Kaley Tea's Ceylon based Christmas blend

 

A vendor who had sent me Ceylon tea to try in the past, Kaley Tea, recently sent a Christmas tea blend version to try.  So nice!  Earlier in this blog history I would experiment with making Christmas blends every year; it seemed a good time to make an exception from only drinking plain teas, and to experiment.  

This says that it contains tea, cardamom, and cloves, so it's a simplified variation of masala chai.  Masala chai is a good start for a Christmas blend; from there people could add fruit, like orange peel, or cacao, or pine needles, but keeping it quite limited could work well too.  It might allow the tea to play more of a role, where if you mix enough things in it wouldn't matter what the tea is.

drying fruit and peels for use in a Christmas blend (covered here)

It's nice to feel like I'm observing Christmas too.  It's a little early for that, since it's around Halloween time, but holiday experiences never match up here anyway.  It might not be so hot in another two months but otherwise the weather in Bangkok is generally consistent year-round, beyond when it rains more.

I'm brewing this using their recommendations, sort of.  They suggest using a teaspoon to make a cup, brewing that for 3 minutes, with an option to brew it a second time.  I brewed more than that, I think, and for longer, so maybe this will be a little strong.  Ordinarily I'm opposed to diluting tea, adding water, no matter what happens, but I could always make an exception if I've screwed this up.

it's definitely less monochromatic in person; I think shading inside the infuser caused that

Review:

Infusion strength isn't bad, maybe just a touch strong.  It wouldn't be unusual for people to add milk and sugar to this, not to cut overwhelming astringency, since this is mild enough, but just to play up the dessert experience feel, or how masala chai is usually made and enjoyed.  I could drink some and then adjust it, to review it both ways.

The spice balance is good.  Cardamom and clove alone really work, and it seems like this is pretty good tea matching with those.  The flavor input of all three is reasonably balanced; it would be easy for spices to overtake the tea range, but they all show through.  It's pleasant like this, but the extra infusion strength pushes it a little far, off of being sweet, light, complex, and approachable, as the softest and sweetest black teas are.  The tea input seems pretty good but I'll stop short of adding a flavor list here.  Malt doesn't show through, so it's not like an Assam, and maybe some of the mineral base that is distinctive in Ceylon is giving this good balance.

The general effect is very clean; there is no negative contribution of any aspect.  Not very poetic a description, right, compared to bringing up some childhood image of people around a fireplace, drinking tea and eating gingerbread Christmas cookies, or whatever else?  This would go really well with cookies; that's what is missing in the overall balance, a reason for drinking a clean and positive black tea with spice inputs.  

I like the tea but it's not what I'm accustomed to, and this really would make a lot more sense in some sort of late fall or winter context.  It probably would make a nice iced tea, but it's odd mentally switching channels like that, considering a radically different context.  For drinking it plain maybe it would be better with food or those cookies.  I'll try it with a little milk and honey and see how that works.

It's good with those added, probably better.  I used skim milk, what I'm drinking right now; surely that's not optimum, but it's still nice.  As with plain black tea all the flavors fall into a completely different balance when you add milk and sugar (or honey, also what I had most handy).  Going even heavier on infusion strength and using more full cream milk than I added would probably be more optimum, to get the full effect of both inputs.  I tried a second infusion brewed for longer (with the same leaves), this time using whole milk (my wife couldn't sleep at night knowing there are two cartons open at once), but of course the effect is better from the first round, the intensity.

One nice part about drinking it this way--adjusted--could be that people who don't drink tea might be more likely to like it.  These particular spice flavors might appeal most to people with more developed food flavor background (in Thailand or in the West), but to me it's quite approachable and pleasant.  For people familiar with this spicing range there would be no need to mess around with this recipe form, and aspects balance, but for others continuing on to add cacao and a fruit input might be good.  Using an apple peeler to remove some outer rind off an orange might be a nice addition too, giving a touch of extra fruit edge.  I don't see this as working well for coupling with some sort of alcohol input (which can come up as another Christmas theme), but people on that page may take that differently.  A little cognac or brandy would definitely completely change this.

