Today we continued our tasting of teas, this time moving on to Ceylon, or Sri Lanka as it is now. Somehow tea from this country has retained its old colonial name which I think adds to the romance of this wonderful origin.
Sri Lanka has 6 tea growing regions or districts, within which are found literally 100's of estates:
Dimbulla
Nuwara Eliya
Uva Highlands
Galle
Ratnapura
Kandy
Because there are so many estates and so little information it can be quite difficult to identify from which district a particular tea comes. This I discovered to my cost today and hence the reason for the title of this blog.
I'll start with our Ceylon B.O.P. from the Dotel Oya estate in the Uva Highlands. This tea produces a deep red liquor. It has a full tea flavour without being overbearing. I would describe it as a classic English tea taste. If you were to picture cucumber sandwiches and tea cakes this is the tea you would choose to compliment the ocasion. Can be drunk with milk without fear of loosing its wonderful flavour.
Our Ceylon O.P. is a bit more of a mystery. We are advised that it comes from the "Nawagamuwehena" estate, however we're unable to discover in which district this lies. So if there is someone out there who has better information, please can you respond to this blog.
The tea has a wonderful black twisted long leaf. The brew is a gentler version of the B.O.P., still quite a deep red colour, however I think a more refreshing classic English tea taste. There is even a slight hint of lemons. If you like milk in your tea you'll want just a dash, otherwise you will destroy its wonderfully subtle tones.
Once again two great teas, but quite different from the Darjeelings we tasted yesterday.
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