Adding black tea for tannins after fermentation?

[TandemTails]

There are several trees here that are ripe and ready for juicing so I rented a grinder and press and plan on picking the apples tonight. I don't know what types of apples they are (some tart green apples, some larger red apples and one tree with nice yellow apples) so I don't know what kind of tannins they'll have.

If I ferment the cider as normal and find it lacking a little bit, is there any harm in adding some strong black tea after fermentation has ended? In all my store-bought juice experiments I've added the tea prior to fermentation.

 

[Maylar]

I have been adding black tea to my secondary and it works well.

 

[madscientist451]

At first I thought that it wouldn't matter when you added it, but after some thought I'm thinking the fermentation process would have an effect on the tannin in the tea? Without doing any tests I'd guess that the tannin is only minimally (if at all) changed during fermentation. However I did a quick google search and it found a reference that says tannin IS changed during fermentation in cider.
Ok, so if the cider is already made, you can add the tea, but you may get a different result if adding prior to fermentation. I'm going to try some different options with tea this fall and see what I come up with.
Cheers!

 

[thelema5]

I've never heard of adding tannin post-fermentation; if the idea is to try and replicate the tannin present in quality cider apples then I think you'll have a more comparable product if the added tannin undergoes the same fermentation processes as naturally tannin-rich juice does.

 

[CKuhns]

I have added black tea in primary by steeping the tea bags in some FAJC. I have also done the same in secondary and also just added tea bags to the cider after fermentation for a week or so. I was unable to notice an appreciable difference using any of the three. (Maybe its my uneducated pallet.) Have really kind of defaulted to adding Tea in primary with FAJC just because that's how i kind of have decided to do it.