Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea

This was another tea I forgot I had. I acquired it at some point within the last year, rediscovered it while organizing my stash, and just had to crack it open and try it. I finished the last of it this afternoon while doing a little light house cleaning. I’m normally a big fan of African teas, especially some of those coming out of Malawi these days, but this one was not quite my thing. To be clear, it was in no way a bad tea, it just was not what I normally tend to go for in a green tea.

I prepared this one gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 167 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected interesting aromas of butter, straw, toasted rice, and soybean with delicate undertones of sorghum molasses. After the rinse, I ended up getting stronger aromas of toasted rice and butter, as well as emerging scents of collard greens and fresh spinach underscored by hints of seaweed. The first infusion produced a slightly stronger seaweed aroma and also revealed a subtle scent of cut grass. In the mouth, the liquor offered delicate, smooth notes of butter and grass on the entry followed by hints of soybean, collard greens, toasted rice, and seaweed. A touch of straw and a subtle sweetness emerged on the finish. Subsequent infusions brought out the seaweed, soybean, toasted rice, straw, and collard green notes in the mouth, and naturally, the spinach also started to make its mark on the palate. I found emerging impressions of minerals, tart cherry, orange zest, and malt accompanied by backing impressions of sorghum molasses, smoke, and honey. The later infusions offered lingering notes of butter, minerals, and grass balanced by fleeting hints of soybean, collard greens, and seaweed.

This was an odd and rather challenging tea. All of its flavor components were mellow and well-integrated, making it somewhat difficult to determine what was going on in a number of places. It also did not change a ton from start to finish. Still, I must emphasize the uniqueness of this tea. It offered a mix of aromas and flavors one simply does not find all that often. Furthermore, it displayed very respectable longevity, holding up throughout a rather lengthy session. As mentioned above, this was the sort of green tea I do not tend to go for all that often, but I’m glad I took the opportunity to try it and most certainly appreciated what it had to offer.

Two very interesting bits of gaming related news today! The first one, the newest Minecraft snapshot introduced Skeletons on skeleton horses, how cool is that? First they tame spiders and now skellie horses, truly those bony archers are the true masters of Minecraft, Ben and I have been theorizing this for years. The other bit of news is a bit personal, in Terraria, after many nights summoning Pumpkin Moons and killing soooooooo many Pumpkin Kings, I finally got the Raven Staff and the Spider pet. So yes, I am a dark-elf summoner with an army of ravens and an adorable spider…who occasionally rides a UFO, or unicorn when I am feeling fancy.

Tis time for my daily-ish tea rambling, looking at What-Cha’s Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea, a tea whose name will forever make me think of zombies, same with the Zomba Pearls, I am sorry, that is just the way my brain works, same with seeing blooming teas as baby Cthulhu. This tea hails from the Satemwa Tea Estate in Malawi, a place that has made several of my favorite teas, but really the artisan teas that come out of Africa I have found to be mind blowing, at first I wondered if it was just the uniqueness factor, but the more drink them I realize that nope, I just really like them. So, how about these leaves? The aroma is surprisingly nutty, like cashews, with a strong green presence, notes of greenbeans, cucumber, a tiny touch of seaweed, and a touch of sweet honey and a zingy note of citrus. Hilariously at the finish is a very distinct note of zucchini, I say hilarious because it comes out of nowhere, like you are sitting sniffing your tea and a zucchini falls from the sky into your leaves, it is quite distinct indeed.

So for brewing I did a somewhat pseudo gongfu session, brewing in my gaiwan but for a longer time more similar to western style. Basically I wanted to play with my gaiwan, like I do. The aroma is no longer a finish of zucchini, the zucchini decided it liked me and wanted to stay at the forefront of things, it is joined by hay, sweetgrass, cut grass, and a bit of flowers and citrus. It oddly reminds me exactly of my Grandparent’s garden during summer. The liquid however, is nutty, blending cashews and chestnuts, with lemon leaves and grass.

The tea is really light with an almost buttery mouthfeel, it has a bunch of things going on for such a light tea too. Starting with a gentle sweetness of nuttiness and honey, it pretty immediately moves to gentle sea air, and then to a pile of vegetal notes, bell pepper, zucchini, and a slightly peppery spinach finish. What a fun first steep!

Second steep, the aroma is a blend of sweet nuttiness and green, it is a tea that smells very much so like ‘tea’ like the distilled essence of what fresh off the bush tea leaves smell like. This time the mouthfeel is more brisk, less buttery, starting with sea air and moving on to zucchini and chestnuts with a very snappy green pepper finish.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/09/what-cha-malawi-zomba-steamed-green-tea.html