Provided is a black tea beverage having an excellent sweet and sour taste and high freshness. The black tea beverage contains 5-50 mg/100 ml of tannin and has a ratio of the total amount by mass of ethyl butyrate, ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl acetate and 2-methylbutyl acetate to the mass of ethyl hexanoate, in the whole beverage, of 100 or higher. The black tea beverage preferably contains 10 mass% or more of a fruit juice relative to the total mass of the beverage. It is further preferred that the fruit juice contained therein is an apple juice.
