Purple Tea of Kenya

Brewed this as recommended today, and am definitely getting green tea-like flavours. I love how the liquor isn’t a typical tea colour though, kind of a strange purpley-greenish tone. Very unique. I apparently have more of this left than I thought, as I forgot that it only requires 1/2 a teaspoon per cup… so I guess I have about 8 cups left. So much tea!

I don’t recall trying a purple tea before so I have no means for comparison but I’m looking forward to a new experience. The closest thing I have tried is Kenyan black tea which I remember to be very dark and smoky.

The leaves are dark brown and extremely dark purple/burgundy in colour with a few golden tips which are all finely chopped. It has a strong smoked wood scent with hints of malt and prunes. Very reminiscent of a mature dark Oolong.

I shall be steeping 5g (roughly 1.5 tsp) of tea in my 8oz Gongfu teapot using just under boiling water. I’m treating it like a black tea to see the similar characteristics between the two as black teas are one of my favourites.

WOAH! The tea is black..not dark brown but actually black. Sort of looks like dirty paint water. Sorry I know that’s not really selling it but that’s what first came to mind. When it came to pouring the tea into my bowl it changed to colour to burgundy right before my very eyes as if my magic. The leaves themselves are now dark green and look completely different from before the steep. Aroma is sweet, wooden and malted with a touch of maple.

Flavour is very full bodied and rich. I can taste smoky wood, sweet yet subtle flowers, thick malt and currants. It tastes like a highly oxidized Oolong but with more magic about it. It also has a slight astringent tang and dryness which reminds me of green tea such as Dragon Well.

If I was to taste this without knowing what it was I would have said Oolong with little doubt in my mind of it being anything else. It’s the strangest tea I have ever tried but I love it! I need more purple tea in my life.

I’m a little puzzled, this was a great tea but I’m not getting much of what anybody else is noticing.
It’s a bit claylike, with that drying sensation I get with wines sometimes. Reminds me of grapes in some ways! but certainly not of an oolong.
There is also a hard hitting bitter note towards the end of the sip, and a mild honey sweetness. All of this is overshadowed by the essence of something smokey, though I don’t actually taste any smoke, its more of a texture thing.
The second infusion really picks up on the honey aspect and balances out the clay. Light Pu-erh meets Dragonwell. Yum :)
Many thanks to Raritea for this sample, I quite enjoyed my cup!

I mostly purchased this tea for the novelty factor as this is the first I’ve heard of purple tea. It sounds vaguely gimicky to me, but whatever.

I may have used too much leaf as it was only after I added the water that I noticed that the steeping instruction on the bag said to use 1/2 tsp rather than a whole teaspoon. Oops. The leaf was very fine – teabag-sized basically – and had a sweet, cured-hay scent. Dry it looked like a black tea but when it got wet the leaves turned distinctly greenish. The tea itself was quite astringent – too much so for my tastes, I’m afraid, but that might be my fault so I’ll hold off rating this tea until I try it again using a smaller amount of tea (and maybe a shorter steep).

Sample from Butiki thanks to owner Stacy. Naturally Purple Tea! Of course I had to try this! For me it’s like going bunjee jumping but less dangerous! Tea Adventure!
Not knowing what to expect when I followed directions for 8oz. steep 4min. 160F. the liquor turned out to be a pale yellowish lavander. The scent isn’t very strong and reminds me of a hint of wine…like someone has left a few drops in the wine glass but my glass pot and the cup have not been used for tea recently and are sterile. My first sip proved a little sweet and astringent in a pleasent way. I didn’t want to make a comparison to my recent tasting of muscat tea but kept coming back to that flavor. It tastes faintly like mulberry and muscat wine. I know, I know…it could be a phantom…but as much as I try to force the flavor away, it comes back as a yes to those flavors. Since this is a new varietal, I hope it is successful and that Butiki continues to carry it. I’d like to try some more!

I have been waiting to try this tea because I sent an email to both Jason and Ricky hoping they would add a PURPLE TEA Category to the Category List. I haven’t heard back from either one of them regarding this.

