Mt. Kenya Black

If you like your blacks dark, this is probably something for you. The tannins are light, the flavour smooth, yet it still manages to pack to pack a rich dark malty punch.

This is on my permanent collection on teas to keep in the cupboard.

I normally don’t take milk in my tea, other than chai, but I just find it works beautifully with this tea.

It can be brewed darker or lighter, steeped longer or shorter, just depends what you are after. I also will do a re-steep, go for about twice as long as the original steep time.

I made this too hot (212F) and steeped it for too long (4 minutes)….and it is absolutely hitting the spot at this moment. I just really wanted a malty black tea that would punch me in my allergy-addled head. This works.

Sipdown! (21 | 368)

Finally drinking some tea from the JusTea trio sets I bought in September! We won’t discuss the fact that I just ordered their holiday trio a couple of days ago, without having tried any of their other teas. Oops? It’s hard to resist the combination of holiday tea, beautiful packaging, and supporting a great cause…

This is a very flavorful and high quality tea, but wasn’t a favorite for me. I’m not sure if it’s because it was next to their Earl Grey in the trio, but it has a very noticeable floral-esque sort of note to it for me. Which is odd because I read some of the other notes and didn’t see anyone mention that, so that’s why I’m wondering if it’s a scent contamination thing. Otherwise it’s fairly smooth, has a nice deep, slightly tart fruitiness to it and a hint of a vegetal note. Almost a bit winey, like a Qimen tea. It does remind me a bit of a Sri Lankan black tea as well, with that underlying “tea” flavor and metallic character.

Very nice tea though! I would be interested to try it again, in a format where it wasn’t stored next to the Earl Grey, and see if it tastes different.

This is a super malty tea. That’s mainly what I’m getting out of the (admittedly elderly) sample I’m finally getting around to drinking, but as a fan of Assams and all things malt-heavy this is not a bad thing at all. There’s a little bit of astringency and a little sweetness too. A really solid basic black tea, which is something I always like to have at least a couple of around. When I’ve sipped down a few more of my teas, I just may consider placing an order for some more of this (along with Justea’s luscious Earl Grey).

Now referred to as “Mount Kenya Black Tea,” from what I can tell. Good hot or iced; keeps well in the fridge overnight after steeping. The tin I had was very smooth and mellow!

I made this cup this morning because I was super tired and needed a caffeine kick.

The smell of it is really interesting – malt, raisins and an unexpected burst of citrus. Taste wise, this is mostly malt, with a pleasant amount of bitterness, and then a hint of citrus on the finish.

I finished most of this cup, and then decided to have a nap on the couch when I realized that I couldn’t focus my eyes.

The rest of this cup I drank cold, and it was also very nice.

Thank you to Lindsay for this sample!

Mostly woody, but a decent amount of malt in it. Not bad. I was expecting it to be wayyy stronger!
Thanks for the sample, ShortSorceress! This was quite enjoyable!

This is a good breakfast tea. Malty, full-bodied, with a bit of astringency. Good plain and with milk. I got a 2nd steeping out of the leaves (steeped for 3min the first time, 5min the second). I like this company and the work that they’re doing, so I’m glad I like the tea as well. :)

SSTTB: Pick #18

More exploration of straight blacks. I’m not really sure how many Kenyan ones I’ve had but this smelled kinda chocolatey and that seemed pretty promising. I feel like I was so terribly wrong though!

Never have I ever experienced such strong and in your face raisin notes in a tea! Not grape but foul, disgusting raisins. ICK ICK ICK! Not for me. Eww. Yuck. Like, there were other elements in here; some chocolate, some malt, a little citrus maybe? But they couldn’t even come close to negating the nastiness of this one.

I guess I wont rate it because I have a severe aversion to raisin stuff to begin with so my rating would be heavily biased but if I was going to rate it I suppose it’d be something along the lines of a 10? Noooooo! Not a raisin fan. Barf.

I picked this out because it was low hanging fruit – a single serve sample that someone sent me, and it was an easy sipdown. In other words, I wasn’t expecting much.

It’s actually very good! A nice strong black with yummy malty tones. It’s rocking my afternoon.

Normally I keep all of my “day” teas (caffeinated) in a big basket on my kitchen island. I separated them into ones that are easy sipdown candidates, such as samples people have sent, and larger packages. It helps when I don’t have a taste for anything specific to rifle through the sipdown basket. I guess somehow it helps me justify the ridiculous amount of tea coming in. :D