Spiced Tea "Cardamom"

A friend went hiking up Kilamanjaro and took my hiking poles. She returned with a package of Spiced Tea Cardamon from D&J Distributors. No, I didn’t typo that but I would normally write cardamom. It was packaged in a plastic wrapping inside a lovely blue fabric. I emptied the package into an old tea container. The tea leaves are a fine granular type. The wrapper indicates that it is from Subsistence farms in Tanzania Highlands.
The tea brewed up a dark with a strong malt scent. I definitely taste the cardamom with a slight astringent ending. I drank it as is but I think my next cup I will add some honey or sweetened non-dairy “milk”.

My boyfriend brought me back some teas from Tanzania to try! Does he know me or what? Anyway I was pretty excited to try this. The other two I got are spiced with ginger and lemongrass. They don’t have maker’s labels on them so I’m not sure what company is responsible for them. I may not add those to the database.

So the label says this was grown in the Usambara mountains without any pesticides. It is very fine and small leaf of the CTC variety. The cardamom is fine and powdery. It took a while for all the water to drain out of my Adagio tea maker.

Anyway I was worried about this one, since I find CTC’s can be very strong and harsh. The tea isn’t though, yay! It definitely has the flavor of a Kenya tea (the countries are right next to each other). Though some Kenya teas I’ve tried seem overly brisk and astringent, this one isn’t. It is strong and malty. There is a bit of briskness in the cup but it isn’t overwhelming. I’d say it has a citrusy kind of quality and is smooth. The cardamom is definitely strong and almost overpowers the finish but I really like cardamom, so this is good for me.

I liked it a lot with soymilk, it’s a bracing morning cuppa and very energizing. Hurray for Tanzania tea!