Three stacking tins of whole-leaf Kenyan black tea — African Chai, Kenyan Earl Grey and Mt. Kenya Black — with a hand-carved olive wood spoon. Around 30 cups per tin, 90 in total. Each tin carries the picture and name of the farmer who grew the tea.
Why whole-leaf Kenyan tea is unusual
Kenya is the largest exporter of black tea in the world, and almost none of it looks like this.
The overwhelming majority of Kenyan tea is made by the CTC method — crush, tear, curl — in which the leaf is shredded by toothed rollers into small hard granules. CTC produces tea that brews fast, dark and strong, and it is what fills nearly every teabag in Europe. It is efficient and it is not subtle.
Whole-leaf, orthodox-processed Kenyan tea is a different product: the leaf is rolled rather than shredded, so it releases its flavour more slowly and with far more nuance. It is a small fraction of Kenya's output, and it is the reason this tea tastes unlike the Kenyan tea already in your cupboard.
The three teas
-
Mt. Kenya Black — strong and malty, with cocoa bean and dried fruit. The breakfast one.
-
Kenyan Earl Grey — the same base scented with cold-pressed bergamot oil. Bright citrus and wildflowers.
-
African Chai — spiced. Best made the proper way, simmered with milk rather than steeped in water.
The olive wood spoon
Hand-carved in Kenya, and part of the point of the product — carving supports a different set of artisans from the tea farming. Olive wood is dense, close-grained and naturally oily, which is why it resists staining and odour better than most woods and why it has been used for kitchen utensils for millennia.
Do not put it in a dishwasher. Heat and detergent will crack it.
A claim you will not find here
This tea is commonly sold as "free of chemicals and pesticides". You will not find that here, for two reasons.
"Free of chemicals" is not meaningful — tea is made of chemicals, as is water. And organic certification does not mean no pesticides were used: it means only substances approved for organic production may be used, and several of those are pesticides. Organic farming is a genuinely different and better-regulated system, and it is worth choosing. It is not an absence of agriculture.
Biohême
Criatura
Criatura
Biohême
