OP1 Ceylon Black Sri Lanka - Ebay bag of stems

[BlackTeaForMe]

Hi,

I'm new here and have been overpaying for my loose tea at the mall from places like Elephant Tea and Teavana. I love dark rich smooth black teas.

I prefer a good golden tipped tea like Golden Monkey or a good Assam in the morning. I then tasted a Chai flavored tea from an Indian restaurant.

I could not find a blend that came close to it and researched the various ingredients and started blending my own spices with a Mortar and pestle and have come up with a good spiced tea for an afternoon pick me up that consists of:
(Heavy) crushed whole green cardamom pods, Cloves(medium), Cinnamon, fennel & coriander seeds(light), and star anise (extra light)

I figured since I was going to overpowering the tea with a spice blend, that a good Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka would make a good base tea.

I found an Ebay seller with a 100% rating that sells OP1 graded Ceylon for a very reasonable price and when it arrived, I could tell there was something really wrong before I even opened the bag.

It was large stiff tea leaves.

After I brewed my first cup, I poured out the spent stems in a bowl and took a photo of the 90% stems and less than 10% leaf.


I'm not going to name the Ebay seller as they sent me a full refund as soon as I provided this photo. They claimed to be shocked that their supplier would send out 500 grams of stems. Since it was around $30 shipped to USA I was expecting broken leaves, but not stems that someone carefully tore 90% of the leaf off of each stem and left just the bottoms of each leaf attached. BTW, it was drop shipped directly from Sri Lanka.

Am I being a bit harsh?

What would make the best base tea for a full bodied smooth tea that I can add my own chai seasoning blend from Adagio Teas? I don't need an overly complex tea as the chai spices will overpower any delicate notes.

I'm done with E-bay tea sellers.

[Tead Off]

Most Indian masala chai are made from low grade black tea dust/fannings, often from Assam tea. But, you can use Sri Lankan, Kerala, or any other strong bodied black tea. No need to pay much for it. You can buy in most supermarkets or Asian groceries.

[Greenteaguru]

One word: shocking!

[MEversbergII]

I've been using this: http://amzn.com/B007SH2C6S

Oddly, from what I recall on the one occasion I made it black, was that this isn't particularly strongly flavored in spite of being CTC black tea.

M.

[TheCeylonTea]

It seems you might have received a low quality OP1 variety. In Sri Lanka, some manufacturers produce this grade with some stalks in them. A tea with a lot of stalks won't brew well or taste well, like a tea that consists only of leaves. Anyhow the grade OP1 is made of long wiry leaves, so when it is being sifted, stalks that are of similar size and appearance also get mixed with it. And when they are being separated using a color sorter, in some instances stalks that are of a similar color as the leaves get thru the color sorter. But if there are a lot of stalks then it could be low quality OP1, that wasn't sifted properly.

[Alucard]

You dont have to spend a lot to get good tea, but $30 for 500g shipped from overseas is very cheap - probably $15-$20 (or more) for shipping, and $10-$15 for the tea. In this case you are paying for what you get.

I recently tried a few samples of Assam from Capital Tea Limited and thought it was good. First time trying Assam though. I drink them without milk or sugar and thought they are brisk yet smooth. They are based in Canada (and prices shown are CAD). http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php?cat=3

Others here have mentioned teabox.com but I dont have experience with them.

[sherubtse]

I recently tried a few samples of Assam from Capital Tea Limited and thought it was good. First time trying Assam though. I drink them without milk or sugar and thought they are brisk yet smooth. They are based in Canada (and prices shown are CAD). http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php?cat=3

I can vouch for the quality of Capital Tea's Assams - they have a wide range of them, at numerous price points. Those at the upper end of that spectrum are uniformly excellent. They also carry a good selection of Ceylons and other blacks.

Customer service is excellent.

Best wishes,
sherubtse