JusTea

One more upside to this one—appears to be un-ruinable on a Monday morning. Have no idea what either temp or steep time was (one of the days when the eyes aren’t open till after lunch) and, regardless, it was full and rich and deep and perfect.

Doesn’t lose its punch on the second steep—I just made it in a smaller mug. Takes milk very nicely.

Received this, with my thanks, from the JusTea folks in conjunction with a special campaign going on here: http://www.justea.com/

First cup steeped to a deep ruby-mahogany color. Light texture; dark flavor. Initial sip made me think, “Coffee?” Not exactly; more like dark rye or pumpernickel.

Will definitely appeal to tea-in-hobnail-boots lovers.

I got my JusTea order from the IndieGogo campaign!! Opened the bag and it came with 3 separate samples. NICE! Opened the 2oz. of tea and the smell was WONDERFUL! Brewed up a cup and was really happy. Smells even better after brewed. A really nice morning cup of tea. Made my son a cup and added a small amount of milk for his cup and he loved it. I was so glad that I bought this tea and helped this small startup company that is helping the farmers in Kenya rise above poverty. On Sept. 16th they are launching another crowdfunding campaign to try to reach their original target. I will be buying more of this as a regular in my cupboard!

Sipdown! This was one from Aug of last year so it was very satisfying to finish it off before I hit the 1 year mark. It was enjoyable but I"m not in a rush to buy another big tin of it any time soon. Maybe after I’ve sipped down a lot of what I have!

My Justea box arrived today and the mailman was nice enough to leave it outside for me! Whee!

I bought it on Boxing Day so I snagged 75g of Chai which is going into another box witha bunch of samples to my sister. I hope she enjos exploring all of these.

The first few sips of this were sorta sour and just really strong and ripe, and a little weird. But it mellowed out once it cooled and now it is really good: malty and fruity and strong. Phew! Now I have no regrets about 150g of this baby sitting on my shelf!

Goodbye my sweet kenyan tea. Goodbye!

Goodbye! (89)
(I seriously need to order some more of this though)

I really love this tea. There’s just something about it that’s different than I’m used to, but it’s hard to nail it down exactly.

I steeped it for 3 minutes because I didn’t want to risk it getting too strong for my tastes, and it was probably at less than boiling. The result is very smooth and fresh, with only the slightest astringency in the endnotes. It’s bold, but also slightly sweet. This is a hefty cup – it’s thick and malty. I’m also getting fruity notes in there as well.

For those of you who don’t know Justea is fundraising right now to get their company off the ground and help empower the Kenyan farmers who produce the tea (and cut out the middle-man). I highly recommend you check it out and support them here: http://www.justea.com/

(I wish I could support them again but… I need a job. Hopefully I find one in the next 30 days and then I can throw money at them!)
I’d like to support the campaign because I think this is a cuppa I’d like to keep around

My first cup of this was so thick and reminiscent of molasses. It was too much so I had to dump it and steep it for 3 min. It was so much better!

It’s very strong, and malty, and slightly sweet and full of depth. I can’t wait to try the other samples.

A great combination of chai spices and malty black tea. Straight up, you taste the maltiness of the black tea, followed by the spices with a sweet aftertaste. Added milk and sweetener, the tea becomes more flavorful with the spices melding better with the black base.

Still thick, malty and Assamy after a year or more. Not going through this quickly but I am starting to see the bottom of the tin. I can see in a couple of months needing to decide if I should restock this or if the other Assam types of tea I have on hand are good enough/better.

Not lying if I say that a large part of the appeal of this tea is the company and what they are doing. I am happy to see that the site now offers bags as well as tins, though I wish they would say how much tea is in each. I am also guessing that this is now Mount Kenya Black.

Use All The Teaware for this cup is my Emma Bridgewater Badger mug.

http://tinyurl.com/qfy7gem

And since we are having pizza for dinner, Coke is kind of necessary. Assam types of tea go pretty well with pizza but I just can’t go without a Coke with it. :) And yes, I have been eating and tea-ing my way through today.

This is a thick Assamy type of tea. Chewy and bold. I absolutely love it with cream. :)

I just got my tea from JusTea’s Indiegogo campaign.

It smells very malty and deep. The leaves are not huge, but most definitely not the standard African CTC type.

It’s very good. Very Assamy in a way. Malty with a little grassy flavor in the background maybe. Dry but not astringent or bitter. It does indeed taste and smell very fresh. I’d definitely try their Kenyan Earl Grey and I’d probably order from them again once I work through this initial 200 grams. (Assuming a reasonable shipping rate from Canada.) :)