Ceylon Tea Is Tea for the True Tea Lover
With all the flowers, herbs, and flavorings added to teas these days, it seems that many people have forgotten about simple black teas like Ceylon. After all, Ceylon tea pretty much just tastes like tea, which is the point of drinking tea in the first place.
When people think of Ceylon teas, they envision a robust, full-bodied tea, dark and rich in tannins. What many people don’t know is that Ceylon comes in other varieties as well. Some are very strong and dark the way people traditionally think of Ceylon teas, but others can be milder, lighter, and more floral in fragrance and flavor.
The altitude at which a Ceylon tea is grown has a strong impact on the color and flavor of the tea liquor. A low-grown Ceylon will be dark and full-bodied with well rounded tannins that leave a pleasant astringent feeling in your mouth after swallowing. However, a high-grown Ceylon will be lighter in color and flavor with a fruitier note. It can resemble a Darjeeling, but with a stronger, more tannin flavor. Mid-grown Ceylon teas are somewhere in between the two, often having the fruity essence of the high grown while retaining stronger traces of the tannins in the low grown Ceylons.
For this reason, it’s good to check the altitude at which your Ceylon tea was grown. Most quality Ceylon teas will have this information somewhere on the label. High-grown Ceylon teas are grown at 4,000 feet or more above sea level, mid-grown Ceylons will be around 3,000 feet, and low-grown Ceylon teas are grown at about 800 feet above sea level. Knowing the altitude at which your tea was grown will give you a clue about what to expect from the flavor. You might want to try a variety of altitudes as see which flavor you prefer. Whichever you choose, you can be assured that it will taste like tea, not your grandmother’s flower garden.
brewed on Jan 22nd, 2010
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