Queen Catherine Black Tea

A composed blend of three historic Chinese black-tea traditions—Keemun, Panyang, and Yunnan—with natural notes of bittersweet chocolate, leather, and gentle astringency.

The Experience

If you enjoy traditional black tea and want to explore China beyond a single region or style, Queen Catherine is an excellent place to begin.

This pure-tea blend brings together Keemun, Panyang, and Yunnan black teas, each contributing to a cup that is more complex than its medium body might suggest. Expect dark, naturally occurring notes reminiscent of bittersweet chocolate and leather, supported by a mild astringency that gives the tea structure and a clean finish.

There are no added flavors. The chocolate-like depth and other tasting notes come entirely from the tea leaves themselves. Queen Catherine is substantial without approaching the force of an Irish Breakfast. It is a tea to choose when you want depth and character rather than added flavor or sheer strength.

Tasting Notes

• Top: Aromatic Chinese black tea
  
• Mid: Bittersweet chocolate • Dark, earthy depth
  
• Finish: Leather • Mildly astringent • Lingering
  
• Body: Medium

Why You’ll Love It

Choose Queen Catherine if you:

• Enjoy pure, unflavored black tea
• Like naturally occurring cocoa or dark-chocolate notes
• Want more complexity than a straightforward breakfast blend without excessive astringency
• Are curious about the differences among China's historic black-tea regions
• Enjoy Keemun or Golden Monkey and want to explore another expression of Chinese black tea

It's also a useful gateway tea for learning about Chinese black tea because three different traditions appear in a single cup.

Origin & Ingredients

Tea Type: Pure Black Tea Blend
Teas: Keemun • Panyang • Yunnan
Origin: China
Ingredients: Black tea from multiple heritage regions in China
Added Flavoring: None
Caffeine: Yes
Body: Medium

How to Brew

Use approximately 1 teaspoon per 8 oz / 237 ml of water at 212°F / 100°C and steep for 4–5 minutes. We recommend tasting Queen Catherine without milk or sweetener first. Its bittersweet chocolate and deeper savory notes are characteristics of the tea itself and are easiest to appreciate straight. If the finish is more astringent than you prefer, shorten your next infusion rather than reducing the amount of leaf.

Perfect For

Queen Catherine is particularly suited to quiet mornings, afternoon tea, comparative tastings, or anyone ready to explore pure Chinese black tea beyond familiar breakfast blends. Pair it with dark chocolate, shortbread, toasted nuts, aged cheese, mushroom dishes, or lightly sweet pastries.

Tea Expert Note: Three Chinese Teas, One Blend

The most interesting thing about Queen Catherine isn't simply that it contains three teas. It's which three were chosen.

• Keemun is one of China's historically important black teas, prized for its aromatic complexity and frequently associated with cocoa, wine-like, fruity, and gently smoky characteristics.
• Panyang, from Fujian, belongs to another important Chinese black-tea tradition. If you've tried our Golden Monkey Imperial, you've already encountered a celebrated tea associated with the Panyang Congou tradition.
• Yunnan brings the influence of southwestern China, another major home of distinctive black teas.

Blending them isn't intended to make the individual teas disappear. Instead, Queen Catherine offers a composed introduction to several Chinese black-tea traditions in one cup. If you enjoy it, the next step is to taste individual Chinese black teas and discover which part of the blend speaks most strongly to you.

Catherine of Braganza and Britain's Tea Story

Queen Catherine is named for Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who became Queen of England through her marriage to Charles II in 1662. Her association with Britain's developing tea culture inspired the name of this Harney & Sons signature blend. According to the supplied history, the tea itself originated with a 1988 Portuguese project connected to Catherine's legacy. Although the larger commemorative project did not ultimately proceed as intended, the tea continued.

Its story later returned, appropriately, to China: the supplied history records the blend being presented by the President of Portugal to the President of China and subsequently exhibited at the tea museum in Hangzhou.

For us, the most fitting connection may be found inside the tea itself. A blend honoring a woman associated with the rise of tea drinking in Britain is made not from modern added flavors, but from three Chinese black-tea traditions—the country from which Britain's early tea culture originally drew its tea.

Chocolate Without Chocolate

“Bittersweet chocolate” on the tasting notes does not mean chocolate has been added. Queen Catherine contains only black tea.

Pure teas can naturally remind us of an enormous range of familiar foods and aromas—cocoa, honey, malt, stone fruit, flowers, toast, nuts, wood, or dried fruit—depending on cultivar, growing conditions, harvest, and processing. That's why we distinguish between ingredients and tasting notes.

• Ingredient: what is actually in the tea.
  
• Tasting note: what the tea naturally reminds us of.

Queen Catherine is a particularly good tea for experiencing that distinction. Taste it beside an explicitly chocolate-flavored tea and the difference between natural cocoa-like character and added chocolate flavor becomes much easier to recognize.

Packaging: Our loose teas are sold by the ounce and packaged in food-grade resealable bags.

Explore Chinese Black Tea

If Queen Catherine introduces you to Chinese black tea, continue by tasting individual styles and discovering how dramatically pure black tea can change from one region and production tradition to another.

Queen Catherine Black Tea (This Tea)
Bittersweet chocolate • Leather • Mild astringency
→ Best for: exploring several Chinese black-tea traditions together in one balanced, medium-bodied blend

Keemun Breakfast Black Tea
Aromatic • Rich • Classic Chinese black tea
→ Explore this next if: you want to isolate one of the important tea traditions represented in Queen Catherine

Golden Monkey Imperial Black Tea
Cocoa • Toasted grain • Buttery sweetness
→ Explore this next if: the natural chocolate-like character is what intrigues you and you'd like a more luxurious, tippy Fujian black tea

Duchess Breakfast Black Tea
Rich • Complex • Malty
→ Explore this next if: you'd like another historic Fujian black tea with greater body and a smooth malty finish