My tea of choice is Assam with very high grading levels.
Recently I received some tea graded STGFOP. This is a grade I regularly purchase.
It stated, along with the grading, that it had substantial flowers.
In the past I have seen remnents of the flowers in the tea and the leaves were a deep amber or brown.
This recent batch, the leaves are all flat black in color and had no brown in them.
Is it common to have solid black leaves in a high grade of Assam tea?
What other reason would these leaves be black?
thanks