Kenyan Tinderet

What a pleasant cup of coffee! A heap of astringency and a smidgen of bitterness… Oh, coffee! I wish I wasn’t a wimp and could drink you straight but I’m just completely incapable- maybe as a double double from Tim Horten’s or with enough syrup and whip cream to sink a buffalo? Ah, There! All better. Now you taste like a “Dark” Hot Chocolate with a little bite at the end!

Um, well, apparently this isn’t coffee but I don’t drink a lot of that stuff, OR black teas, so please forgive me! This is exactly the kind of black tea I hide from. It’s not because it’s “bad” but because I am a weakling and I feel like anything this strong will crush me. I don’t have the stamina to handle such briskness. Maybe I need to train myself up.

The leaves are cool looking! They’re little round balls that give off a malty odour when wet which I found to be a bit intimidating at first, not being able to handle beer very well- on top of my intolerance to coffee.

In reference to where the tea is from, Tinderet apparently means ‘Place of Lightening’. It’s fitting as I do feel like I am being struck by a bolt while sipping on this. Whereas I can’t drink the first steep of this straight yet I can, and do, enjoy the second steep on its own- much more mellow and smooth, but with enough edginess to stay vibrant. There’s even a hint of floral sweetness that I love so much in my white teas. This is a very strong, full bodied tea and I wasn’t expecting such a delicate note to be found underneath all of that force.

I got this tea at Boston, mostly because I knew that my favorite Kenya was starting to run out, and I was on the lookout for a restock. This is a CTC tea, on the lower side of tea quality “rankings”, so I found it strange that the company brands it with the following words: “Most connoisseurs drink it as a little luxury after a good meal”. Most tea snobs would likely not be willing to even try a CTC tea, let alone treat it as a luxury, but I’m not a snob, and I decided to let the tea speak for itself.
OK, so DAVIDsTEA got the timing on this one completely off, unless you are trying to get your tea to taste like (bad) coffee. 2 or 3 minutes for this tea is way to much, as like many other CTC teas, it brews on the strong side. At less than a minute it brewed strong enough for me to be afraid of trying it without milk and sugar.
How is it? Not great. It’s drinkable, but it’s nothing to write home about. I actually don’t see myself grabbing it at all if I keep it at home (with all the good stuff), so I’ll bring it to work, for an afternoon caffeine kick, or for the guys that come slouching to my tea stash and asking, “so what d’you have that’s really, really strong?”

Oh my, I am in love! The woman at DT said that this reminded her of coffee, which I do miss but my stomach can no longer handle. But, the coffee comment had me wondering. Will it be acidic? Will it be tea pretending to be coffee and therefore fake?

But, it was not at all. It sure looks like coffee when it is brewing. But, other than that, it is pure tea. The taste is strong and lovely, but it has very little after-taste (well, as long as you steep it not too long). I think the coffee comment was about the full-bodied aspect of it – it does not taste watery at all. The tea goes down extremely smoothly. It is perfect for the morning, or for one of those long rainy days when energy seems to be fleeting.

The best part about it, is that my husband, who does not understand the big deal about the teas, does not understand why I have a drawer of 20 different kinds, and looks at me with a somewhat glazed, patient expression when I talk about them, LOVES this tea! Score one point for the tea lovers!!!!

1.5 tsp for 300mL water @100C, steeped 4 minutes 30 seconds, drunk bare.

The dry CTC leaves, or, pellets, have no scent.

The liquor is a deep reddish brown, giving a classic black tea taste, quite tannic, with a sweetness in the scent and aftertaste like dark honey. This is a very robust black tea, with heft and malt. The maltiness had a dry finish, not the juiciness of an Assam. I did not expect to like this nearly as much as I do. Strong, assertive, and bright. I expect this could get bitter if steeped much longer.

First of all, how do they get the leaves shaped into those little balls?? Is this what CTC tea looks like? I’ve never seen it before but I kind of like it.

Anywayyy, I did NOT like the way this tea smelled when I first steeped it. It seemed to have some kind of wet vegetable smell like weird cabbage or something. When I first tasted it, I thought it tasted that way too. But after a few sips I started getting this honey-maltiness? And a little bitterness that really came out in the aftertaste. This is really unlike any other tea I’ve had, it seems like there’s a lot of subtleties to it. I can see how it would be described as “earthy” too. Also I find it pretty astringent but not offensively so. As it cools I get more of the honey taste.
In the end, I really like this tea. I’ll break it out when I have time to sit down and appreciate it. I tried it straight up this time just because it was my first time tasting it, but next time I’m gonna try it with some sugar as Tina S. suggested.

Sipdown from yesterday! I do enjoy this one but I’m not sad to see it go. Bye tea! Probably won’t restock for a . Trying really hard to drink down some of my teas

The look of this one intrigued me. What a wee little leaf! The smell is classic black – perhaps a little bit stronger than most.

Oh yes, this one is stronger than the others. I don’t know that I’ll be keeping this one around after I finish my 10 g sample. Perhaps a shorter steep would make it more drinkable? But today in my black tea experiments I was attempting controlled steeping times to compare across variations.

This is my perfect straight black tea! I’ll write a proper review soon, just had to say I absolutely love this tea!!:)

I’m almost finished with the 38 grams of this I bought last week. Not very much of it, but if I went through it that quickly I know it’s something I’ll be picking up again. I’m usually nursing a cup of wonderful, tasty Yunnan or Keemun.

As Indigobloom pointed out, most of DAVIDsTEA’s selection seems to be of the relatively mild variety. Not this one. This is by far the strongest tea I’ve had from them.

This morning’s first steep didn’t even break the three minute mark. Two cups of near-boiling water, two teaspoons of tea (not heaping, but not stingy). Brewed as dark as most of my teas would be after a 4-5 minute steep.

The taste is very earthy and slightly bitter, but the good, pleasing kind of bitter. I definitely get the floral notes, but thankfully not as strong as I do in the smell (not a fan of floral). It’s very full-bodied. Very satisfying as a pick-me-up, but it works well as the after-dinner treat in the official description.

I enjoyed this tea. Best with honey or milk.