Tealet OP1 with Tea Flowers

Country of Origin: Sri Lanka
Leaf Appearance: long, dark and somewhat twisted
Ingredients: black tea, tea flowers
Steep es
Water Temperature: 212 degrees
Preparation Method: porcelain teacup and mesh infuser
Liquor: bright reddish brown

As soon as I saw Tealet post about this one, I just knew that I had to try it. Not only is it from the Amba Estate in Sri Lanka that I have heard so much about but it also has Camelia Sinensis flowers blended with it. Although not very large, they still made me do a little happy dance when I opened my tin for the first time. It’s not often that you find such large, whole leaves from this region. Once steeped, this tea was incredibly aromatic. The taste was earthy and sweet with strong honey and floral notes. No milk or sugar are necessary but it still had a pleasantly brisk finish. One of my favorite things about Tealet is the tea farmer trading cards that they send with every order. Here is what they had to say about the producer of this tea:

Plucky Teas are made on site at Amba Estate, their organic farm in the Uva highland of Sri Lanka. The estes nestles in a little valley below Lipton’s Seat ( site of Sir Thomas Lipton’s first tea estate) and above the famous Ravana Ella Waterfalls (refuge of the Goddess Sita in the Ramayana).

Maintaining these ancient fields according to strict organic guidelines requires enormous extra effort. We use no artificial fertilizers, pesticides or weedicides. To maintain and improve soil fertility, we make our own compost and organic sprays, using green material from the Estate and manure from our own herd of ‘rescue cows’. We weed the fields manually and we leave the cuttings as mulch between the bushes, to improve water and nutrient retention. We also plant gliricidia and other nitrogen-fixing plants between the tea.

All of their teas are truly artisanal and are made in small batches by hand.

OP1 with Flowers purchased from Tealet.