Kenilworth Ceylon Black

Backlog:

This is a really good Ceylon. It is a bit more hefty and robust than I typically expect from a Ceylon and that made me happy. It’s one of those Ceylon teas that have a really satisfying flavor and some get up and go to it.

Fruit notes (stone fruit and citrus), molasses and malt!

A really invigorating cuppa. Read more about it here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/07/20/kenilworth-ceylon-black-tea-from-simple-loose-leaf/

Last night was a good night. I did a lot of reading, I watched the live stream of the Hugo Awards (OMG, so happy that Ann Leckie and Kameron Hurley and Sofia Samatar won awards. And the magazine that I read slush for, Lightspeed, won a Hugo too! I bask in their reflected glory!)

I talked to my sister, tidied up my office, and then went to bed sometime around half past 11.

This meant that when I woke up this morning, I was full of sleepy blerg. The shower helped some, but as I was heading down to the kitchen to make breakfast, I was totally struggling over what to brew.

Then it hit me: I really just want some plain old black tea. And I LOVED this when I first had it a week ago. So into the pot it went.

I steeped it for a tad too long this time, so it’s slightly astringent, but yeah, I don’t regret brewing this. Such a wonderful malty, fruity flavour. I really need to try more ceylons, because if they’re similar to this, I think I’m in love.

Last up is the black tea hailing from Kenilworth Estate in Sri Lanka (or Ceylon if you are a bit old fashioned) the label on my tea package says this is bold and strong black tea, perfect for my breakfast tea. Fun fact about me, even though I can have many gongfu sessions during the day, my English roots show through with my first cup of a strong black tea, usually accompanied by loud music, today it was this tea and my Best of Queen collection. The aroma of the loose leaves is pretty rich with strong notes of malt and molasses, there are faint notes of roasted nuts and cherries, yum!

Pip pip, cheerio, and all that, the brewed tea smells quite delicious! With bold notes of malt, sweetness that is a mix of various dried fruits, molasses, and a nice brisk oak note at the finish, I was certainly woken up by the sniff! Upon the first sip I notice this tea has a nice dry mouthfeel and brisk taste, well if the sniffing did not wake me up, the tasting certainly did! This tea is robust, with strong notes of sweet molasses, malt, oak wood, cherries and a finish of pepper. Going full English and adding cream and sugar, the briskness is mostly replaced with boldness for a very smooth and strong cup of tea, an excellent wake up tea, but I expect nothing less from Kenilworth.

For blog and Photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/07/simple-loose-leaf-july-subscription-box.html

Happy 4th of July everyone! I’m sure a lot of you are going to be celebrating with family and friends, having amazing barbecues and such. I will be having a lazy day on the couch, drinking tea, and watching World Cup games with my love. Huzzah! Although barbecued meat does sound amazing…

Anyway, another tea from the July Simple Loose Leaf box! I’ve never had a Ceylon before. Well, not knowingly. The leaves are small and skinny and black, and they smell like musty hay with some malt and a little honey and stonefruit.

The aroma of this one is a bit ho-hum to me. It just smells kind of bready and malty with some light sweetness. At first, tasting this, I didn’t get much out of it. It mostly tasted like malt and bread with some earthiness in there. Disappoint. I added a tiny amount of sugar which helped a bit. Then as it cooled down, I started to get more flavor out of it. It’s quite light-tasting considering its flavor profile, and there are some biscuit or cookie notes with a light apricot and citrus aftertaste. It got more astringent as it cooled too, but I wasn’t horribly bothered because I was so happy to find other flavors!

Added vanilla soymilk at the very end when I had about a quarter cup left and this made it amazingggggg… Tastes very cookie-ish now! :D Take the rating with a grain of salt, I know nothing of Ceylon teas.

I hope everyone’s 4th of July celebrations are amazing! :)

Praise be, our 4th of July is overcast and cool with occasional rain. Such a relief after two days of hot, humid weather and two nights of thunderstorms. (Last night we actually had hail – the size of marbles!) A good day for a black tea such as this.

The dry leaf aroma has pleasant fruity notes, notably of apricot, peach, and dried kiwi (first time I detected kiwi in a non-flavored tea!). The aroma of the wet leaf, however, largely consists of malt with a hint of apricot. The liquor is reddish rust, full-bodied, and robust. When I first take a sip, malt is dominant. Again, the apricot is subtle, but it sticks out more and more as the liquor cools and the longer I let the tea sit in my mouth. It also delicately stays on the tongue during the aftertaste, when the malt nearly disappears entirely.