Tea India Assam Black Tea, CTC Loose Leaf, 2 lb

Great tea, especially for the price. It’s by far the strongest tea I’ve encountered. Best way to adjust strength and astringency (bitterness) is steeping temperature. My first pot was at rolling boil and steeped for 3 minutes, its was stiff. Definitely what I would recommend if you’re planning on adding milk and sugar. If you like to drink tea straight up like I do, let the water cool down to 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit, and let steep for 5-10 minutes. It completely took away the bitterness and left a still strong, dark, malty tea. Absolutely delicious! Definitely recommend.Be aware, it’s CTC, not whole loose leaf. People in the comments don’t seem to understand the difference. CTC is naturally stronger. 1 teaspoon per cup of water is plenty.

I was a bit nervous about ordering a 2 lb. packet of tea, but the price was so tempting that I threw caution to the winds, and now I'm so glad I did. At less than half the price of the UK blends I've been ordering, this large sack will go a long way, even when I'm making 1-2 quarts of tea at a time. I opened the bag and immediately portioned it out into Mason jars for long-term storage, and there wasn't an excessive amount of dust.For my first pot, I used 5 level teaspoons of tea and enough boiling water to fit a Bodum caffetière without the plunger (about 1 litre), allowed it to brew for a long time (might have been 1 hour? it was still fairly warm), then carefully poured off the tea through a fine mesh strainer, and while it's quite strong, it's not excessively bitter or astringent. Given that Indian people boil this type of tea for a long time when making chai, I felt safe letting my tea brew a long time, as is my usual practice when making tea for iced tea. In this case, I had my first mug of tea hot (I have a heated mug), and put the rest in the refrigerator. This tea is strong enough that I think for subsequent pots, I can leave out the extra teaspoon "for the pot".I'm Asian American, and American enough that I drink most of my tea as iced tea, but I also enjoy it hot, and usually take my tea with sugar and lemon. I will definitely continue to buy this tea, and I will recommend it to friends who want something much better than what comes in tea bags or sachets. This is now my pantry staple.

When I first learned about CTC, or the cut-tear-curl method of processing tea, it sounded downright destructive. "CTC must produce an inferior grade of tea," I thought. This Tea India purchase proved me wrong. Not only is this a big package of tea, which can easily supply one person for 10 months or more, but it tastes great and is sold at a bargain price.I've been buying large amounts of exotic teas from overseas for a decade or more, so I consider my tea standards to be rather high. I am very pleasantly surprised by this tea. I'm glad I have the 2 pounds (and dwindling) of it in a jar in my cabinet, available whenever I need some nice, fast, tasty black tea. Despite the fine, almost powdery texture, I think it will retain its flavor for a year or more."Fast" is certainly applicable to this tea and is one of its virtues. The fine granularity of leaf produced by CTC makes it possible to have a rich, dark cup of black tea after steeping for a mere minute or two. Don't use too much tea (it's concentrated) or steep it much longer than 2-3 minutes, or it may get too strong and bitter. Nonetheless, these features make for convenient brewing--Just steep for a few seconds, and pour!I find the flavor to be very comforting. It brings me back to my early memories of drinking Lipton or Tetley tea, the kinds I grew up drinking as a kid. But that doesn't mean it has a mundane or supermarket taste. It's very rich and full bodied. It calls to mind a warm and cozy kitchen. It has a smooth taste when prepared right, which is not difficult. At first I thought it might be too strong a tea to enjoy without milk, but later I accidentally drank a cup of cold Tea India tea with no milk, and it was great! I do think this tea pairs perfectly with milk, however.It's not labeled organic, but it certainly tastes clean and natural. Regarding the question of whether the tea has a "malty" taste, associated with its assamica pedigree, I'd say, yes, it does have a mild malty taste, and that contributes somewhat to the comforting character of the drink.I continue to buy more exotic and expensive teas while enjoying this one at the same time. I like to maintain a collection of teas, so I'm happy I bought this product and would do it again.

