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“Inspired by Indigobloom who enjoyed a Tanzanian black the other day, I decided to start the day with a cup of my own. As I mentioned in my comment to Indigobloom, tasting this one for the first...” Read full tasting note
“Angrboda is awesome…I just need to remind people of that! :) Really…she spoils me! Thanks so much for this one, too! I LOVE trying teas from Tanzania (and more recently Kenya, too!) This one...” Read full tasting note
“This is from a very generous sample sent by Angrboda, thank you so much! I had sent her some tea from Mozambique, and was interested to compare with other different African teas. Kenya tea I have...” Read full tasting note
“Backlog: An agreeable black: rich, bold and hearty with a delicious honeyed taste. Nicely round. Malty notes, bread-y flavors … although this isn’t the most complex black tea I’ve tried. It’s...” Read full tasting note
Tea from Luponde garden in Tanzania. Strong cup and full body. Infuse for 6 miunutes with boiling water
Inspired by Indigobloom who enjoyed a Tanzanian black the other day, I decided to start the day with a cup of my own. As I mentioned in my comment to Indigobloom, tasting this one for the first time was a sort of ‘hey this is strong, no wait, this is lovely!’ experience. It’s so honey-sweet! With this particular pot, I have somehow really managed to hit that point where nice turns into lovely. I remember the first time I ordered it, half for work and half for home because the boss was uncertain about whether she would enjoy it. It’s not possible to get less than 100g from ACP’s webshop, so no samples.
This particular cup comes from when I bought another portion of it for home and that’s nearly gone as well. Although I am quite enjoying it, I’m not sure if I’ll buy it one more time (when, after July, I may) though. Maybe I’ll give that one a little break and use the space to try out something else. I have my sights on a Nothing But Tea order when that time comes, I believe. And Teavivre, I think. Although… with tax, customs and import fees being a constant threat on anything coming in from outside the EU, that’s a bit uncertain. It depends on how large an order I want to make. For smaller orders, it’s just not worth taking the risk these days.
Angrboda is awesome…I just need to remind people of that! :) Really…she spoils me! Thanks so much for this one, too!
I LOVE trying teas from Tanzania (and more recently Kenya, too!)
This one smells a little malty and a little bready. The black tea strength is that of a medium black, probably. The flavor is semi-bready/semi-malty, a little astrigent but in a good way, and has slight notes of some darjeelings I have enjoyed. Towards the end of the sip I got a few specks of peppery notes which were neat. Two thumbs up on this one, too!
It’s a shame that African teas get so little focus, and when they’re used it’s often as filler in blends. African tea is so much more than just Kenya and that continent seems to have SO much to offer. I’m glad you liked this one, it’s pretty much a hit here as well.
This is from a very generous sample sent by Angrboda, thank you so much! I had sent her some tea from Mozambique, and was interested to compare with other different African teas. Kenya tea I have had before, Tanzania never.
Not sure why it took me so long to try this. Breakfast teas are usually the ugly ducklings of my tea cupboard – I only dare have them in the morning, but I never have tea at breakfast, so mid morning at most, and to brew loose leaf, I got to have my things. Loose leaf breakfast teas have a very narrow niche of opportunity with me. Here goes this one though.
First thing, I think I brewed it wrong. About 5 minutes with boiling water brought just below boiling point. It was too long or too hot, this brewed up a bit too tanninic, too astringent for my taste. Got to experiment with it, definetely a bit colder brew.
Other than that, oh this is tea indeed. A nice cuppa, so to speak. A lot of body, a lot of taste (though like Angrboda points, a sort of generic tea taste, no real individual notes), and I think a lot of caffeine (will be surer of this in a couple hours). It reminds of Ceylon teas mostly, and it´s a pretty different thing than the Mozambique tea I know – which is more like an afternoon tea almost. I think this would make an awesome base for flavors. And I really got to tweak those brewing parameters, this is worth getting right.
Backlog:
An agreeable black: rich, bold and hearty with a delicious honeyed taste.
Nicely round. Malty notes, bread-y flavors … although this isn’t the most complex black tea I’ve tried. It’s more of a “black tea” kind of tea … strong, full-flavored, but not a more than that to it. Just a good black tea.
customs fees, blegh!
hehe I inspired a tea review!! :P
And why shouldn’t you. :)
You clearly need to acquire more North American friends who frequently travel to Europe and are willing to receive orders and bring them out to you! :P (Not that I have any suggestions, but fees are a huge deterrent to making online purchases, and although living in Canada sucks for many companies, I’ve gathered that it’s far worse where you are!)
Yes, because so many companies ship from America and weirdly enough it’s generally much cheaper to get stuff sent from China. With the few American companies that were available to me before, I’ve more or less given up for the time being, at least with any sort of regular purchase, but with those who can ship from China, I’m much more likely to gamble because the shipping fee is generally that much cheaper. Maybe it has something to do with middle men and such before it reaches the consumer.
My shipping from China (TeaVivre) is cheaper or comparable than a lot of American-based companies.
Yeah, it’s the same thing with TeaSpring. Their shipping is almost free as well.
I agree about the shipping and such. My daughter knew she was going to Ireland so she ordered some Dammann Freres for me for my birthday and had it shipped to her boyfriend’s house in N. Ireland then brought it with her when she flew home. She said it saves a bit of $$$.
Yes, shipping from America to Europe is often ridiculous and I’m not surprised that it’s the same thing going to other way. I’ve set myself a shipping expense limit of how much I’m willing to pay for shipping and if it’s more than that, then tough, that shop is out of bounds for me. It’s sufficiently difficult to find shipping for under $15 that I’ve just stopped looking if I think something is an American shop. Therefore it also takes me years, sometimes, to work out that something is actually a UK shop…
I’m in the States, so when shipping from China is cheaper, that is really saying something. TeaVivre has FREE shipping on $30 US order. Of course that takes up to 3 weeks to arrive. You can get Airmail (6-9 days to USA) for only $5.90 though. Most US companies require orders of $50-$100 before you get free shipping-which is why I often only order during free shipping promotions.
Yes, it’s amazing isn’t it? Part of it may be that postage is just generally cheaper in China than it is where you and I live. I mean Denmark is currently one of the countries with the most expensive postage rates in Europe. I don’t know what postage cost in the US, but I imagine you’re probably experiencing the same price increases that we are in Europe, when so many things are handled digitally instead of on paper. Currently a normal class A letter with one or two sheets of paper in it to somewhere else in Denmark costs 8 kr to send. That’s about $1.40.
It’s funny how in many ways the internet has made the world a lot smaller, but when it comes to sending stuff in the mail, the world sometimes seems to have been made much larger.