Mt. Kenya Black

never had a black like this one! indeed it is very clear and clean…. personally i don’t get malt. i’m getting an undeveloped brown sugar hint that is mixed with a vegetal tone: as though someone cut a swath of a demerara plant and stashed it in my tea as a stir stick.

no astringency, no bitterness…. really a clear green curl. scent wise i do get malt, but not on the palate.

i took advantage of the christmas discounts, i am interested to try the other samples now! (the rest i have saved for my upcoming not for profit course starting in january =0)

Thanks, Nicole_Martin, for sample of this tea!

This is a backlog from yesterday.

I enjoyed this tea as a breakfast tea. It was exceptionally smooth and malty with golden overtones. It was very fruity with almost plummy tones. It also has some green bean flavors going on. A very nice tea altogether!

http://www.justea.com/ has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support farmers in producing their own tea, thus sold farm direct for fair trade prices.

I found this Kenyan black to be very fresh tasting, yet full flavored, malty, robust with cedar wood and cocoa notes. There is a light to moderate level of astringency present which I wasn’t into personally. however I enjoyed the freshness!

BTW, this tea is very good with dry chocolate biscuits. It just complimented the tea and made the astringency go down.

Full review on my blog, the Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/09/17/kenyan-black-tea-justea-oolong-owl-tea-review/

I’m having a second cup from the same leafs and its still just as good. A bit less malty but more softer in taste and more sweet. I can really recommend this to anyone wanting something new!

backlog:

Really, really good. The more I try Kenyan teas, the more I like them, and this one from Justea is very robust … a solid black tea. Full-flavored and rich.

It has a distinct ‘bake-y’ sort of note to it that is sweet, chewy and caramel-y, but I like that it’s sweet but not overly so. A really enjoyable cup of tea.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/09/17/kenyan-black-tea-justea/

Another great surprise pick from Dexter3657! Thank you.

Man, this is why swapping is the best. I didn’t know anything about this tea or the company so this was quite a sit-up-and-take-notice surprise in every sense. It doesn’t taste like any other tea I’ve had. It has a smell sort of similar to Grandpa’s Anytime Tea, vaguely like Grape Nuts (that might sound weird but in the morning it’s good!), and then the taste is eyes-wide-open refreshing. There’s a malty smell, and a texture and lightnesss similar to darjeeling, brisk and astringent but so floaty it’s not overpowering, plus a fruitiness. Then there’s this…brightness, that refreshing quality I’m having a hard time mapping because I haven’t experienced it with the other qualities of a black tea before. I really like this, and it’s unlike anything I’ve had before! A solid hit. Thanks so much Dexter3657!

I have had this tea twice so far, once using 1 tsp/225ml and the second time using 1.5 tsp. I enjoyed the tea both times but I think I prefer the later.

Using 1 tsp the tea liquor was a rich copper red and
smelled sweet and spicy, with hint of berries, citrus, roasted sweet potato, cinnamon, malt.

It produced a comforting rich cup with a nice body with malt, cocoa, grain ( almost barley) and a hint of potato notes at first opening up to sweeter berries with citrus fruit, and cinnamon and a hint of chocolate with a light floral notes. The aftertaste was tangy with citrus malt and chocolate cinnamon note. The tea was smooth with little to no astringency.

With 1.5 tsp of tea the liquor smelled of roasted sweet potato, malt berry, spice and a deeper cocoa note

The malt, cocoa, grain with a little sweet potato, notes opened to citrus, with at times faintly peppery berry notes, and a hint of cinnamon that had deeper cocoa notes underneath. There were tangy citrus and deep cocoa bitter notes in the aftertaste.

It re-steeps well with the tea tasting brighter and fruitier with spice elements more prominent, and a new rosemary like element coming out.

This method had a little bit more astringency than the 1 tsp method but had a much richer flavour.

Thanks once again to JusTea for this sample. Definitely one of the nicest Kenyan teas I have tried to this date. Check them out at
http://www.justea.com/

I’ve been meaning to do reviews of these for a while, but somewhere between school, work, and getting sick, life beat me down hard this last week or so.

Received this, with many thanks, from the folks of JusTea in conjection with their campaign going on (which you can find at at http://www.justea.com/)

This is a very bright/fresh flavored black tea. It’s like a wake up party in my mouth! It’s also quite robust, with some wondeful balance between stone-fruit sweetness, malt and and fresh woodsy flavors. There’s a slight bit of astringency, but nothing I would call distracting or even unexpected.

The second steep (5 minutes) is similar to the first, though slightly sweeter and perhaps a little softer around the edges.

This is a really solid morning tea, or something to just kick back into and recooperate with later in the day.

I had this is in the morning, and it was perfect. Strong and malty – just what I needed for the chilly morning.

The first steep was a deep red colour, nothing like the photo. I was a little worried that I brewed it too long, but I preferred the stronger taste of the first steep. The second steep was ok and the colour was more like the photo.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending this my way. I liked this quite a lot.

Ah the scent of straight black tea is so comforting.

This tea is so fresh with the slightest hint of astringency. I’m really enjoying this one mid-afternoon.

Thanks Dexter3657!