Ceylon Cinnamon & Green Tea
Two minutes, and watch the clock. Ceylon green leaf turns bitter well before the cinnamon has finished giving. Use water just off the boil rather than a rolling one. Serve it plain, since the sweetness is already in the bark, and treat a longer steep as a deliberate choice.
- What it is
- Ceylon green tea with Sri Lankan cinnamon
- Caffeine
- Yes, lower than black tea
- Water
- Just off the boil
- Steep
- 2 minutes
- Pack
- 50 pyramid bags
- Makes
- 50 cups
What is actually in the bag
Ceylon green tea with cinnamon grown in Sri Lanka. No sugar and no sweetener of any kind: what sweetness there is comes from the bark.
Ceylon green is less common than the Chinese and Japanese styles most people know. It tends to be a bit fuller and less vegetal, which is useful here, because a delicate green would simply vanish under cinnamon.
How to brew it
- Water just off the boil. Let the kettle stand half a minute after it clicks.
- One bag per cup.
- Two minutes.
- Out it comes.
Two minutes is short, and it is short for a reason. Green leaf releases bitterness far earlier than black leaf, and in this blend the cinnamon has not finished giving by the time the tea starts going wrong. There is no steep time that maximises both. Two minutes favours the cinnamon, which is the point of the blend.
If you want it stronger, use two bags for two minutes rather than one bag for four. That gets you more of everything instead of more bitterness.
No milk, no sugar
Milk and green tea is not a happy combination at the best of times, and the cinnamon does not rescue it. Sugar is unnecessary, since the bark is doing that job already.
If you find it needs something, a thin slice of lemon works, or drop the steep to ninety seconds and see whether the problem was time rather than taste.
Iced
Green tea makes better iced tea than most people expect, and this blend is no exception. Four bags, two minutes in hot water, then straight over ice. Do not leave the bags in while it cools. Iced tea exaggerates bitterness rather than hiding it.
Where it sits against the others
Lighter than the black tea blend and lower in caffeine, though not caffeine-free. It is an afternoon tea rather than a breakfast one. If you want cinnamon with no caffeine at all, that is the pure cinnamon infusion.