This is a sample of a tea no longer available at the Todd & Holland site.
There’s been a method to my tea selection madness of late. On weekends, I’ve been cracking open a couple of untried green teas to taste and write notes about, so that I can have green tea available to take to work during the week without the pressure of writing notes other than sipdown recordings.
But right now I have enough green tea recorded to last for a while and it’s a short week because of the holiday, so I decided that this Thanksgiving holiday I’d do black tea instead of coffee in the morning and I’d crack open some new ones to write about (as well as try to get some sipped down).
This is a one of those “new ones” — a sample I’ve had for a while but that’s never been opened, is vacuum sealed and has been stored in a cool, dry, place out of direct sunlight.
It has been a while since I had a Ceylon and I forgot how much I like them. This one is right out of the dictionary definition. The earthy smell to the small dark leaves before steeping, the clear, cherry wood red liquor, the sweet, malty aroma that reminds me of Nestea dry mix — only obviously so much richer and much better.
The flavor, too, is quintessentially tea-like. Nestea again comes to mind, as does Lipton, but only as a benchmark of teaness for a person raised in a culture where coffee is the national hot beverage. There’s an astringency to the tea, a briskness to the mouthfeel, with that slightly bitter edge that sits on the tip of the tongue after the tea has been swallowed. The aftertaste mellows out into a sweet one that paradoxically has a cooling and freshening effect. There’s a tiny bit of throat grab, but it isn’t so severe as to mar the experience. There are some chocolate notes and a general impression of trees in the sip.
It has been so long that I can’t honestly compare this to other Ceylons I’ve had without making shit up. I think I’ve probably had others that were a bit smoother and not so astringent, which knowing me, I would probably have preferred.
But this is quite enjoyable as the first tea on a Thanksgiving morning.
Flavors: Chocolate, Malt, Tea