It works for evoking a Christmas feel, I think.  It needs those cookies though, not just any one kind, whatever theme people tend to connect with their own expectations.  My Mom would make a lot of kinds; we had large trays of many types around in the holiday season.  This would be perfect with a kind we didn't make then, which we called whoopie pies, two soft chocolate cookies sandwiching a cream filling center.  Maybe even better with gingerbread men; that would round out the typical set expectation of ginger being the other main input in a traditional masala chai (as I see it; for others black pepper or other things could be added).

This might be a good year for messing around with your own Christmas blend experience; either go out and buy one, or keep an eye out for spice inputs, like spearmint, cacao, or whatever else.  There's still time to work out how adding pine needles to tea works for people in the US, which tree type needle inputs definitely won't poison you, and how drying or chopping the material changes infusion results.  Making adjusted masala chai versions takes practice; you might need a couple of trial rounds to prepare something you can serve to others (all of which I've covered in this blog).

Many thanks to Kaley for sharing this, and an early happy holidays for all readers!  

Kayley green Ceylon

 

This follows reviewing nice black and white versions of Ceylon from a small producer, Kaley, sent for review.  It looks pretty good for green tea; long, twisted whole leaves, moderately dark coloring, rich smell.

Green tea isn't a personal favorite, but I've reviewed dozens of versions here, and I can relate to it.  I wrote about how that preference yardstick isn't critical in tea evaluation not so long ago.  It's helpful for a type to be a personal favorite but something towards the other extreme you can still evaluate.  

Some green teas are exceptions, in that I really do enjoy them.  The character of Longjing works out for me, that nutty / toasted rice flavor, versus some others being heavy on grass, seaweed, or cooked vegetables.  I really liked a steamed green tea from Thailand (from Tea Side), even though ordinarily that wouldn't be the best starting point.  Good sencha and gyokuro transcends that issue too; almost anyone could appreciate the pronounced umami, clean flavor range, freshness, complexity, and pleasant intensity.  We'll see where this stands.

I usually keep the reviews a bit "blind," not reading a vendor description of a tea before trying it, but I'll do it the other way this time, citing their description:

Black twisty tea leaves, unusual for a green tea, turn into a luscious leafy green with at infusion, revealing a light golden liquor. The cup is metered by addictively mild notes of seaweed that float in sync with a fishy vibe. Trifling sweet notes rise up to provide a striking counterpoint. A light vegetal fragrance is gently unleashed, enveloped by an air of bee’s honey. This Green tea is extremely delicate on the palate.

This tea is made from two leaves & a bud, is slow withered, pan-roasted, twisted to perfection, dried & packed within a day of plucking. The crowning glory of this tea is the high level of antioxidants & immune boosting natural goodness.

Alright then; let's see.

Review:

First infusion:  since I'm making this Western style I probably will only review two infusions of it.  It's quite pleasant.  In one sense it strikes me as brewed a bit lightly but if it were stronger it would be too much.  I'll try to sort out what that means, feeling internally conflicted about a likely optimum infusion strength.

For flavor it is vegetal, but in a sense that works.  It's not straight-grass or seaweed, but some aspects of both build into a complex flavor profile.  It has some umami range, for sure, in a form that works with the rest.  I suppose some of the more vague sweetness is floral, although saying that sometimes seems like a shortcut to avoid really identifying anything.  Most teas could reasonably be interpreted as floral.

A flavor-list approach to review might do this tea more justice than works out for some others, because you do get a sense of complex flavor range, of a lot combining and integrating.  There's nothing negative to bring up; that helps.  It's not too vegetal in any one way, there's no odd mineral or mustiness, no gaps in feel, aftertaste, or intensity.  On to that list then:  grass (but most of the range isn't that), seaweed, bell pepper (minor; that would be easy to miss), floral range, roasted sunflower seed, warm underlying mineral.

Looking at the vendor's list that includes fish and honey.  Odd they would describe their own tea as fishy, even if they thought so.  There's a fine line for any seaweed aspect to seem fishy, since the umami range is also present in seafood protein, and a vague sea-like theme runs through both, the smell of the ocean and such.  I could see interpreting some of the richness as comparable to a roasted scallop, the part that overlaps a bit with roasted sunflower seed, and the mineral.  Once you think "roasted scallop" it tastes a lot more like that, but in 100 years I wouldn't make that connection without a prompt or reminder.  

