07/04/2021
How to make a perfect cup of Ceylon Tea?
The special thing about ceylon tea that it is grown at a high altitude of Sri Lanka’s central highlands. These highlands have the perfect conditions for growing good quality. They are characterised by high humidity, low temperatures and abundant rainfall. It’s because of these conditions that Ceylon black tea has a citrusy aroma. It also has a lively and refreshing texture. The taste of Ceylon tea has sweet juicy notes with a tinge of flavour similar to a grapefruit or citrus fruit.
enjoy a good brew of Ceylon Tea, it is important that it is made well. Different qualities of Ceylon Tea are brewed differently, and every brew has its own special characteristics.
Storing your Ceylon tea perfectly
The first step to creating a perfect blend is to make sure that your Ceylon tea is always stored in the perfect environment. Just like wines are stored in climate controlled environments and ci**rs in humid places, tea is no different and requires its own way of special storage. Since tea is hygroscopic it absorbs moisture, odours as well as fragrance.
Hence, Ceylon tea must always be protected in an airtight container, and kept away from moisture, heat, light and odours. If stored in a cool and dry place, it should never be warmer than 30 degrees centigrade in that area.
Some people also tend to stock their tea in an airtight foil pouch or ceramic container in the refrigerator, for medium or long term storage.
Not many people are aware about how storing the tea well yeilds a good taste.
Using good quality of water
Since, a cup of tea is 99% water, good water is as important for a good brew as the tea itself. But how is it that a certain quality of water is better?
It is a fact that water that we get at our homes usually contains minerals like calcium or magnesium. This makes the water hard. In certain cases, water also contains high amount of chlorine. When water of such a quality is used to prepare Ceylon tea, the outcome is not so good.
Even water that has been boiled multiple times does not result in good quality of tea brew. Water that has been boiled multiple times contains loses the natural dissolved gases and increase the concentration of nitrates, fluoride and other undesirable elements, and for tea that is especially bad.
There is a reason why water quality affects tea so much. This is because tea is very delicate and any any flavour from other constituents used in tea brew affect its fragrance, brightness, strength, flavour, body and texture. Even a badly washed utensil can spoil the tea brew like bad water.
Filtered water is best in case natural water supplied to your home contains a lot of minerals and chemicals. Two brews made from two different qualities of water can look and taste very different.
Brewing the perfect cup of Ceylon Tea
Brewing is process through which we extract the goodness nature of the leaves of Ceylon black, oolong, green or white tea leaves .
It is very necessary to use the right amount of tea for the volume of tea that one wishes to brew. As this impacts the overall taste. While there are a lot of ways to brew Ceylon tea with varying sizes of teapot, the ratio of tea to water that is most widely and conventionally used is this. 2.5g of tea is used per 220ml of water. It’s important to use a clean and dry teaspoon so that the stored tea leaves don’t get spoiled. The teapot is preheated and cups are made ready by swirling around some hot water in them and pouring it out before brewing. The once the water is boiled, tea leaves are poured into it using the convention of 220ml per 2.5g of tea.
Sometimes, we might make a mistake in estimating the perfect quantity of tea. It might be probable that we could have poured too much water or too many tea leaves. To avoid this, it’s best to follow the conventions
Brewing Ceylon Tea at the right temperature
The water temperature depends on the type of Ceylon tea — green, black and white.
Since Ceylon green tea is softer and gentler than black tea it should be brewed in water that is cooled to around 75 degrees. Ceylon Oolong tea should be brewed in water that is around 85 degrees and black tea in water with temperature of 90–95 degrees. Light and floral high grown black teas can also be brewed at lower temperatures such as 85 degrees.
Stirring to aid the preparation of the perfect brew
Tea leaves tend to settle down and this prevents them from being properly absorbed in the water. Stirring will agitate the tea leaves and allow proper extraction. For example, for Black tea, it’s a good idea to brew for about 3 minutes, stirring on adding water, again a minute later and finally before serving. Too avoid over-brewing, ensure that it’s not brewed for period longer than that.
Adding enhancements to Ceylon Tea
In some special preparations, you might be tempted to add enhancements. Milk is one of the most popular enhancements to Ceylon tea. Milk should only be added to a strong brewed black tea. And the milk added should always be warm as cold water will just bring down the temperature of the brew. Usually, white sugar is added to tea rather than brown sugar as it yields a better taste. Other enhancements that can be added to Ceylon tea are honey, mint leaves, cinnamon, wedge of lime, cardamom and ginger.
Conclusion
Ceylon tea are one of the best qualities of tea out there and brewing it is an art of its own. The bottomline is to respect the tea. Since each tea has its own flavour, strength, texture, fragrance linked to its terroir. With practice, it becomes possible to create that perfect ceylon tea brew from every single time.
