Assam and Ceylon do a lot of the work in England's regional breakfast blends, and this one leans hard on both. Kent and Sussex Tea and Coffee Company blends its house Assam GFBOP, Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe, a grade that sits between Flowery Orange Pekoe and Broken Orange Pekoe with a high proportion of tips, against a Ceylon tea from the Kenilworth Estate. That estate sits in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, and is the flagship garden of Watawala Plantations PLC; its name, oddly, traces back to a castle in Warwickshire rather than anything Sri Lankan. The garden covers 603.11 hectares, just under half of it (295.36ha) planted with tea, and the company credits the region's rainfall and fertile soil for the character it brings to the cup.
The result is a hearty, malty cup with biscuity notes alongside lemon, orange, honey and a faint vegetal, coffee-like depth, the kind of tea built to stand up to milk and to a hard water supply, which was apparently part of the design brief. It's brisk enough for a slice of cake and forgiving enough for an everyday morning pot. Kent and Sussex packs it fresh to order at its Kent factory.
Loose black tea like this runs around 45mg of caffeine per 8-oz cup on average, so it's a reasonable early-day pick. Brew it in an infuser with freshly boiled water and let it steep for three to five minutes. Take it with milk (dairy or otherwise), sweetened with sugar or honey, cut with lemon, or drink it black. Black tea has long been drunk for its vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and some people turn to it hoping it supports immune function or weight management, though it's best treated as a good cup rather than a remedy.
