Tea Bank Estate FBOPF Ex. Spl. (TC74 - 2011)

This is a sample I picked up from Upton with my latest order. I like Ceylons and I had high hopes for this one, especially after seeing the leaves which were dark and slender.

This was steeped in an infuser mug this morning for around 3 minutes. My tea liquor got to be a dark reddish-brown and at first sip it reminds me a bit of some of the Chinese teas I’ve been drinking, it has a definite malty & sweet potato sort of quality up front, but the finish is quite bright and brisk. It reminds me a lot of their East Frisian tea. Anyway I needed soymilk in this, I am finding it to be quite strong. I prefer their Kenilworth Ceylon, which has more gentle dark chocolate notes. I might try steeping this for a little less time, although they do recommend 4-5 minutes. At least it will help wake me up!!

I added a new entry for this as the older entry looked to be for a different year. This is the second tea in my current tour of Upton Ceylon teas. It has some similarities to Upton’s 2011 TC27: New Vithanakande Estate FBOPF Ex. Spl. Some nice chocolate notes that deepen as it cools in the cup. The initial taste also includes a hint of the bright tea flavor I usually associate with Ceylon tea. There might be a hint of spice that Upton mentioned – I’ll have to think about that more.

I made enough for a 16 oz cup, adding a splash of milk but no sweetener. Will be interested to see how it does when I brew a whole pot for our regular breakfast tea. Very nice for my initial tasting.