Blog

Kaley black and white Ceylon (Sri Lankan teas)

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:  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.

Refer Original Article : http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2020/10/kaley-black-and-white-ceylon-sri-lankan.html

For many vinyl fans, Rega is a household name for hi-fi turntables and audio. The quality tables by Rega are a great way to enhance your new vinyl record player experience, and we’ll take a look at 5 of their best products on the market in this article.

No matter how compelling their brand story, growers rely on buyers sampling teas to seal the deal, but webinars that enable face-to-digital-face interaction and user engagement will likely continue long after the pandemic resides.

Tea tasting webinars

Marketing is one of the most costly and daunting challenges for rural tea entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Digital marketing necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic adds another layer of complexity.

Since December seven artisan garden owners have combined their resources to present inexpensive virtual garden tours with live cupping attended by as many as 50 qualified buyers from around the world and a least one curious journalist.

The hour-long webinar on Feb. 18, hosted by the Ceylon Artisan Tea Association (CATA) and Kaley Tea Estate, is the third in the series. Buyers from major retail ventures in France, Japan, the U.S., and across Europe saw a brief PowerPoint explaining the association’s history and objectives, then set off on a trek into the tea forest where 150-year-old trees rise 30 to 50 feet toward the sky. The plot, formerly a pruned commercial garden, was abandoned and has since returned to its biodiverse tropical ancestry but this forest canopy is uniquely dominated by tea.

CATA began in 2019 as a collective based on a shared vision that focused on efficient micro-production that, in aggregate, could scale. It is a community-centric model that can be adapted by rural entrepreneurs in many tea lands.

The seven small enterprises have limited resources individually but collectively provide buyers diverse offerings in style and the distinct terroir of Sri Lanka’s growing regions. CATA expects to recruit additional gardens representing Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, Uva, and Uda Pussallawa in the high mountains, Kandy mid-country, and Ruhuna and Sambaragamuwa in the low altitude coastal zone.

Estates are small. Amba grows its tea on only 30 acres. Neighboring farmers grow the remainder. But the price that Amba pays per kilo for fresh leaves is more than double the average in Sri Lanka. High rates encourage locals to grow tea naturally, adhering as close to organic cultivation as possible.

Last year the pandemic quickly decimated the island nation’s tourism sector. Tea sales to foodservice establishments declined at every level. Growers began the webinar series to maintain existing business relationships and later found ways to attract new buyers globally. Each garden sells most of its tea locally, but for overseas buyers, watching these videos offers tea retailers and wholesalers an alternative to sourcing in person during travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines.

The Zoom webinars are recorded, see for yourself.

• Kaley Garden Tour and Webinar, Feb. 18, 2021. Cupping: White Teas
• Forest Hill Tour and Webinar, Jan. 14, 2021. Cupping: Green Teas
• Amba Tea Estate Tour and Webinar, Dec. 10, 2020. Cupping: Black Teas

A student intern with promising skills as a videographer followed Kaley Tea director Udena Wickremesooriya through the plucking, rolling, and processing steps, capturing Udena chatting with workers and pointing to innovations such as locally built drying racks and equipment customized to make the creative shapes.

Cupping table

Cuppings and the accompanying tasting notes are critical to effectively market artisanal tea. Seventy-five percent of consumers consider taste the most important consideration in choosing tea. No matter how compelling their brand story, growers rely on sampling to seal the deal, but no one has the time to sample all the tea in the world. Webinars that enable face-to-digital-face interaction and user engagement will likely continue long after the pandemic resides.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The live portion of CATA’s webinar delivered a satisfying glimpse of personality and pride a the cupping table with Kaley Tea Director Udena Wickremoesooriya and Buddika Dissanayaka, Director, Forest Hill Tea, Chaminda Jayawardana, Managing Director, Lumbini Tea Valley, and Neethanjana Senadheera, Production Manager, AMBA Estate. Each presented their best white tea, slurping and commenting. Webinar participants got a close look at the leaf and liquor along with descriptions of the tea.

When evaluating tea, considerations such as the precision of the pluck, discoloration due to oxidation, breakage, and leaf style all contribute to the buyer’s decision. Missing, of course, is the aroma, texture, mouthfeel, aftertaste, and overall organoleptic sensations. Fortunately, all this can be replicated in the buyer’s tasting room.

CATA’s webinars offer something more than samples: clues in the facial expressions, gestures, and the enthusiasm of tasters. The casual but informed banter reminded me of gaggles that formed after competitions like The Golden Leaf India Awards (TGLIA) organized by the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI) and the Tea Board of India.

These events, occasionally judged in Dubai, provided a cadre of international buyers an opportunity to discuss the results of skilled tasting judges such as Kurush Bharucha, tea expertise director and head of Unilever’s research and development, and Yahya Beyad owner of Britannia Tea.

Tasting notes with points awarded for specific characteristics motivate participants and provide bragging rights at dinner but vetting the best of the entire crop year annually also helped everyone to better understand the influence of seasonal dry spells, for example, and provided insights into the improving skills of tea makers. Artisanal innovations continuously break new ground as has been the case for centuries – but now, thanks to webinars and one-on-one tastings, innovations in tea are transmitted globally at the speed of light.

Hidden value

There is an interesting parallel in the growth of the organic tea segment that suggests public cuppings elevate the overall quality of tea. The TGLIA competition dates to 2005, a dozen years after Korakundah Tea Estate, part of the United Nilgiris Tea Estates Company, first produced organic tea.

