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“I can’t believe I bought a 100 grams of, let’s face it, fannings! I mean, I knew it was CTC and I was sceptical about that, but as I was buying the Tanzania (again) and I have this budding...” Read full tasting note
“A.C. Perch Advent 2021 Day 3 Lex, her mom, and her nonna are all doing this calendar as well (the B&B caffeine free advent we’ll be enjoying together next month as well haha). However, they are...” Read full tasting note
A fine cutted CTC tea with a powerful taste, which makes this tea very suitable as After Dinner Tea with milk or cream.
You probably won’t find any other tea as thick and creamy in taste and volume as this one.
Recommended preparation: 100°C water/10 g. per liter water.
Time: 6 minutes
I can’t believe I bought a 100 grams of, let’s face it, fannings! I mean, I knew it was CTC and I was sceptical about that, but as I was buying the Tanzania (again) and I have this budding fascination with the African continent’s tea offerings, I couldn’t not get it. This and the Tanzania are the only African blacks they’ve got. I do wish they would look into getting a better Kenya because the fact that this one is CTC makes it seem rather pedestrian compared to just about everything else they’ve got. I can’t say for sure if it really is, but it’s the only CTC I can recall having seen from them ever.
So, uncharacteristically I opted for using a filter bag with this one. There is no way that my otherwise wonderful strainers would have a chance against this sort of leaf size. Or lack of leaf size. I also used only 3/4 of my usual number of teaspoons of leaf.
And it was a good thing I did because I ALSO forgot to set the timer, so when I came back to get it I had to test-taste a mouthful in order to find out if it was necessary to make a new pot. To my vast surprise, it was fine. A CTC steeped for at least 5 minutes unattended and it’s fine. Shocking! I was going to do it at 3…
But then when I really start tasting the cup, I discover why it didn’t go wrong. There’s nothing here TO go wrong. This is just about the dullest, blandest tea I’ve ever met. In spite of the tiny leaf size, there is very little aroma or flavour here to speak of. A bit of astringency on the end of the flavour, but anything else you have to search for. And the more you keep the tea in your mouth to try and find other flavours in it, the more you only find the astringency.
The aroma at least has a hint of something woodsy and slightly malty. It’s just a shame that so little of it comes across in flavour.
Perhaps I should not have been so cautious with the leaf amount, CTC or not. I’ll have to experiment some more with that, I guess, although it is very much against my better judgment to not be cautious with CTC leaf amounts. This cup more resembles something that usually comes in cheap teabags with a generic blend name, rather than something from a shop selling supposedly quality leaves. You know, the sort of blend where they have something proper to give the majority of the flavour and then stuff it with something cheap and filling to keep the price down and pretend it’s still lovely. This here then would be the something cheap and filling.
I really do hope I can find a way to improve this (a lot) because right now I’m so disappointed. If nothing else it’ll work as a morning tea when I don’t want to do an awful lot of thinking.
A.C. Perch Advent 2021 Day 3
Lex, her mom, and her nonna are all doing this calendar as well (the B&B caffeine free advent we’ll be enjoying together next month as well haha). However, they are all pretty caffeine sensitive, so when I opened this tea I was a bit concerned! Well, I didn’t need to be, because my phone was blowing up this morning with texts about how much they loved it — “I could sit and drink this all day! What a wonderful journey!”
The scent is intoxicating — bold, yet clean and clear (though I do love a bold black tea that I would take as a breakfast tea). The CTC cut is so small! It almost looks like coffee! This tea is bold, but with only the subtlest hints of tannic-ity at the end. It’s not too malty, but ever so slightly so. I can’t get over the lack of astringency/tannic notes here since sometimes that can be the downfall for these bold black teas.
Lex, her mom, and her Nonna all added milk (oat for some and soy for others), but I enjoyed this straight. I tried a sip of Lex’s with soy milk and it was also divine.
If you don’t like it, compost it, that’s what I would do :)
If you ever want a sample from Mozambican tea (namuli, which is the only one still findable around here right now) let me know, I can put some in an envelope – with the self-interest that your opinion of it would be very interesting to me. (mind you, it´s pretty tiny tea, fannings as well I guess, not that it is graded tea).
Hah! I just got an email notification about you having posted that suggestion somewhere else and then the apology right after and I DID wonder if it was supposed to have been for me. :p
The African teas aren’t very common around here. Kenya is becoming more common, but most often it’s still only the CTC ones. When I first saw the Tanzania AND the fact that it was whole leaf, I was all bouncy. :) I once had a really good white from Malawi, I think it was, and it seems to me that I’ve seen a Rwanda out there somewhere as well. I think Nothing But Tea had it, they have a fair selection of lesser known origins.
Yes please, I would like to try that (regardless of leaf size). My cupboard should be more or less up to date (I think there are a few that I’ve forgotten to remove), so let me know if there’s anything you would like to try in return.
Your review was very educational! Now I know what fannings and CTC are, after scurrying to google to translate. My tea education continues apace.
if you ever want a good quality full leaf Kenya, I’ve got a Kenya Milima Estate OP1 black and a Kenya Kangaita Estate Oolong…no full leaf Tanzanian teas however or Malawi….
I got a really good one from H&S in a swap a while ago but I can’t remember which estate that was. It was awesome! That’s the reason I got started on this whole African adventure in the first place. Milima sounds vaguely family but I don’t think that was it…
Correction! I went allllll the way back and looked and it WAS a Milima!
Do not expect too much of that mozambican tea, or at least nothing which depends on expensive technical part of growing and harvesting. I hear the tea plantations have been rather abandoned, the infrastructure is non existant and much of what is produced is actually sold to malawi (and repacked I guess). This one is just a run of the mill black tea which I can not judge objectively but which seems lovely and delicate and very sweet to me. I will send you an email with my (obvious) email!
Ironically …i recently had a few CTC teas (not PF’s) from Ethiopia…and they were a near cross between a classic shou pu erh and a brisk earthy lowland Ceylon…I enjoyed them, but so wished they were more of a OP or FOP so I could really be sure of the flavor of the region…but seriously if you want samples from either of those Kenya teas let me know
Hi, just checking, I wrote you an email about the tea samples, if you still want it a few days ago (just after writing here). If you wanna take a rain check fine with me, but just checking with you in case email hit a filter or something. My email adress is quite simple, this user name at gmail.
Cteresa, oh, I am glad you reminded me! I had actually seen your message and then clean forgotten all about it. I’m so sorry about that, but I’ve replied now. :)
Ok, got it! Just wanted to make sure, in case it was some evil spam filter (it happens).just give me a few days to hit the post office! Do not expect too much from the tea, but I do think it is different from any other tea i had before.