Oddly I like that part, and the overall tea.  It's crazy to say it tastes a lot like roasted scallops and then say that but it's an interpretation of a supporting aspect that integrates with the rest.  It's more vegetal, and mineral is as much an input as that warm, rich flavor element.  If you are "looking for" floral that stands out too, maybe along the lines of lotus flower, sweet, rich, and warm.  It helps a lot that it's all clean and balanced; shift the range so that a few of these notes dominate and it wouldn't work as well.  Stronger grass, seaweed, and green pepper wouldn't be pleasant for me, but mixed in this set I like it.  

Mineral is playing a much bigger role than I've done justice to explaining.  It's almost like tasting a penny, like copper.

I don't love it; I wouldn't want to drink a kilogram of this.  But then if I had a kilogram and used it for a daily drinker that might well change; I'm just not acclimated to green tea preference now.

I drank straight through 50 or 100 grams of jasmine green tea I picked up at my favorite local shop (Jip Eu) about two months ago.  It was odd "changing gears" to that extent, but I tried it there meeting someone and I liked it.  It was nearly free; somewhere around $1 for the amount I bought (which I think might have only been 50 grams, but I lose track).  Probably drinking more of this would go like that, that it would be nice to be on a different page.

after one infusion; not quite completely unfurled

Second infusion:  this is transitioning; that's cool.  I won't write notes for a third infusion because this will be enough to express though.  Richness picked up, mineral dropped back just a little, and a sweet floral aspect picked up.  Grass and seaweed are quite diminished.  I like it even better like this.  I would drink this regularly, even without acclimating.

The thing that works for me about Longjing (Dragonwell) that doesn't as much with other Chinese teas is the lack of that straight-grass, seaweed, and vegetable range.  There's a little of that but not much.

It's interesting noting the comparable input mineral contributes in this tea, related to their other black Ceylon version, or Ceylon in general.  It's pronounced.  To me that works really well, it's quite positive, but of course that take could vary.  I've been on sheng pu'er for a good while so I would see it that way.

The third infusion was similar but a bit narrower in range, picking up a touch more wood-tone, so not as positive.  It was still pleasant, not transitioning as some teas do so that you end up throwing out half or most of the extra round at the end.

All in all quite positive.  Some of that judgement does relate to personal preference, to this matching what I like best about some green teas.  Beyond that it seems "objectively" positive, well-balanced, clean in character, complex and intense.

Kaley black and white Ceylon (Sri Lankan teas)

 

white left, black right

nice labels and packaging, simple branding; all good

I've tried and reviewed some Ceylon here before but it's probably the main growing area that I get to least.  I've tried lots more versions from places like Laos and Indonesia that aren't producers on that scale, without that same history.  Indonesia does have a long colonial history of producing tea, so that's different, but Sri Lanka had always been one of the main top-5 producer nations.  

Here's a list placing that better; those are always nice:

All of this is leading up to saying that I won't really be placing these teas, in relation to the general area they come from there, or against the higher quality level versions, typical types, or to plant-type input.  The general theme that seems to apply is that lower elevation teas are less well-regarded (there and in general), with higher elevation zones and versions seen as better in quality, and selling for more.  Ordinarily there would be an old post here going through a lot more background research detail on that but for Sri Lanka there's not.  So I'll just review how they are, and add some sort of vendor link and description in editing.

It's a little odd comparing black and white teas in a tasting but why not.  Prior to trying out tasting contrasting types that wouldn't be helpful at all, or as practical, but having been through it lots of times it should be fine.

The teas look and smell great.  There's always the concern that I might not want to use the review notes for a post, if I don't like the tea, but these seem to be at the opposite extreme.  I won't change a post to make it more positive but not putting one up because it doesn't tell an interesting story seems fair, and it's not typical that bad teas are interesting.  A tea can be bad in a novel way, for example related to a storage input, but usually positive aspects just fall short.  

The white tea appearance is unfamiliar, thinner needles than I remember seeing for that length, and dark green on one side and silver on the other.  The smell is really rich and deep; it shouldn't be too subtle, or flavorless.  The black tea is fine twisted leaves, with a rich, savory smell that includes sun-dried tomato range.

