Ingredients · Tea
Ceylon Green Tea
Camellia sinensis var. assamica · Theaceae (tea family)
What it’s like, and how to use it
- 175°F / 80°C
- 2 to 3 minutes
- never boiling water
How to use it
Around 175°F, 2 to 3 minutes — it is more forgiving than a Japanese green but boiling water will still make it harsh. Good with a Sri Lankan rice-and-curry supper, which is what it is drunk with at home.
With food
Rice and curry. Coconut. Lime. Grilled fish. Cashew. Mango.
With spices
Cardamom and cinnamon — both Sri Lankan. Ginger. Lemongrass. Curry leaf.
With tea
Blended with mint, lemongrass or jasmine.
Its story
Where it comes from
Mostly Uva, from Assamese stock, with lighter styles from Nuwara Eliya. Our lot names no region.
What happened
Ceylon green is the postscript to a black-tea island. Ceylon was a coffee island until leaf rust destroyed the crop from 1869, and James Taylor had already planted about twenty acres of tea at Loolecondera in 1867 from Assam hybrid seed. What followed was black tea, on an enormous scale — exports went from 23 pounds to 22,900 tonnes by 1890 — and the labour that built it, recruited from southern India from 1827, landed at Mannar, quarantined at Matale, and housed in line rooms. Green tea was attempted throughout and never took; it was only in 1982 that the first batch was exported, which for a place that had been growing tea for over a century is remarkably late.
On the shelf with it
Sold on its own, and in these blends.
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Ceylon Green, Organic
Regular price From $9.00 CADRegular price -
The Hangover, Organic
Regular price From $9.00 CADRegular price
