Ceylon Cinnamon & Black Tea
Brew at a full boil for three to five minutes, no longer, or the Dimbula leaf turns tannic. One pyramid bag makes two decent cups. For iced tea, steep four bags in a cup and a quarter of boiling water, then dilute over ice to a litre.
- What it is
- Dimbula Ceylon whole-leaf black tea with Ceylon cinnamon
- Caffeine
- Yes, standard black tea
- Water
- 212°F / 100°C, full boil
- Steep
- 3 to 5 minutes
- Pack
- 50 pyramid bags (3.52 oz)
- Makes
- 50 cups, or 100 lighter ones
What is actually in the bag
Whole-leaf Dimbula tea infused with Ceylon cinnamon oil. Dimbula is a high-grown region on the western slopes of Sri Lanka’s central hills, and its tea is brisk and mid-bodied, with enough backbone to carry a spice without disappearing under it.
The leaf is whole, not the broken dust that fills most supermarket tea bags. That is the reason for the pyramid shape, which gives the leaf room to open the way it would in a pot.
How to brew it
- Water at a full boil, 212°F.
- One bag per cup.
- Three to five minutes. Four is a reasonable default.
- Pull the bag out. Leaving it in is what turns a good cup bitter.
Push past five minutes and the tannins arrive before the cinnamon has anything left to give, so you lose the sweetness and keep the astringency. If you want it stronger, use two bags rather than more time.
Each bag has enough leaf for two cups, so a second lighter cup from the same bag is a real option rather than a consolation.
Milk
It takes milk well, which is the main practical difference between this and the caffeine-free pure cinnamon infusion. Dimbula has the structure to stay visible against dairy, and cinnamon and milk have obvious form together.
Add it after brewing, not before, and keep the amount modest. A splash, not a flood.
Iced
- Four bags into a heat-proof jug.
- A cup and a quarter of freshly boiled water over them.
- Five minutes.
- Quarter-fill a serving pitcher with cold water, pour the concentrate in, add ice, top to a litre.
Brewing strong and diluting cold beats brewing weak and chilling it. You keep the aromatics and skip the cloudiness that comes from cooling a full pot slowly.
Where it sits against the others
This is the breakfast one. Caffeine, body, takes milk, drinks fast. The loose leaf version is the same idea with more control and a lower cost per cup. The pure cinnamon bags are the evening equivalent.