Kaley Tea background

I won't go very far with this, with more about them in a Facebook page and website.  Their intro there:

Kaley Teas come from a single garden in a rural village in the southern lowlands of Ceylon. Bright warm sunshine & tropical monsoons typical of the lowlands, cool mist that roll across sloping hills akin to the highlands, gusty winds a feature of the eastern slopes of the central mountains, protected virgin soil & crystal-clear water from streams & springs nourish our terroir. Multitudes of forests surround our garden & meander their way to Ceylon’s largest rainforest: the Sinharaja. 

Not an ideal set-up mentioning that low elevation = bad earlier, but of course it's not that simple.  Microclimate depends on a lot more than just that one factor.

I'm not really seeing a clear background description of these teas (about plant types and the rest), so I'll move on to review part.  Both the website and the Facebook page are worth a look; some images there definitely back up those idyllic location claims, like this one (photo credit their FB page):

A look at the tea as it grows might also be of interest:

Review:

white left, black right, in all photos

White:  that is actually fairly subtle, but then this is just the first round.  I'll probably need to use an offset timing for both, bumping this one a little and keeping the other quite moderate.  Both I brewed for around 15 seconds this round, which may have this one too light and the other about right, just subtle for being the first round.  It's interesting how a creamy fullness to the texture did come out but flavor range is limited.  What I do taste is creamy in flavor, with nice sweetness, and a hint of something along the line of pine.  I suppose the vague sweetness could be flagged as floral, since that's something of a default.  

It'll be interesting to see how this develops.  If intensity never does pick up this would probably need to be brewed on the strong side, to get flavor input to balance better.

Black:  really interesting.  That savory, sun-dried tomato aspect does stand out as primary, supported by a lot of warm mineral tone.  This is really clean and intense in flavor for this not being brewed strong at all on this initial round.  An astringency and dryness pairs with all that, moderate enough to work well, but unfamiliar now since I've been off better Assam and onto drinking Chinese black teas and Darjeelings this year.  It's not really the feel that pairs with distinctive malt in Assam, but it's not that far from that either.  Mineral is present instead of malt (with a touch of malt).

I remember a fellow favorite blogger saying that she didn't like Ceylon because it tasted like blood to her.  I get why; a warm mineral range can be something that might not work for everyone.  To me a pronounced mineral base is most often a sign the tea is of good quality, a marker for that, relating to older plant input or even to some degree of more-natural growth, versus forced rapid production through monoculture farming approach and use of chemicals to push yield.  This doesn't exactly taste like blood to me but beyond the salt level being lower I suppose that partly works.  

It all balances well enough.  It's a bit early for a lot of discussion of that, the conclusions, but even early on the sweetness, flavor tone, feel, cleanness, and overall balance work.  There's a touch of aftertaste that is a pleasant effect, tied to the heavy mineral and moderate dryness.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves too, but for a different reason, to see how the balance shifts.

Second infusion:

I did use a 10 second timing on the black and out towards 20 on the white.  Proportion probably isn't an exact match, higher for the black tea.  It's like magic how I'm usually able to keep that incredibly consistent without weighing teas but eventually it would be off a little.  I'm not accustomed to white buds not expanding much these days.

White:  really rich and creamy.  I tend to overuse that one term a little, mentioning it when any creaminess is present, but this is different.  Then again I bet that aspect stands out more because the flavor is still so subtle.  The flavor that is present is positive, warm in nature, with complexity but very low intensity.  Someone who loves subtle white teas would be delighted by this.  For people who tend to dislike them it probably just wouldn't work.  Pushing it further by extending infusion strength, going up to 30 seconds, would draw out more intensity, but the effect only goes so far.  Mineral tone (along with some added astringency) extracts more when you do that, versus some lighter range more towards vague floral.  The floral is along the line of chrysanthemum; a bit non-distinct.  

I actually like the tea, it's just not a personal favorite style.  That complexity (within a narrow range) and sophisticated layering only comes up in beyond typical quality level versions.  A little more sweetness would shift how the floral range is perceived, but it is what it is, positive in a different way.