Anyhow…

I have LOTS of stuff going thru my head right now about this tea so I am just going to virtually BLAB about it…

At first glance it looks like a finely slivered black tea but after infusion I inspected the leaves and they were reminiscent of a darker green! Very interesting!

At first sniff I could pick up on a savory or food like aroma prior to infusing. After infusing it reminded me of a green and black blend!

It ‘brews’ dark much like a black tea with a bit of a cloud texture to the color…NOT an actual texture to the liquid (like some greens) but the color if that makes sense.

At first taste it reminded me of a few grassier senchas I have tried…but then it changed up to a slightly astringent black tea taste. There is an interesting maltiness to it too – not your stereotypical maltiness like you would find in a black tea tho. The aftertaste has more stereotypical traits of a green tho.

I love the conflicts here. I love the change-up. I like how it morphs back and forth.

The aftertaste of the aftertaste is more of a combo between the woodsy and the grassy but it’s a neat happy-medium that I am appreciating!

I’m excited to try more PURPLE TEAS and am looking forward to their popularity growing!!!! I like this!

1 tablespoon for 375 ml

Lightly buttery vegetal flavour. Very delicate taste. Light broth-y mouth-feel. Crisp finish. Only the slightest hint of an astringent note near the end of the sip which is well balanced with the flavour profile. The overall flavour profile tastes like mix of green tea notes and the delicacy of white tea (about 65% green tea traits and 35% white tea traits). Fruity grape-like notes in the lingering aftertaste.

Second infusion using 82 degrees Celsius water, 300 ml, for 4 minutes. The taste of the tea reminds me a lot of the Gyokuro Imperial from Teavana (Creamy, vegetal spinach). There’s more of a smoothness in the flavour and a very buttery finish. The aftertaste is very sweet grape-y. The grape flavour reminds me a bit of an artificial grape taste but there is a astringent quality to it near the end of it that makes the taste bloom into something much more refined. I’m detecting the grapefruit-y hint that I sometimes find in the aftertaste of oolongs. This second infusion is incredibly flavourful- the best tasting second infusion that I have experienced.

Third infusion using 100 degrees Celsius water, 248 ml, 5 minutes. There is a corn-like aroma from the brewed tea. Mild, brothy green tea taste. Very faint hint of a leathery, astringent black tea note near the end of the sip. Grape-like flavour develops close to aftertaste as the tea cools.

I was pretty excited to try this unique tea and I do like supporting small local vendors who bring us offerings like this so that was definitely a great reason to try it.

I steeped mine with 180 F water for around 3.5 minutes in a glass infuser mug. This is such a curious tea with very interesting properties. I agree with TeaEqualsBliss that at first it reminds me of a sencha both in flavor and consistency but the color and strength are more like a dark oolong and it definitely has an astringent finish. That’s the only thing that bugs me a bit so I am going to try doing a few other things with it including steeping at a lower temp. and cold brewing so my rating may go up a bit soon. I am leery of astringent teas due to my issues with acid reflux but it doesn’t seem to bother other people. This is pretty unique so if you aren’t afraid of something unusual I suggest you give it a try!

This is actually one of the samples that came with my previous order. I forgot it was in my tea drawer and discovered it looking for hot chocolate last night. Before I discovered Butiki I had never heard of purple tea, which is why I requested it as a sample. At boiling, this tea took on some floral notes that reminded me somewhat of an oolong, yet it had a slight astringency reminding me of a black tea.

I think I’ll have to order some more of this at some point and play around with the different temperatures and the flavor profiles they produce. It really is an interesting tea.

I never rated this tea?! Crazy! I had a nice amount of this tea also. The leaves are finely ground up. There is barely any bitterness to this, which is good. I like this tea. It is like black tea, but somehow different. This tea is light tasting and perhaps it is because I hadn’t touched it in quite some time. There is a hint of fruitiness and sweetness to it. I can’t really pin it down.