Ceylon Amba Hand-Rolled Black Tea

I’ve held this off, and was time to finish the 2021 sample. Thank you Alistair for this one, and now, I can properly appreciate it. Whole and golden kissed black needles fell into my tea vessel, having decent length and much larger than usual ceylon size.

So I started indecisive between gong fuing my sample or having it western. Everyone recommended 3 minutes, so I started it out that way in my Manual Tea Brewer (westernized gaiwan) with a slight sip. Light, citrus, caramel, smooth. Not expecting that. A little bit too light, so I let it sit more…then one or two minutes extra as I did some chores. I’m not going to say anything new other than its a smooth and easily drinkable ceylon. I get notes of malt, caramel, oats, citrus rising in the mouth, and a caramel, almost cocoa finish ending in tannin. There was some extra bitterness, but a chocolate kind if tea bitterness.

There was mild astringency, and I was impressed with how smooth the body is. What-cha aims for smooth qualities in all of their teas-hence why I buy from the company so often. It’s got the trademarks of Ceylon teas, but it’s so much easier on the palette than the majority I’ve had.

I decided to go so much shorter, brewing 10 seconds, and it was smooth dark chocolate malt, tea tasting, with some healthy citrus and tannin.

Another 10-15 seconds, less water-3-4 oz, and citrus/orange leads the way. Malty finish still there with a little bit of tannin, yet precisely balanced and mildly drying.

I am going to be able to get more cups, but before I do, I’m pretty much set on what I think. And I have to workout. Time is of the essence.

I’m thankful that Alistair included it because I’m usually one to snub Ceylons and some Assams. I know they are essential for most breakfast teas and the blends I drink regularly, but they’re usually too drying, astringent, or tannic for me. This one was a lot more balanced and resembled some good Yunnan blacks, though the chocolate toffee tannin aftertaste is distinctly Ceylon. Keep in mind I’m using “chocolate” as an approximate adjective and not a accurate one, but it’s got the same bittersweetness chocolate does, and that’s what a lot of people like in their tea. It’s not super robust, and it stands on its own legs easily while being soft and nuanced enough to drink it straight.

Although I won’t have this in my consistent rotation (because I pay too much for other tea), it stands out as one of the easiest to drinks Ceylons I’ve had yet. I think it’s a good stepping stone noob tea, and I’m glad Alistair used it as a way to expand some palettes here on Steepster.

Inoffensive, quaffable black tea. Not much of any taste, but far from bland. I won’t get it again because it hints at tastes I get more of in other black teas. But it’s still really drinkable.

Got this tea from derk, so big thank you!

I woke up in 2 am… way too early. In 7 am, I didn’t wanted to stand up and do something…
And then in 9 am and I was so sleepy. But it was already necessary to do something.

Anyway, I actually wanted to use all 6 grams and prepare gong-fu. But then I thought it is not good solution for Ceylon teas.

So, prepared oldschool western style and after 4 minutes of steeping I got brisk tea.

Aroma of roasted fruits, bit malty and honey brought thoughts this will be very nice tea, although bit simple in flavours.

And it is easydrinker for sure. The aroma is as I said very nice, and flavours? Well, it is simple in flavours, but they are very, very nice! Citrus zest, again some malts and roasted nuts. Not much of that honey aroma pronounced in flavours, but…

Enjoyable tea!

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX1QsCjyg44
Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/voda-živá-water-life.html

And found out one funny song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3BVMkpmC2M — https://lyricstranslate.com/en/králíci-rabbits.html

I know it for ages, but the transaltion is just great.

As others have mentioned, this is an astringent tea. I can imagine myself choosing to go for a tea like this from time to time, but probably not too often. The smell is dominated by toffee and tomato vine aromas. The taste is quite citrusy with a good balance of sweetness and bitterness. Surprisingly, the bitterness really comes to the fore in the aftertaste. I wouldn’t say it’s unpleasant necessarily, but it took me a bit by surprise. The body is good, but not spectacular I’d say. Overall, I didn’t find too much about this tea that would make me want to revisit it.

I had gone over 48 hours without real tea or caffeine and thus feel the need to log this again. This afternoon I was in the mood for something light and bright. Ceylon seemed like a good pick. In my other review of this tea, I said I’d like to keep this around for the warm months, which are usually September and October here, but fortunately or unfortunately we didn’t have much of an Indian Summer so this tea sat around.

The tea has retained its flavor and aroma integrity over the past 3 months of being stored in its original pouch. It has a strength to it that needs to be drawn out and I highly suggest not tossing the leaves after the first or astringent second steep because it still has plenty to give with a third. Its light/med-bodied and brisk quality makes it easy to drink quickly. Warming in throat and chest. I also noticed a moderate, long-lasting sweetness in the throat which is not something I’ve come across in other Ceylon teas (granted I haven’t had many of high quality).

