Black

Sri Lanka

Ceylon blacks are named by district and elevation, and the differences are real. Nuwara Eliya's high-grown character is floral, pale-liquored, and relatively delicate; Uva's seasonal brisk astringency makes it the classic iced-tea and blending base; Dimbula sits softer and fuller in the middle. Sri Lanka does not produce the regional complexity of India or the aromatic range of Chinese hong cha, but its consistency and cleanliness have made it the backbone of commercial blending and a reliable single-origin option for straightforward Western brewing.

teabert, the tealytics teapot, keeper of the kettle

Ceylon is the dependable black, sorted by district and elevation, clean and brisk and a little different from one valley to the next, and a brilliant base for iced tea. Sri Lankan tea is classed by how high it grows, high, mid or low, a system in which every garden knows its exact altitude and mentions it often.

Styles in this family

Ceylon

Ceylon is the tea of Sri Lanka, sold as a national style rather than a single profile, and elevation is the variable that matters. High-grown (Nuwara Eliya,…

Ceylon Uva

Uva is the famous eastern-slope high-grown district of Sri Lanka, and its signature is weather-made: during the dry southwest monsoon (roughly July to…

Ceylon Dimbula

Dimbula is one of Sri Lanka's classic high-grown (high country) districts, on the western slopes of the central mountains, and it gives the most archetypal…

Ceylon Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya is the highest and coolest of Sri Lanka's tea districts, and it makes the lightest, most delicate Ceylon: pale liquor, a brisk, fragrant, almost…

How it's made

The steps overlap in practice; this is a reading order, not a set of separate stages.