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80/100

Royal Gold Safari

Black Tea by Phoenix Tea Shop

Few black teas are special enough to live up to the honor of being named in tribute to a person as important as Nobel Prize Winner Professor Wangari Muta Maathi, who passed away this past September. But Royal Golden Safari Black Tea is a fabulous and truly exquisite tea, fully up to its special designation. Our supplier, Royal Tea of Kenya specifically requested that the local farmers develop a very tippy black tea, and they’ve produced a remarkable, gorgeous, slender gold leaf, which brews red, rich and sweet, and holds up through several infusions. Its character is somewhat like some of the black teas of China, but with a uniquely Kenyan tone.

“That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.”
- Wangari Maathai

From Royal Tea of Kenya:

“Royal Tea of Kenya teas are unblended and pesticide free, the teas are owned and harvested by Kenyan farmers throughout the country. Royal Tea of Kenya imports teas directly from the Kenyan small scale farmers to bring you the very best Kenya has to offer. Royal teas of Kenya are also exported to royal families in Europe, luxury hotel chains all over the world and used to blend and flavor most of America’s ready to drink products. Now exclusively available at Royal Tea of Kenya these rare teas are processed at farmer owned factories from all over the country paying special attention in importing teas from Rainforest Alliance Certified factories.”

origin: Kenya
Cinnabar says: “This is a very impressive and wonderful tea. It has a similar character to a really high grade Yunnan Hong Cha, with a similar luscious malty tone, but with its own flavor notes specific to its origins. It’s richly complex, and is well suited to careful concentrated brewings in a gaiwan or small pot, gongfu style.”