Champagne of teas. Little irks me more than this inane definition. Just about every high altitude region that makes light, aromatic teas claims a similarity with Champagne. It is so atrociously trite. Call it the Sauvignon Blanc or Gewurztraminer of teas, and perhaps youâ??ll capture my imagination. But Champagne? Yawn.

To be completely honest, though, I must admit this comparison also irritates me because I donâ??t much like Champagne. There, now I have said it. But really, nose-tickling bubbles with a yeasty or acidy sweetnessâ??whatâ??s that to do with tea? Thankfully, very little.

The Nuwara Eliya tea I drank today, in particular, was as un-bubbly-like as it gets, despite being touted as the Champagne of Ceylon. The region has the highest elevation among Sri Lankaâ??s tea districts and its teas have a reputation for being light and very aromatic. So I expected a golden, featherlike cup. Instead, I got a complete surprise.

My teaspoon of Nuwara Eliya OP, which I got from Special Teas and brewed for the recommended 2 minutes, yielded a deep, rich copper cup with a fuller mouthfeel than I anticipated. Only its intensely heady aromaâ??floral, lemony, with just a hint of earthinessâ??matched my mental picture, although I was hard-pressed to recognize the cypress tree, mint and eucalyptus which apparently scent the air in this area of Sri Lanka and make their way into its tea.

Brewed light, this Nuwara Eliya had a balanced flavor with sweet and citrusy accents and some astringency. But Special Teas also said that longer steeping times would yield a pleasant bite, so I tried a three-minute brew. The body became much fullerâ??definitely strong enough to support milkâ??and those elusive earthy notes became more pronounced both in the nose and in the mouth. A good astringency gave it the bite promised by the vendorâ??s tasting notes. It brought to mind Picassoâ??s Las Meninas series, which progressively morph from a copy of Velazquezâ??s painting into a Cubist masterpiece.