December 24, 2017

Tea from Ceyon

Ceylon is the old name for Sri Lanka, which is a huge island southeast of the tip of India.

I ordered a number of teas from Ceylon in December of 2017 from Upton Tea Imports. An advantage of using their website is that along with descriptions of the teas, you can view photographs, which prevents careless surprises. You know when you are ordering a fine grained BOP for example.

Kandy Silver Tip -- TC16

This is a full leaf tea. The Kandy district is where tea growing began in Ceylon (in 1867). I find this to be a very nice smooth tea and have been enjoying it since my order arrived.

Kandy OP -- TC32

A whole leaf tea. A bolder leaf tea I have yet to try.

Idulgashinna Estate BOP -- TC42

This is a fine grained broken leaf tea (BOP after all), that brews quickly and does not get overly harsh. This is from the Uva district. The Uptons writeup explains that these teas benefit from late summer drying winds that lower moisture content of the leaves and balance the flavor.

Lumbini Estate OP1 -- TC46

Long elegant whole leaves. From the Ruhuna district in the southernmost tea growing part of Ceylon. A "low grown" tea, which produces a strong full bodied cup.

Dimbula BOP -- TC20

A bargain at $5.80 for 125 grams. A fine broken leaf tea, but high grown. They claim a smooth mellow cup with classic Ceylon flavor. Dimbula region is west of the central mountains and is high, above 1300 meters.

Delmar Estate FBOP -- TC31

Broken leaf, but said to yield a mild cup. Nicely priced at $5 for 125 grams, who can resist? From the Uda Pussellawa district, which has a wet and misty climate. Elevations from 950 to 1600 meters
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's coffee and tea pages / [email protected]