Kandy tea
Sri Lanka’s mid-grown district and the oldest planted area on the island, sitting between the high-grown and low-grown bands. Its tea is correspondingly intermediate: more body than Nuwara Eliya, more brightness than Ruhuna, and very widely used to give blends their middle.
Character
Strong and coppery with a citrus lift. It is the Ceylon most people have drunk without knowing the district name.
- Flavour
- Citrus, Sweet, Woody
- Aroma
- Malty, Fresh
- Mouthfeel
- Full bodied, Drying
- Complexity
- Straightforward
- Notes
- malt, citrus peel, dry wood
- Aftertaste
- Full and briskly drying.
Bold intensity: full-bodied, astringent or bitter enough to lead the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- Sri Lanka
- Region
- Kandy
- Oxidation
- Fully oxidised
- Harvest
- Year round
- Processing
- Withering → Rolling and shaping → Oxidation → Drying
Brewing
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1–1.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
4–5 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 5 authored infusions
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
If you like this
Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Uda Pussellawa tea
Up the elevation band. The body thins, the brightness sharpens, and a faint rose note appears that mid-grown Ceylon does not have.
- Dimbula
Two Ceylon districts a band apart, close enough that most blends treat them as interchangeable.
- Sabaragamuwa tea
Two Sri Lankan districts at opposite ends of the elevation range, both sold simply as Ceylon. One is mid-grown and balanced, the other low-grown and heavy.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Assam first flush
Shares 4 descriptors with Kandy tea: woody, drying, malty and fresh.
- Ceylon black tea
Shares 4 descriptors with Kandy tea: citrus, drying, fresh and malty.
- Georgian black tea
Shares 4 descriptors with Kandy tea: citrus, sweet, fresh and malty.
- Kenyan orthodox black tea
Shares 4 descriptors with Kandy tea: citrus, drying, fresh and malty.
- Munnar tea
Shares 4 descriptors with Kandy tea: citrus, drying, fresh and malty.