Black:  a lot of clove spice joined this flavor profile; that's different.  That may be the most clove I've ever tasted in any non-flavored tea version.  I love it, but then I love clove.  This is brewed a little light, which for me is pretty close to optimum for what it is.  That probably increases the clove flavor effect, with warm mineral and astringency (related dryness) standing out more at a higher infusion strength.  It's such a cool effect that I want to say more about it but there's nothing more to add.  The scaled back warm mineral works well as more of a base context, and clove really stands out.  Sweetness, feel, and overall balance are good.  Onto the next then.

Third infusion:

White:  evolving, but within a narrow range.  The neutral flavors now include more of a milky tone I would associate with young tree bark.  I guess to put that in more familiar terms it's a bit like a mild root spice, like one part of root beer (sassafras).  It's cool how thick and creamy that feel is, with some base context flavor, a mineral range, without much for higher range.  I like it but there was definitely a time that I wouldn't have.  Sheng that ages to fade to a thick, smooth feel that lacks a lot of forward flavor can be like this.  At first the experience seems to be mainly that of a gap but once you can deal with the shifted expectations thick feel with more mild, somewhat floral flavor range can be pleasant.

Black:  plenty of clove, with more bite to the clove this time, not just the aromatic sweet range from those, but also the sharper edge that joins that spice.  Brewing it slightly stronger may have caused some of that.  

I'm not quite as focused in as usual today, so I'd expect variation in brewing approach to come up more.  The first thing I did this morning, after eating a bowl of breakfast cereal, was to go back to bed for another hour.  A run took it out of me yesterday, and it was a sort of busy week at work (although it seems odd saying that for all that I ever get done).  And all the noise of election news and political protest here adds up, with pandemic tracking a constant underlying theme.  We have no pandemic here; I think we've had 3 or 4 cases of in-country transmission in something like 130 days, exceptions coming up that shouldn't, from causes like people crossing borders through uncontrolled locations.  All the same I'm worried for people in the States and elsewhere, so I keep checking on it.

Fourth infusion:

This should work for final thoughts, even though I'd expect these to be about half finished.  There may be some interesting late-round transitions, but this is enough tasting, writing, and tea consumption for right now.

White:  if you strain to make it out some of the black tea character may come across in this, maybe even the clove, but especially that savory range.  That may be why the overall impression is that of being complex even though flavor intensity is so limited.  Whether that's true or not it does seem like the flavor is quite complex, just a bit muted.  And a full, creamy feel makes up for that, adding depth, and then standing out as the primary thing you experience.  It's interesting.

I did let the next infusion--the fifth, which I'll mention here--run a little longer, and the flavor and character seemed closer to a really mild black tea for that.  It was interesting how sweetness increased along with flavor, and a hint of dryness started toward the mild astringency character in the other.

Black:  mineral is really bumped up this round; that probably is tied to a timing shift.  Just a bit lighter would be more pleasant, letting the spice stand out more.  It's still nice though.  It helps that astringency is so moderate in this that it comes across only as a dry edge, shifting the feel, but not as roughness, so there's no need to "brew around" it.  This is about as much mineral tone as any tea usually has.  For someone who feels like they don't get what that description even means they should try this version.

A next round is much better brewed lighter again.  The clove is pulling way back, with some wood-tone filling in along with that and the spice and mineral, in the range of cured hardwood.  It's still pleasant, just moving towards a brewed-out character.  It should have a couple more really nice rounds in it before a transition seems a lot less pleasant.

Conclusions:

I'm not sure if a general quality level assessment came across as implied in all that.  These are really good teas; nothing like this will probably ever turn up in a grocery store aisle, in any country.  I've only checked on that in a dozen countries so far but it's a good sample.  As far as how good this is in relation to how good Ceylon could possibly get, or how close they are to a type-typical near-best Ceylon example I'm not as clear.  Reasonably far up the scale, I think; maybe not crowded towards the top.  That probably means less for white teas, because those would probably be a less-typical category type to begin with.  

The black tea seemed like really good Ceylon to me; there is that.  That mineral range stands out, kind of the equivalent to a heavy malt tone in Assam for Ceylon being distinctive.  From there refined character, lack of negative astringency, pleasant flavors, and overall balance all determine where the teas stand, per my limited understanding.  To some extent it works to jump from evaluating teas as type-typical and just judge quality; to consider where these stand in relation to Chinese or Indian versions (or from Nepal, etc.).  Preference for aspects that leads into preference for typical types complicates that.

