Darn… computer died and I lost the tasting note I’d written up.
Anyways, I picked this tea up as part of the ‘Explore Kenya’ sampler pack, which I bought on a whim – my Masters project is focused on health-beneficial phytochemicals in asparagus, which include flavonoids (which is what the anthocyanins that make this tea purple are a subset of), so ever since I began my project my interest in foods containing such things has been piqued.
Visually, this tea didn’t look particularly purple to me – it looked more blackish. I’ll have to look more closely under better lighting though. The steep temperature seemed awfully low, but I went with it, and stuck to the lower end of the time range, which gave me a cup of lightish yellow/amber liquor (that’s the best I can do – it’s in a green cup!).
It tastes much like green tea to me, with a bit of an mild astringency showing up briefly (but it’s very mild). It’s a touch sweet, and has a definite tea aftertaste, kind of green/oolongy (like I said in a previous post – perhaps they’re actually all the same, and I just associate it with the tea I’m drinking at the time!) Good, certainly, but nothing particularly special. I would have been more intrigued if the liquor had come out purple :D However, I would love to know if there’s a greater health benefit associated with drinking this tea… one of the professors on my advisory committee did some research on antioxidants in green tea; maybe I should look things up/ask him!
ETA: 175F/way too long, for the second infusion. Tastes… rather like a black tea, actually. Can’t believe that it’s so lacking in astringency though, given that it seriously must have steeped for about 10 minutes or more. There’s some but it’s quite bearable. I will have to try a proper second (third, fourth?) infusion the next time.
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Krystalen-Give this tea a try at boiling water and a 5 minute steep (still 1/2 teaspoon). Completely different notes but very interesting. I find at the 160 F temp it tastes like a green, at 180 F tastes more like an oolong and at the 212 F range it tastes more like a black tea. Pretty versatile. I’ve heard claims that there is a much higher count of antioxidants in this tea but have not seen any test results yet.
I noticed that there is a rim hue…like something you see with wine. The tea is not colored (the leaves might be why the tea is called purple…I have no idea) but there was a blush at the edge that I noticed with mine that reminded me of what you see in older and newer wines being browner or pink/purpler.
Stacy – I will definitely try that! Always curious :D And I have lots to play with. I definitely was getting both oolong and green “vibes” from it earlier, and the re-steep leaned towards a black, so I’m quite intrigued!
Bonnie – I didn’t see that, but my cup was green. I’ll have to use a white one next time and look.
Krystalen-Give this tea a try at boiling water and a 5 minute steep (still 1/2 teaspoon). Completely different notes but very interesting. I find at the 160 F temp it tastes like a green, at 180 F tastes more like an oolong and at the 212 F range it tastes more like a black tea. Pretty versatile. I’ve heard claims that there is a much higher count of antioxidants in this tea but have not seen any test results yet.
I noticed that there is a rim hue…like something you see with wine. The tea is not colored (the leaves might be why the tea is called purple…I have no idea) but there was a blush at the edge that I noticed with mine that reminded me of what you see in older and newer wines being browner or pink/purpler.
Stacy – I will definitely try that! Always curious :D And I have lots to play with. I definitely was getting both oolong and green “vibes” from it earlier, and the re-steep leaned towards a black, so I’m quite intrigued!
Bonnie – I didn’t see that, but my cup was green. I’ll have to use a white one next time and look.