Ceylon Golden Tips Black

That was the last of this. I normally don’t drink black tea in the evening to avoid caffeine, but then I realized that in the summer I often drink coke in the evening. And I sort of wanted this tea tonight, so there you go. Hopefully I’ll sleep soundly tonight. Tomorrow it’s back to work after 4 lovely days off.

It’s a fine tea. The leaf is quite long and light in color. The tea is also a bit light in color, with a very smooth mild taste. I’m sorry to see this one go.

I’m not placing an order anytime soon. My New Years Resolution is to get my tea cabinet down to less than 20 teas. I know. I can almost hear you all laugh. But I have about 70 teas now (yes, again I can hear you all laugh) that I need to drink up. Because really, how many teas does a single gal need on hand at a time? I figure 3 or 4 good breakfast teas, 3 or 4 mild afternoon teas, 5 or 6 dessert teas, 3 or 4 caffeine-free teas for evening, and a peppermint tea and a ginger tea for health purposes. It sounds very reasonable, doesn’t it? What are my chances do you think?

This is interesting and MUCH better when you follow steeping instructions on the package. I used 95C water for the first cup – oooops look at the package FIRST Dex….
Second cup I used the recommended 85C and that was a totally different experience.

I’m not usually a fan of Ceylon – but the golden tips make this one interesting. It’s more like a light Yunnan black. A little malty, a little sweet, just a touch of astringency. Pretty good – I might need to rethink my feelings about Ceylon, or at least watch for ones with some golden.
Thanks Sil for sharing.

This is a very interesting tea, very light and sweet for a black tea. I did two steeps of 16 ounces each, 2 minutes and 15 seconds the first time, and 10 minutes the second time. It was so light the first time that I wanted to see what happened with a longer steep…it was still nice and sweet, no bitterness or astringency whatsoever. For whatever reason, I drank both cups in approximately 3 minutes, haha. I’m a fast drinker, but never that fast…I guess it was the mildness of the tea. Very enjoyable! Thank you for the sample, Nicole!

Well, the inevitable happened, I have become addicted to another game. This time around it is the game Plague Inc that has hooked me, it is a strategy game where you play as a strain of (in my case) bacteria trying to wipe out humanity. I also hate this game because I spent hours staring at my phone playing and did not win a single game, this game is hard! Currently I am playing the free version, but I really want the full version, but no offense phone, I want it on my computer. Sadly I lack the $15 to shell out on a new game, and if I had it I would be putting it towards finally getting Minecraft on the PC, le sigh, so many games, so little time.

Today’s tea for What-Cha Wednesday is Ceylon Golden Tips Black Tea, it is so fuzzy and pretty, very golden! Ok, you guys caught me red handed, I spent way too much time staring at the leaves, they are adorably downy, like little caterpillars, though what really struck me was how they have a slight silvery sheen to them, unlike the fuzzy golds from China, which are Shining Gold (yes like the Citadel paint) these have a dullness too them. This tea fascinated me, though I do wish there had been a tiny bit more information as to where in Sri Lanka they come from. The aroma of the fuzzy leaves is iconically a Ceylon, it is brisk and bright, but it also has notes of oak wood, roasted peanuts, distant flowers, malt, and fruit. The fruit notes are muscatel and cherry, in fact, this tea reminds me of a three way dance between an Assam, Ceylon, and Darjeeling, how fascinating! The aroma is not overwhelmingly strong, it is delicate and a bit pretty, much like the leaves themselves.

I waffled back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to go Western or Gongfu style for steeping, deciding on Gongfu for now. The aroma of the now soggy and not quite so golden leaves is pretty malty and brisk, it wakes up my nose with an almost effervescent quality (I love when I have an excuse to use that word) the sharp notes of oak wood blend with a touch of flowers and muscatel sweetness. The liquid lacks all briskness, it is smooth and sweet with notes of malt and a creamy touch of cocoa, it is almost like night and day!

The first steep is surprisingly light in color and taste, also the brew is cloudy from all the leaf fuzz, this might be the first time I have ever wanted a strainer because I am pretty sure I could have made an adorable little fluff ball out of all the fuzz. The taste starts out with delicate notes of fresh grapes and malt, this transitions to cocoa that lingers. I am surprised at how smooth the mouthfeel is, I was expecting it to be all tickly from the fuzz.

