Ceylon tea

Thé de Ceylan

What it is

The island lived on coffee until the leaf rust Hemileia vastatrix destroyed the plantations from 1869; James Taylor had planted tea at Loolecondera two years earlier, and the ruined estates converted to it. High-grown leaf from Nuwara Eliya keeps a lemon-brisk edge and a clear bright liquor where a low-grown one is darker and softer.

In the kitchen

It is the tea for anything served cold or set: brew double strength and cool it fast over ice rather than slowly, and it will not cloud. For a clear jelly use 2 g per 200 ml with gelatine, never a longer steep — the cloud is tannin, not concentration.

Goes with

Lemon Mint Peach Ginger Redcurrant White sugar

Same species

Assam tea Da Hong Pao Darjeeling tea Earl Grey Genmaicha Gunpowder green tea

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