AMBA Estate Hand-Rolled Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe Black Tea (Organic)

Complex, smooth, and lingering with the most enticing notes of maple syrup and citrus, this is simply a must try if you enjoy black teas from Sri Lanka.  There is an interesting thickness to the tea with a lingering astringency - all in a beautiful balance.  This is a tea that is best enjoyed plain - no milk needed.  This AMBA estate TGOP (note: TGOP means Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe and indicates a full leaf with some tips) is a one bud, one leaf hand-plucked tea that is rolled by hand.  This is unheard of for the vast majority of black tea from Sri Lanka (the original home of Lipton's tea).  The quality of this tea is obvious from the visual appearance of the leaf through to the cup. AMBA Estate, at about 1000 meters elevation in the Uva Mountains of Sri Lanka, is a very unique tea making operation.  The Estate is a re-claimed and regenerated abandoned tea farm that has been organically certified since 2009.  Many of the plants, both small and large leaf varieties, are old and grown from seed.  The plants are fertilized by a herd of rescued cows and are otherwise free from pesticides and chemical fertilizers. AMBA is community run, not plantation based like most other tea enterprises in Sri Lanka.  Their core mission is to create economic opportunity for the people in their community and as such they offer 10% revenue sharing to their staff in addition to their regular wage.  Additionally, they support their staff (and the Estate's neighbors) in developing their own businesses from their handicrafts or locally grown and made comestibles.   January 2025 production.