Chateau Rouge Luxury Leaf Teas

Sri Lanka’s low-grown teas are normally of lower quality, produced in the tropical heat and humidity, the teas become dark and unremarkable. There is however a handful of producers that have succeeded in keeping the tips white and the pick of the bunch has to be the New Vithanakande tea estate. The estate itself is supplied by close to 6,000 small producers and is a pivotable part of the community, but the reall magic lies not only in how they operate but what they have managed to produce with this tea.

With small leaves like most Broken Orange Pekoe teas, yet flowery with the most unlikely of black tea components silver tips. Normally tea makers begin by withering the tea leaves very briefly, then rolling them for just a few minutes, using hardly any pressure on the leaves. However instead of rolling them on a table between pressurized disks, at New Vithanakande they pour the leaves into a vertical cylinder with a sieve at its base. As the cylinder slowly spins, the leaves rub up against each other and lightly macerate one another. Kept whole and undamaged, the tips don’t oxidize while the rest of the leaves do. Thus the tips stay a shiny silver. Its amazing what some experimentation and ingenuity can accomplish!

Using a heaped teaspoon (3 grams) of tea and 2 infusions per serving:

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