Japan had begun labeling agricultural products in the 1950s and developed organic certifications by 1999. In 2000 JAS (Japan Agricultural Standard) adopted rules for “organic plant,” “organically grown plant,” “organic farmed,” and “organic” classifications. The United States Department of Agriculture organic program was authorized in 1990 but rules establishing the National Organic Program (NOP) were not finalized until 2002. The European Union first instituted organic rules in 1991 and by 2010 EU established an organic logo along with an indication of origin. During the past few years, all three certifications were harmonized but it will take even longer for consumers to understand the hidden value in organic.

To cash in on consumer fears about food safety and the environment marketers were quick to label certified organic products “superior” and “premium” leading consumers to pay a higher price for non-pesticide, ecologically produced teas, but evading an answer to the question: Does organic tea taste better?

Beginning in 2005 Korakundah won its first TGLIA prize. The garden won again in 2006 and for 15 consecutive years inspiring many growers to follow in their footsteps and demonstrating that organic farmed teas were equal in taste or better than conventionally grown tea.

Korakundah is part of a corporate network willing to invest in certification. Artisan tea growers recognize that third-party certifications help sell — but at a price. The webinars convey the hidden value of community building, educating youth, improving health care. Tea plantations economically purchase and maintain fleets of vehicles to bring their tea to market – Kaley chose not to buy vehicles, hiring trucks driven by villagers whenever tea needs to be transported. At Forest Hill, Buddika involves the villagers by commissioning packaging from them.

Transparency in action?

The webinars are the ideal media for demonstrating transparency. Buyers who witness the impact at origin of their purchases have more compelling visuals than labels on a tin.

Tea Biz Podcast

A survey by the American Marketing Association last year revealed US marketers increased spending on social media by 74%. During the pandemic, investment in social media grew from 13% to 23% of total marketing dollars spent, according to AMA.

Tea marketers increasingly realized that traditional strategies such as advertising and attending tradeshows, while important for branding, convert only a few leads into buyers. This is because consumer expectation has evolved over time, making personalization and customization of marketing strategies essential. 

In mid-February, the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association (CATA), a collaboration of seven Sri Lankan tea farms, hosted their third garden tour webinar. Those who attended travel virtually to see the garden processing facilities at Kaley Tea Estate attend joint live cuppings where they met the principals, and asked questions face to digital face.

Tea Biz: CATA has now hosted three online webinars introducing tea producers to buyers globally. Have these webinars been effective in achieving your objectives? How so?

BELL: Absolutely, ironically, for many of the association’s founding members, finding global buyers has never really been a problem. Nearly all tea in Sri Lanka is made in large factories, so when we started producing teas by hand the products themselves were so unusual that many of the world’s best tea merchants actually tracked us down from day one before we’d even begun any marketing. We’ve always had more orders than we can handle. However, with the advent of the global lockdowns, it was apparent that we were going to lose a lot of our sales locally as the market shrunk due to the absence of visiting tourists at hotels and restaurants around the island.

And it seemed like an ideal time to bring our teams to the attention of a wider audience, and frankly, the response has been far greater than we ever expected. In normal times if you asked a tea buyer if they’d like to join a virtual tea tasting where he or she would not even get to taste the tea, I think they would very politely tell you to stop wasting their time and to send them a sample. But with everyone around the world in lockdown, including our own customers, we were amazed that the CEOs, the chief tea buyers of many of the world’s most prestigious tea merchants have been joining the webinars – and are begging us for more.

Perhaps even more important, than simply showing off our teas, what’s great about the webinar format is the ability to tell the story behind the tea. You know when it comes to artisanal teas, it’s the terroir, the climate, the provenance, the social and environmental impact that is so important to our customers in terms of why they love these teas. And so, you know, during the webinars, we walk around the estate we show the plucking, the rolling and the other steps of the process actually happening, and that’s what makes the teas so unique. These videos show you the land and the people behind the tea. And as such, they can say so much more than static images or text. 

Tea Biz: Collaborating on projects like the webinar series is one example of small growers pooling resources, explain other ways that banding together benefits buyers.

BELL: I spent much of my career advising small businesses all over the world about the virtues of combining their resources and combining their efforts through associations and cooperatives and so on, not just in tea but in other areas of agriculture, in tourism, in manufacturing and so on.

Our buyers want variety, but they want that variety in terms of terroir and technique. That doesn’t mean that we can’t pool our efforts in virtually every other aspect of operations.

Joint investments in research and development in developing new varieties and planting and testing new varieties in designing new types of equipment that suit our micro-scale teas. In commissioning equipment from engineering companies which wouldn’t be interested if we were just commissioning on our own from joint purchasing of packaging and certification services and other types of inputs like that that would typically only be affordable to larger enterprises. All across the chain, including, you know, making our voice heard with the government we are much better working together than we are separately. And perhaps most importantly, from a buyer’s perspective, we offer the opportunity to pool their purchases and their shipping, lowering costs. Two or three of our members are already working together and jointly shipping product to several customers around the world saving the customers time and money that they otherwise would be spending having to coordinate orders and shipments from multiple suppliers while giving them the variety that their consumers demand. 

Ultimately, we hope to be able to offer buyers a one-stop shop where they can order a whole menu of different Ceylon artisanal teas representing all the different varieties in all the different growing regions of Sri Lanka.

Refer Original Article : https://tea-biz.com/2021/02/22/small-enterprise-marketing/