African teas

Fully oxidized tea leaves for a robust cup.


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Nov 17th, '08, 14:53
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African teas

by caligatia » Nov 17th, '08, 14:53

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.

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Nov 17th, '08, 15:38
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by omegapd » Nov 17th, '08, 15:38

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

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Nov 17th, '08, 16:42
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by Victoria » Nov 17th, '08, 16:42

Thanks for the warning EW!

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Nov 17th, '08, 17:10
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by chad » Nov 17th, '08, 17:10

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.

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

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.

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Nov 17th, '08, 18:06
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by caligatia » Nov 17th, '08, 18:06

Cinnamon Kitty wrote:New Mexico Tea Co has a single estate, fair trade Kenyan Black tea from the Lesla Estate.
Putting it on my want list now. :)

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Nov 19th, '08, 23:14
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by Bubba_tea » Nov 19th, '08, 23:14

omegapd wrote: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... :lol: 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.

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Nov 20th, '08, 02:33
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by omegapd » Nov 20th, '08, 02:33

Bubba_tea wrote: 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

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Nov 20th, '08, 10:14
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by Janine » Nov 20th, '08, 10:14

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.

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