This kind of theme came up in discussion with a vendor and blog author related to his claim that it's possible to do exactly that, to judge teas against an abstract quality level by a set of aspect categories:  Structural Tasting And The Quest For Quality Tea, in a Tillerman Tea blog.  I tend to agree with most of what that guy says, content-wise, and to partly disagree with every set of conclusions that he draws from those specific points.  It's funny how that works out.

He says that you can evaluate Balance, Complexity, Mouthfeel, Length, and Persistence (what I tend to call aftertaste), and also Value, and together those peg how good a tea is.  I would add "trueness to type" to that, but otherwise I'd just be quibbling over minor details and use of terms.  In a sense adding that throws off what he's trying to say, because the idea is that you can evaluate any tea in an abstract and objective way, be it something completely novel (a tea you grew in your basement and processed on your own), or a standard type version.  I guess that you could even run a tisane through the process, but he isn't really going there.  

I should add that "Balance" draws on sweetness level quite a bit.  Or maybe it's that there is an individual balance within how the flavor aspects hang together, and another over-all.  He mentions something about that, "the bitterness and the sweetness work together."  In retrospect that approach really does de-emphasize flavor being of primary importance, or even on par with other aspect range.  Maybe it's just that no one really misses noticing how teas taste, and at one stage in form of appreciation flavor really is seen as secondary.

I think that understating a match to personal preference doesn't necessarily work.  He's on a different sort of project there, trying to work out an objective quality level, but for a tea drinker that's kind of the natural end-point.  As a blogger and reviewer it helps to use that as a yardstick, although it has to be clear when it is the form of measurement being applied, since that would vary by person.

Together trueness to type and match to preference define the experience, along with the rest.  Of course sheng pu'er or oolongs are going to express completely different mouthfeel and aftertaste (or length) range than a Ceylon black tea.  Using something closer to a scale of 1 to 10 per category approach drops out that it's not just about expectation, it's about sets of aspects working well together, which is what is informing personal preference.  Preference for mineral effect makes or breaks one's take on this black tea, and openness to a very light flavor input, filled in by heavier mouthfeel, plays a comparable role in how this white tea will come across.

Based on this yardstick, it's natural to consider how I like both, judged against my preference for teas.  I've already said that I liked the white but it's not in a main range, tied to this factor, for being so subtle.  I love fruity and intense white teas best, like the ones Nepal produces, or Moonlight White (from Yunnan, typically).  For black teas I like fruit range the best for flavor character, along with rich feel, limited astringency, and overall complexity.  I'm essentially describing Dian Hong, Yunnan black, my favorite black tea type, but a good bit of that applies to a Lapsang Souchong that I reviewed recently.  Feel for that tea was structured, complex, and refined, but maybe not as rich and heavy.  Nepal and Darjeeling blacks can be sweet with plenty of fruit, and orthodox Assam covers lots of range these days too.  I guess I'm saying that good Ceylon black is enjoyable but not an absolute personal favorite.

In a sense that's not fair, because if I try a really good Ceylon black every two or three years it's not enough to get my preference to "click over" to focus on that.  I've drank a lot more of all of those other tea types.  There's also a strange thing that happens where you can try a version that absolutely works perfectly for you, then the rest of the range makes a lot more sense, and the same tea that you tried only weeks ago can seem much better.  I'm not sure what that's all about; some strange psychological twist.  There's a pretty good chance that if I tried another dozen Ceylon versions on this level one would prompt that shift, and this tea would seem more on par with other past personal favorites, even if it doesn't quite get there.

It's my take that both these versions aren't giving up much for quality to other teas, although of course the continuum for that just keeps going.  Using Tillerman's approach (not really his name, just the blog name) that could relate to another aspect range filling in a little better.  Maybe, but the theory and models for appreciation only go so far, and in the end you just know how much you like a tea.  I think it's helpful to think through some basis for interpretation, which is why I keep referring to those types of aspect categories.

I really did like these, and it seems like this description probably overkills how much, and in what form, or related to what limitations.