Tea Adventure: Kenilworth Estate Ceylon Black Tea from Tea Licious

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


Kenilworth Estate Ceylon Black Tea from Tea Licious [More company info]This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Tea growing in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) saved their economy from ruin when a blight hit their coffee growers hard, wiping most of it out. The Kenilworth Estate is one of the main tea gardens in the Kandy region of the island nation. It was named after the famous castle in England, established at the turn of the last century, and located at an elevation of 3,500 feet. Tender leaves are plucked after the first monsoon and processed in cooler weather to give the tea its characteristic creamy character with hints of cocoa, spice, tobacco and fruity undertones. (See Main Ceylon Tea Growing Regions for more info.)

My humans find a lot of Ceylon teas have a raisiny aroma to the dry leaves, and it carries through to the liquid. This one had only the faintest raisiny quality in the dry leaves. Time to see if the steeped liquid will have it.

The vendor specifies boiling water and steeping for 4-6 minutes, so my humans heated the water and spooned the dry tea into me. Then I steeped, steeped, steeped but only for 4 minutes. Shorter steep times help avoid bitterness and astringency. With this tea, I’m thinking, though, that 3 minutes would have been better. The results were overall satisfying, with a rich, raisiny aroma and a beautiful ruby brown color, but it was marred with a slight astringency. My humans added some milk and sweetener, which covered that astringency and heightened the raisiny quality.

I did a smaller second steep, but it was too weak and not up to my standards or those of my humans. No problem, though, since that first steep is so satisfying!

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.