Tea Review: Plucker’s Pick: Broken Orange Pekoe

I hardly ever drink Ceylon tea, so when I received the sample of Broken Orange Pekoe from Plucker’s Pick, I was a little concerned that I would dislike it due to its type, regardless of its quality. I was delighted to find that my concern was completely unfounded.

As most tea drinkers know, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) has a long-standing and enormously productive tea growing tradition. But as many tea drinkers also know, a lot of the tea coming out of Sri Lanka and called “orange pekoe” is poor quality and blended from leaf grown in a number of different locations. Unlike these lower quality teas, Plucker’s Pick’s teas are unblended and grown on single tea plantations. So rather than a mixed up jumble of mediocre tea leaves, this tea has a distinct and precise flavor.

To my surprise I really enjoyed the taste of this tea. Its character is a lot different from the Chinese black teas I generally drink when I drink black teas, but it has a lovely rich taste that I can say unreservedly is the best Ceylon tea I have ever tasted. The look of the dry leaf is a little jarring, as I am accustomed to whole-leaf teas, but the finely broken up, very brown leaf pieces produce a lovely tasting liquor. The brew is also quite a pretty, rich shade of red.