The second steep, oddly, has pretty much no aroma at all, there is a tiny hint of malt and that it is. The taste was also a bit odd, there was a surprising note of rich yam and a bit of malt, that was about it. It was strange how this tea seemed to lack all body and yet had such a rich yam note.

So, clearly I need to steep this tea Western style to see how it compares, and I can safely say that this tea is one of the strangest I have encountered! While it lacked any and all body, it had a really delicious taste. The taste is a blend of raisins, malt, a touch of cocoa and a tiny bit of maple syrup at the finish. I am baffled how a tea can have a lovely taste but absolutely no substance and weight, it was like drinking warm flavored water instead of tea. It confuses me! It does not taste stale or off in anyway, just like the ‘cha qi’ or lifeforce of the tea has been removed, maybe this tea was attacked by a tea vampire or something. I dunno, I feel very conflicted by this tea, it tasted nice but was so lacking in oomph, so yeah, I am going to blame pixies or something fantasy related as to why this was the case.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-cha-ceylon-golden-tips-black-tea.html

I didn’t realise this should be brewed at NOT boiling, so i almost ruined my cup…thankfully i noticed it at the last minute. This is an interesting tea…it’s sweet and slightly malty but not in an in your face sort of malt. I don’t think i’ve ever had a ceylon gold tip sort of tea, making this a neat one to try.

This was an odd tea for me. It was vaguely vegetal and slightly buttery which I was not expecting. The smell is a bit dusty but not in a bad way. The taste is very mild. Moderate malt and sweet. A nice tea.

Thanks, Marizpan!

I like for my first tea of the day to be an unflavored black. So as I reached into my unflavored black stash, I started to think about how lucky I am that I have SO MANY great teas to choose from. I have you guys to thank for that, because when I started my tea journey, I thought bad tea was good tea. But through the magic of Steepster people and traveling tea boxes, I have learned the difference between “trash” tea and the good stuff. I’m sure there is still more of that journey to be had, but today I was just getting the feels.

So anyway, this tea. I picked it mainly because yesterday I had a Chinese golden tip, and right next to it was this Ceylon golden tip, and I thought the first one was fresh enough in my mind that I could compare then well.

There is fairy dust here, and the tea smells great. It looks different though, this is more the little crescents that i have seen most in white teas (this is a black though) versus the twisty spider leg type of black that I expected, so that was interesting. The leaf is a bit lighter in color as well. One thing that surprised me is that the package suggested 185 as the temperature. Hmm…. well, Alistair knows best so I went with that.

My first sip seemed really low on flavor. But I think that is because I was expecting something huge and bold. The next sip, I found all of the flavors I was looking for. Malty, sweet, black, Yunnan-y. Beautifully smooth and understated, not a tiny bit bitter or astringent. Instead of a tea that knocks you over, this is a tea that waits quietly for you to turn around and notice it. But, I did notice it and it was great!

This is an incredibly mellow and smooth black tea. I am brewing it Gongfu style in a gaiwan. The first infusion is very mild and a bit floral, there is a lingering caramel sweetness on the tongue. It’s wonderful. There is ZERO astringency and I mean zero.

Oddly enough the first brew for 15 seconds was a burnt orange color and the second brew for 30 seconds is a muted gold color. Interesting. I’ve never seen a black tea get so much lighter in color on a repeated infusion. This time the brew tastes very honey like with floral notes. The third infusion was more delicate and pale with subtler floral notes.

This tea is delicious. It lost it’s spark pretty quickly with Gongfu style infusions but would make a wonderful western cup. I really enjoyed this. Very sweet and mellow for a black tea.

The twisty leaves are absolutely gorgeous, brewing into a golden-brown cup. I’m used to brewing Ceylons (and blacks in general) at higher temperatures, but the kid gloves treatment here gave me a really wonderful cup bursting with flavor without any of that underbrewed weakness that sometimes comes from lower temperatures. This is a really nice, bright Ceylon without any hints of tannic bitterness. There is almost a caramelized undertone of juicy sweetness; the mouthfeel was almost like a nice fruit tea but without any fruit if that makes any sense. This is gonna be really great come winter; the sweet aftertaste reminds me of cocoa just a tiny bit, or spiced apple cider- it’s warming, even when the tea’s at a nice drinkable temperature.

Also, it goes crazy good with French Vanilla ice cream. Like, seriously crazy good.