African teas

[caligatia]

African teas

by caligatia » Nov 17th, '08, 15:53

I was just wondering if anyone else had any experience with African teas. I've tasted two Kenyan teas so far; the Kenyan Pekoe from TeaSource is an excellent breakfast tea, although the single-estate black I had from Upton sucked. I also have a Malawi single estate from TeaSource I haven't tried yet.

So: are there any African teas you like? Loathe? I'm very interested in trying tea from all parts of the world, and I understand that some African tea estates are starting to do some orthodox teas as opposed to their regular CTC. So suggestions are welcome.

[omegapd]

by omegapd » Nov 17th, '08, 16:38

Special Teas has an OP Kenyan that tastes a lot like a typical English Breakfast tea. I think it's very good...

Whatever you do, don't order from this company:

http://www.africantea.com/

I made the mistake. I never received my order, emails went unanswered and the phone call did too. I found out afterwards (on another forum) that other people never received anything either and they had a lot of complaints from the Better Business people. They also change their name quite frequently, but the webpage still looks like this. In fact, when I got screwed over, the company was called Honeybush something or other. A Google search for African Tea always brings up this webpage, though.

You mentioned Upton's. They have 3 or 4 different ones. 2 or 3 are under their "specials" page, along with the few they have under the African page.

EW

[Victoria]

by Victoria » Nov 17th, '08, 17:42

Thanks for the warning EW!

[chad]

by chad » Nov 17th, '08, 18:10

I'll be interested in seeing how this plays out.

I've had several Kenyan coffees that were excellent. Granted, I did not order direct. I would think that growers are aware of market trends and the fact that good "estate" teas would be very popular.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

by Cinnamon Kitty » Nov 17th, '08, 18:31

New Mexico Tea Co has a single estate, fair trade Kenyan Black tea from the Lesla Estate. It reminded me of an assam with a smooth, fruity finish. I found that it made a really nice breakfast tea when I wanted something brisk. The Kenyan Pekoe from TeaSource was pretty good too.

[caligatia]

by caligatia » Nov 17th, '08, 19:06

New Mexico Tea Co has a single estate, fair trade Kenyan Black tea from the Lesla Estate.

Putting it on my want list now.

[Bubba_tea]

by Bubba_tea » Nov 20th, '08, 00:14

Whatever you do, don't order from this company:

http://www.africantea.com/

You should have told me... I think those are the same people that tried to send me 12.7 million dollars to help the Nigerian royal family escape the rebel alliance... I haven't seen many legit deals from that country buying direct... but, I bet for a cool $100,000,000,000 you could buy 1 oz of roobios from Zimbabwe.

[omegapd]

by omegapd » Nov 20th, '08, 03:33

I haven't seen many legit deals from that country buying direct...

I know it. I thought I was safe, though, since the "company" claims to be based in California and they used Google Check-out which also claimed to guarantee my purchase. Yeah, right. They weren't any help either.

EW

[Janine]

by Janine » Nov 20th, '08, 11:14

One African tea I like a lot is the Taylors of Harrowgate Kwazulu. Delicious. I happen to like African Black Teas quite a bit. This is one of my favorite black teas, especially when I really need a pick-me-up.