Broken Orange Pekoe - Black Tea

Steeping instructions:

Amount of water: 6 oz

Amount of Tea: 1 Flat teaspoon

Water Temperature: Boiling

Steeping Time: 3 - 5 minutes.

• Black Tea
• Process of growing and making tea
• Tea History

Ceylon is one of my perennial favorites in the world of tea. I was introduced to the world of tea through a Ceylon (albeit it in the form of a low-quality, dust-filled teabag), and I continue to enjoy Ceylon teas today (although luckily for me, today's varieties are much higher quality!). Red Leaf's sample of Ceylon tea made a not-so-great first impression. Although not exactly tea dust or powder, the tea was broken into incredibly small bits. USing anything other than a fine-mesh strainer to prepare this tea will result with little tea leaf bits floating in your teacup. I admit to a snooty raise of the eyebrows after seeing the tea; my general philosophy is that if you are going to drink loose-leaf tea, it should not look like the contents of a run-of-the-mill supermarket teabag. I infused a teaspoon of these leaves in 8 ounces of water, but only for a short time, as I was afraid that the small particle size would quickly turn this tea bitter and/or too strong. The liquid was not as dark as I would have expected, and was actually light-bodied and light-flavored. The flavor was mild, sweet, and just slightly floral. Truthfully, this tea was as close to Lipton or Tetley as one can get without setting foot in a grocery store. While I didn't hate this tea, I must express disappointment, as I was hoping for something with a little more character. Ultimately, this tea falls under "forgettable" in my tea files. In general, I'm not sure I would recommend this tea. However, I would consider recommending it to someone who has only used teabags and is looking to experiment with loose-leaf teas, because I think this tea would make the transition from bagged tea to loose tea a very smooth one. To date, I have sampled quite a few Red Leaf products and this one, which incidentally isn't even listed on their website, is not one of their stronger offerings.

Vanessa - Teaviews.com - Reviewer