This tea is not too bad! For the money, you get an unbelievable amount of it. I seriously underestimated how much tea would come in this bag - it's SO much. Opening it up, it smelled relatively fresh, although it was pretty dry. The leaves have kind of a strange cube-cut shape to them and they're very small in comparison to the longer-cut tea I was used to.My personal favorite is the Ahmad Earl Grey tea, but after a pretty significant price increase lately, I decided to try this one out as a cheaper but still decent option. It definitely fits the bill, but I wish it was stronger. Several of the reviews I read mentioned how strong it was, but in comparison to the Earl Grey I was drinking, I wasn't super impressed. I make a pretty large quantity of tea in the morning (about 1 quart) and drink it throughout the first half of the day, and my infuser wasn't big enough to fit enough tea to get that bold flavor I was wanting. If you like it strong, be prepared to use smaller cups or buy a bigger infuser.Overall, this is a pretty good tea. You get a massive amount of it for the price and the flavor isn't bad, it's just not exactly what I was expecting according to all the other reviews. Make sure to store it in a nice airtight container, since I can imagine this tea would dry out and get weird fairly quickly if you aren't careful.

I see many reviews complaining about this tea being "dust." They couldn't be more wrong! These Assam tea leaves are an example of the Crush-Tear-Curl process. They're not dust, they're tiny pellets. If you open a teabag of Yorkshire Red, you'll see something quite similar, and it tastes quite similar.To make a "proper cuppa", warm your teapot with hot water while your kettle is coming to a boil. Empty the teapot, add a Tablespoon of these black tea "pellets" and then pour full boiling water over them. The water needs to be boiling hard! Give it a stir, cover and let steep for 4-5 minutes, no longer. Pour it through a fine strainer into your mug. This will make a big mug of tea. Add milk, and sugar if you like. The milk neutralizes the tannins for a smooth, delicious cup! Enjoy!

This tea in the package looks different from any other loose leaf tea I have purchased. It seems to be pelleted. This is the second time I have purchased it. The ice tea is clear without tanic taste. A plus is you can brew the leaves a second time. use half the water you did the first time. the water needs to be boiling when poured over tea and steep for 7 minutes on the first brew. I use 1 Tablespoon per quart of water for iced tea. con, if you do not have a container to put it, it does not come with a self seal on the foil package.

I was a little skeptical when I first got this as this was not a long leaf tea. But was actually granular in looks much like instant coffee. However, it makes an outstanding iced tea, which is what I mostly drink. Will definitely buy it again.

I ran out of black tea from the India Market and was too lazy to drive all the way to the store so I tried out this brand on Amazon. The tea tastes pretty much exactly the same to me. However, I noticed a few people have rated this product poorly and a lot of them seem to not understand that this is CTC tea. CTC stands for Crushed Tea Curl. The process of CTC creates these small pellets that are much much stronger and bolder in taste. It is not, I REPEAT, it is not the same as the orthodox loose leaf black teas that most people are used to seeing. So when there are comments like "looks like dirt" or "this tea is so bitter", this is why. With that in mind, you should not be putting multiple huge spoonfuls of the tea leaves in your drink.Best way to make this tea:If I'm making an 8oz cup for myself, I heat 4oz of water on the stove in a small pot. Once the water comes to a boil, I add 2 teaspoons, I REPEAT, 2 teaspoons (NOT TABLESPOONS) of the CTC Assam Black Tea and then add 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar (depending on how you like it sweet you can add more). After mixing the brown sugar and black tea, I add 4oz of Vanilla Almond milk (you can use plain milk as well, I'm just lactose intolerant), and right before the mixture comes back to a boil, I turn the heat off and I poor the tea through a small sieve (to filter out the ctc leaves) into my cup.Takeaway:Point is, you don't want to use so much of this black tea as it is strong due to how CTC is processed and for a nice balance try 1:1 ratio of milk and water. Hope this helps!

Looking for great tea , better than red rose, full flavor and priced well below red rose. My wife loves it.

Thank you

Very good for the price point,Good value, good flavor made sweet tea in 15 mins!

I used to buy this tea in bulk at a local store until I moved It’s mellow and flavorful.Just love it!

Using this for Asian style milk tea. The flavour is robust. End result is a good milk tea. If interested ....tea 40g to 1L boiling water, steep 5-6 min, strain, stir in 200g milk powder, 100g sugar. Drink hot or chill and serve with milk tea garnishes if desired. Instead of sugar sweetened condensed milk makes a rich tasting choice.