REVIEW: Ceylon Lovers' Leap OP, Tea Gschwendner

TEA GSCHWENDNER
EDMON'S COLLECTION
CEYLON LOVERS' LEAP OP

The Growing Conditions
In Ceylon, they don't use the SFTFGOP designations, like they do in Darjeeling. OP can be used to describe a very high-quality leaf. Ceylon is an island shaped a lot like a teardrop, with a mountainous region in the center. The teas grown on this mountain are called Highgrown, and that is the designation that people look for when getting a high-quality tea from this region. This tea is grown dead center, by the capital of Sri Lanka, at around 4000 to 5000 feet elevation.

THE LEAVES
Here the leaves are slowly becoming more brownish in the cup. The very brown steeped leaves have a lot of broken leaf, and it has a strongly ashy smell, like cigarette butts. I don't mean this in a derogatory way, though; it's a nice smell that reminds me of ciggies, but isn't repulsive.

THE AROMA
This tea smells very much like what I think of as a "normal" cup of tea-- in other words, the kind of teabag tea smell I'd expect from a cup of Lipton's or Twinings.

THE FLAVOR
This tea has sharp elbows. It's a bit bitter and has quite an edge. I wasn't terribly impressed by the flavor of the tea... BUT, I found the tea saves its best for last. It's in the aftertaste, the very long finish, that the complexities of this tea become evident.

This isn't a tea I'd probably buy again, unless I was completely bored of my Darjeelings. In fact, I just noticed the word, "Meh," in the margin of my notes. That being said, I can see why people love this, and I would be happy to serve it to other people when they come over.