Orange Pekoe (Organic)

This morning I finally managed to finish the last of this tea. I had been working on polishing off a two ounce pouch since late September or thereabouts. I recently sent out half of what I had left in an exchange and focused on finishing up the remainder. Now I kind of wish that I still had a little of this on hand. It makes an excellent breakfast or early afternoon tea.

I prepared this tea using a one step Western infusion process. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 205 F water for 5 minutes. I tried a slightly shorter 4 minute infusion at one point and a slightly longer 6 minute infusion at another (DAVIDsTEA recommends a steep time ranging from 4-7 minutes for this particular tea), but for me, the 5 minute infusion was the best. The other two produced good results, but I thought the 5 minute infusion was just about perfect. It produced a brew that had plenty of depth and character while not being particularly bitter, biting, or astringent.

After infusion, the dark amber liquor produced aromas of malt, brown toast, fresh bread, cream, caramel, cocoa, and roasted nuts. The leafiness I get from many Ceylonese teas was there too. It kind of reminded me of an autumn leaf pile. I have no other way to describe it. In the mouth, I got a pronounced leafiness coupled with integrated notes of malt, cream, fresh bread, brown toast, cocoa, caramel, wildflower honey, and roasted nuts. There was a slight citrus fruitiness too. It almost reminded me of a mixture of lemon and orange peel.

All in all, this was a really nice Ceylon OP. Compared to many of the other generic orange pekoes I have tried over the years, this one was very balanced and drinkable while maintaining an abundance of depth and character in the mouth. Normally, I find teas like this boring. I do not have that complaint with this tea. Check this one out if you are looking for a Ceylon orange pekoe with some actual flavor.

The classics are classics for a reason. Ceylon tea is about comfort. I had memories of drinking this tea from several years ago. Back then, it literally dotted my tastebuds like a fine talcum powder.

The tea leaf itself is thin and wiry, yet fairly small.

I used the whole 6g sample to brew and made sure everything was steaming hot to extract as much tannin as possible. I did two steepings of 3 minutes each.

The result was a nice balanced tea that wasn’t bitter. Adjust the strength with a little water, if you need to.

Without milk, with sugar this tea has that little bit of tartness that you need from a black tea.

With milk, on the second steeping it moved closer to Assam.

I get some of that classic ceylon taste for sure.

This tea or Ceylon Supreme should be fine for a daily.

There are a lot of different Ceylon teas out there. For something different, go to a third party that sells a large number of Ceylons. But this should do for your daily cuppa. :)

If you take a look at this pic, you can see the brown twig like pieces that are from the tea leaf. In an ultra high grade OP tea these would be as long as possible and without any leaf attached. They would yield a most mild cup of Ceylon. It’s as much about factory prowess as growing conditions.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJNWfhphYb9/

This is my favorite black tea. It’s incredible with a bit of cream and sugar. Love love love love.

dependable, classic black tea. i prefer mine with about a table spoon of milk, and a teaspoon of sugar in the raw. Comfortable

I wasn’t a fan of this tea.

After living on Ceylon and Tetley Orange Pekoe for the majority of my tea-drinking years, I cannot believe how good a quality orange pekoe can be. Low tannins that didn’t leave my mouth dry (even though I love to leave the bags/ball in my cup for as long as possible). Smooth flavor, but not weak, and everything that a staple black tea should be. I’m saving my remaining cheap tea bags for kombucha brewing and iced tea in the summer. David’s Orange Pekoe is my new standby.

The Orange Pekoe is one of my favorite, go-to loose leaf black teas. I’ve tried many other black teas but for some reason this one I always come back to. There really isn’t anything that exciting about it. Its a very straightforward, unexciting tea (maybe that’s secretly why I like it – out of all the hustle and bustle in my life, I crave something simple and straightforward?)

Dry, the leaves do not have a flavourful aroma. It has a fairly ‘leafy’ standard ‘tea’ smell. The pieces are made up of long, thin, wavy pieces of dried black tea leaves. Once brewed the leaves fully expand into large leaves.

My personal preference is to have this tea with milk and some honey. Even if I drink it just black, there are hints of sweetness you can taste. I drink Orange Pekoe regularly in the mornings as a substitute for coffee.

This is one of those teas where you’re like, well it’s that classic black tea flavor but…why? I’d never drink this outside of this calendar. If I wanted to have OP I would just have a teabag, but generally nah, that is not what I want out of my tea.

That being said, it’s clearly a step above the usual but to me this is one of those teas for people who haven’t yet delved into things…because orange pekoe is not really a type of tea so the name just annoys me.

It’s a pretty color when it steeps though, but it’s just…boring. It’s just that classic black tea flavor when you don’t want to go into much work thinking about flavors.

3/24 of my advent calendar. I’ve had orange pekoe before but when I tried this I didn’t feel the need to load it up with milk and sugar, which is super rare. Brilliant tea, naturally sweet a definite classic and a staple in anybodies tea cupboard .

Advent calendar [3/24]

This tea reminded me of fresher version of Tetley’s orange pekoe, or anything you’d get at a restaurant or while traveling. It was certainly less astringent and seemed to have less tannin than most other teas of the tea-bag style variety.

All in all, it was a good brew. There’s nothing offensive or overpowering about this one. If I was just getting into loose leaf teas, I’d probably think I’d struck gold. It’s like a better version of the cheap stuff.

Would I buy this tea again? Maybe. It seems like such a middle of the road tea that I don’t know if I’d ever strongly desire it.

Also, is anyone noticing that David’s seems to suggest really long steep times and high temperatures? I used to follow their times and temperatures exactly, but now I think I have better results by steeping for less time at a lower temperature all across the board.