Ceylon OP1

Last time I had this with additives and it was surprisingly tasty so I thought I’d try it straight. Once again, it is surprisingly tasty! It’s a bit bolder than the typical Ceylon with some almost malty Assam notes, but nicely smooth and it has a very sweet, fruity finish. Really quite delightful. I’m bumping the rating up a point or two because this is one Ceylon I could definitely see having in my pantry on a regular basis.

Sometimes, steepster friends, one has to take a step away from drinking tea. Shocking, right? But our hobby, it comes with hazards — like consuming many times more than the safe daily dose of caffeine on any given day (500mg being the extreme outer limit of that dose). The half-life of caffeine is something between 5 and 6 hours for an adult with a liver functioning at full capacity — i.e., assuming that you’re not taking additional chemicals like Rx drugs or somesuch into your system, or drinking alcohol, or otherwise suffering from compressed liver function. With single cups of loose-leaf black tea weighing in at 25-110mg depending on preparation…and my love of chai, which extracts as much caffeine as possible from the leaf?

Suffice it to say, it’s occasionally a good idea to purge the system of caffeine and rehydrate with something other than a hardcore diuretic from time to time!

Restraint is so difficult. :(

Okay, enough of the public health and safety notice. I picked this tea today because I wanted something that screamed, ‘I AM BLACK TEA!’ while still being very clean, crisp, and easy to drink. It beat out the assams in my cabinet to that purpose…though I notice that my favorite ceylons seem to have a lot in common with assams — a berry-like scent while steeping, some malt, some of that subtle molasses-like character. It still retains that light ceylon crisp/briskness, though, that almost makes me hallucinate the flavor of lemon, thanks to a long mental association with iced tea.

Thought I’d go back to a very basic for my morning tea. I took the generous advice from other Steepsterites and relaxed — and it helped a ton! I feel like this will help reset my palate (at least that’s my hope). It tastes like a yummy Ceylon should :) NE

Good but not World Champion in my opinion. Pretty light and mellow but pleasant.

I’ve had some Ceylon teas that I’ve really enjoyed in the past, particularly the first Ceylon I tried Ceylon Neeraja from Teavana. So that set the bar for most other Ceylon teas I’ve had.

I steeped this tea for two minutes and it seemed a bit too long. The tea came out a bit strong. Although I redeemed it by putting a teaspoon of milk in my cup. This tea takes milk very well. I love the smell. It has a sweet barky smell to it. I enjoy the malty taste but right now it’s just too strong. I have to make a new pot of this and either steep a smaller amount of tea or lower the time.

It’s not the most exciting description in the world, but this is just a GOOD black tea. It’s simple, but the flavors are distinct and enjoyable, and there’s a subtle sweetness that rounds out the experience nicely. There’s also just a hint of bitterness that grabs at the edges of your tongue, but it doesn’t linger long, and reminds you that the tea is there and doing its thing.

The leaves themselves actually don’t have a strong aroma, though the steeped tea has a simple smokey/woodsy smell that’s pleasant, though very light. As such, the taste is a bit of a surprise, since the aroma would have you believe that this is going to be a very mild tea, but it does pack a little punch.

All in all, a very enjoyable tea that should be on any black tea fan’s list.

Bolder than most and not for those who want dainty cup, this Ceylon seems to have spent time in the octagon with an Assam as a young and brilliant trainee. Strong enough to grapple with the best of them yet not overwhelming if steeped correctly, you will be dazzled by this graceful powerhouse.

If you know ANY person who takes their crappy supermarket tea black, do kindly direct them to this as their mind and poor, poor palette will be blown.

—

Second steep is nice and mellow, sweeter.

Sipdown no. 14 of 2020 (no. 609 total).

It’s a cliche by now, but 2020 was a horrible year all around. It was also bad for me on the tea front.

As my usual life routines crumbled in the wake of the pandemic and election doom scrolling, tea was one of the things that fell away. Mostly because I couldn’t really enjoy it. My coffee consumption increased instead, of coffees with no subtlety, but a huge punch — I didn’t have to think about them too much. They were just a caffeine delivery vehicle.

Reading also fell away for the first time in my life. I couldn’t get into a book, because the minute an alert came in on my phone about the next horrifying thing, I felt compelled to look at it. Binge watching took its place. Name a show on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. If it’s not a comedy, a cartoon, or a reality show, I’ve probably seen it.

Add to all of that an unseasonably hot summer (during which our AC decided to become less than optimal), and while I was able to keep some iced tea in the fridge for most of the summer, I did not drink much of anything hot. Then when the weather transitioned to cooler temps, I never resumed the habit.

And yet, I really do need to drink my tea — we are looking at a potential addition/remodel this coming year and I have so much STUFF I have to get rid of before then that I have to start now. And not just with the tea.

As for this one, it’s still got its silky mouthfeel and a fruity quality and finish that is really honey, but that I often mistake for something else. Plum maybe. Which is all the more amazing when I looked back at my original note and discovered I’d written it 5 years ago.

It’s freaky to think I’ve spent more than 10 years of my life with tea and Steepster a part of it.

In any case, how are you?

Nothing remarkable