of palm tree sap and as sweet as maple fudge, between their teeth and lips, to dissolve as the tea is being drunk.
Altogether way to sweet for me. So if the strange foreigner only wanted plain tea, basically it was free of charge.
thought I would add some pictures of the environment I was in:
I worked in Agarapatna - a town in the central highlands of Sri Lanka - at the Waverly Tea Estate. The tea bushes were maintained at waist height so that the lady pickers could reach the leaves :
Your's truly - flying the local colours at the bus station with a friend - back in the day. side note, if your remember the footage of the Boxing Day Tsunami which struck Sri Lanka, this is the bus station that had people clinging onto floating upside down buses.