Feels good to be drinking a proper cup again.

I am to the last of my samples, and I know exactly what I want to rebuy from What-Cha. This is one of the teas that I’ll want more of. It just hit the spot yesterday at work. Floral, brisk, levels of flavor. Astringent yet coy sweetness. I brewed at 3 minutes, and I wouldn’t do a second more. Next time I might do 2 minutes.

Excellent Ceylon, and one of the best I’ve had from the region. Glad to read it’s fair trade! Makes me happy to support a company like this!!!

Allow me to start this review by stating that I have long admired the Amba Estate. Not only does Amba make a seemingly honest attempt to produce their teas ethically and sustainably, but the estate also produces a fairly unique, quirky range of black teas. That being said, I have yet to try an Amba tea that blows me away. To be clear, I always find their teas enjoyable and appreciate their little quirks, but I have yet to have that one Amba tea that just clicks for me. Clearly this tea did not do that either.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any subsequent infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of malt, toffee, and roasted nuts. After infusion, I found stronger aromas of malt, toffee, and roasted nuts accompanied by emerging scents of orange and sorghum. Robust notes of black walnut, hickory, roasted almond, and toasted cashew were evident on the entry. They were soon balanced by impressions of sorghum, honey, malt, cream, wood, leather, toffee, and orange. The finish offered lingering touches of malt, orange, and toffee with something of a nuttiness just before every other lingering flavor component faded away.

In terms of what this tea actually offered on the nose and in the mouth, I was pleased. Like many other Uva teas, however, I found this tea to be somewhat more tannic and astringent than I generally like, and as I played around with it, I could never quite seem to get it where I wanted and needed it to be. Overall, this was not a bad tea, it just did not quite do it for me.

Happy National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day…wait…that was on the 12th and it is the 13th…crap. I was going to have this big speech about how Fibromyalgia affects lives and how more research needs to be done and people need to be aware of it, but nope, I lost track of what day it is. Bringing me to my personal biggest ‘crutch’ of having this syndrome…Fibrofog. The combination of pain, fatigue, and cognitive impairment makes it feel like your brain is locked in a fog bank, it is what causes me to repeat questions, forget things, trail off mid-sentence, leave my waffles in the toaster only to find them the next day when I go to make waffles, make a to-do list and lose the list, lose something right in front of me…I could go on with this, but I think you get the point. As someone who prides themselves on their mind being sharp, Fibrofog is like adding insult to injury, I can take the pain, but I really can’t take the derp. So there, my Fibro-awareness day a day late!

Ok, time to put the sad, tiny, violin away and stop whinging, tis Wednesday and time for a tea from What-Cha! Today we are looking at Ceylon Amba Hand-Rolled Black Tea, a tea from the Amba Tea Estate in Ceylon, plucked February of 2015 (ooh so recent!) and of the Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Grade 1 variety. I admit, I do not try a lot of Ceylon teas, mainly because I used to have those generic Ceylon teabags back when I made iced tea…now that is totally unfair because the higher end Ceylon loose leaf teas I have had have been pretty fantastic, so let us see how these curly leaves compare. The aroma is delightfully nutty, blending sweet notes and peanuts, so it reminds me of peanut brittle. There is an underlying note of yams and a touch of dried cherry and apricot. I like the fruity touches at the end, the sweetness pleases me.

Oh man, I cannot type tonight! I keep messing things up and having to redo it, my fingers are all floppy. The brewing leaves smell more like I expect a Ceylon to smell, very bright and brisk with a touch of lemon peel and oak wood sharpness. There are also notes of sweet yams, peanuts, and pepper at the finish. The beautiful amber liquid smells, for lack of a better word, lively! It is one of those teas that smell like a wake up call, like after school and you need tea to wake you up…or was that just me? The aroma blends oak wood and gently roasted peanuts, there is a brittle like sweetness at the finish and a touch of distant citrus.

Tasting time! I was tasting this tea in the afternoon, so I was glad that the aroma of this tea seemed very much something I would want as an afternoon pick-me-up, and very excited to see if it would transfer over in taste. The first thing I noticed was how it was a blend of bright and mellow, the mouthfeel has a smooth and slightly tingly texture, with a slight dryness at the finish. The taste starts out with sweet peanuts and yams, this moves to malt and a touch of citrus, and the finish is peanut brittle sweetness. I am tempted to try this at a later time with cream and sugar, but I so rarely drink my tea like that anymore that I was totally out of cream…err…half & half, and I refuse to use skim milk because ewww. I think this would be an excellent tea to have at Afternoon Tea, complete with a side of scones.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-cha-ceylon-amba-hand-rolled-black.html