The girls and I had tea lunch today, not to be confused with rat lunch which is grilled cheese sandwich and tea! Tea lunch is when we have a fancy lunch together at the tea table!
Since we always did Ceylons with such a meal because that was the one tea that everyone in the family liked, I revisited this one. Unfortunately, I lost track of the steep time amidst all the cooking, but it still came out fairly well. The dry leaves are much smaller than the leaves of Ceylon Extra Fancy from the same company.
The aroma is lemony, very lemony. The cup has all the roundness of a Ceylon but this is also very malty. With food when it was piping hot, it was perfect, but as it cooled and I was sipping it by itself the maltiness took on a bitter edge. I added milk to combat that effect.
This pot of tea was less than stellar, but next time I will not only set a timer but perhaps cut back on the steep time a little, due to the small size of the broken leaves. It can be a very good tea when made properly!
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I’ve had Vithanakande that had long slender leaves with a white stripe along the sides of most of the leaves…….very tippy, round, smooth, somewhat creamy, and delicious-with no bitterness. It did require a 4 to 5 minute steep as I recall. It was probably a different grade:
This was around 3 or 4 years ago from another vendor, and it was at least 1/2 the price! I think that price, linked above, is too much.
This is more like it:
http://www.harney.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=3741&category=0&secondary=871
I only paid about $3.75 an ounce for this. The leaves are super skinny and average 1/2 inch long, though some are smaller and some are as long as 3/4 inch.
I’ve had Vithanakande that had long slender leaves with a white stripe along the sides of most of the leaves…….very tippy, round, smooth, somewhat creamy, and delicious-with no bitterness. It did require a 4 to 5 minute steep as I recall. It was probably a different grade:
http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?UTid=81-14-9472708&afterCart=/shopcart/item.asp&itemID=TC27
This was around 3 or 4 years ago from another vendor, and it was at least 1/2 the price! I think that price, linked above, is too much.
This is more like it:
http://www.harney.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=3741&category=0&secondary=871
I only paid about $3.75 an ounce for this. The leaves are super skinny and average 1/2 inch long, though some are smaller and some are as long as 3/4 inch.