Menikkanda Estate FBOPF (EX-SP) – Ceylon Ruhuna Dist.
Source: Capital Tea, Toronto
Retail and wholesale
Tea photo courtesy of Capital Tea; additional stock photos.
This was one of several teas ordered from Capital Tea in late 2009. I hadn’t opened the sealed package until yesterday, when I found myself having an inexplicable craving for a Ceylon tea. It was the first one I found in the “tea basket” so I opened it up.
Long thin leaves with plenty of silver tips, and some gold tips sprinkled in. Pretty!
First whiff of the dry leaves in the sack was very promising: light cocoa followed by rich and fruity dried plum. It reminded me of a favourite candy I occasionally buy — an individually wrapped Russian-style chocolate from Brooklyn, NY’s “little Odessa.” It’s a dried plum (what we used to call prunes until the name was deemed unmarketable) covered in dark chocolate. The tea’s description describes it as rasberries, but I’m sticking with plums. Okay, maybe dried raspberries. Too fruity to be fresh berries.
The aroma intensified when I poured boiling water over the leaves in the six-cup Chatsford teapot. Following the steeping suggestion of three to four minutes, I let it steep for just under four minutes.
Flavour was very much on the plum/berry side, only a hint of the cocoa, and that more or less disipated by the third cupful. All in all a rich and fruity cup, with fuller body and texture than most Ceylons I’ve sampled.
Although I drink most of my teas unaltered, the description does say that it can handle “a splash of milk.”
Quite nice, and I’m thinking it would also be good chilled. If we ever actually do get some global warming I’ll give it a go ;-).
Available at Capital Tea’s online retail shop. Contact them direct for wholesale information.
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