Kenyan Ajiri Black CTC

(Reposted this older review under the new tea heading for Happy Lucky’s online… this CTC is very inexpensive and a staple kick in the pants caffeine boost when I need a strong tea that tastes good! )

As soon as Andy puts the information on the website, i’ll review their new Ugandan CTC which is unique. I’m loving these new tea’s from small farms in Africa and Happy Lucky’s makes sure the sourcing is ethical!…stay tuned!

I was out and about, running errands and stopped in at Happy Luckys to meet up with tea guru Eric (who works at Happy Lucky’s) to taste some Pu-erh that I received from a Steepster friend. That review will be on my blog in a few days and is remarkable!

When we finished our Puerh tasting, I still wanted some tea! Our little delicate cups of gentle Shu were wonderful but now it was time to pour the big lady serious tea and get down and dirty.

I was sitting at the bar.
I wanted a pot of Lucky Tea House’s finest black tea. Now.
Sam looked at Eric and said under his breath, “How about the Kenyan Ajiri?…no, no, it’s too strong…well…maybe she would like it, she likes strong tea. What do you think?”
“Hum, Eric laughed, maaaybe, OK.”

Then they turned to me.
“Let’s do it guys, I’m that kind of gal, wild and crazy! Set it up!” I said.

First, Sam brought me a tin of the super-small black leaves
(they looked more like poppy seeds) which smelled salty and savory.

Then, the wet leaves which were smaller than coffee grinds were presented with a very malty, rich aroma.

Last the dark brown liquor which was very strong tasting, and I liked it! It wasn’t smoky or malty but tasted solid and a bit fruity. I sipped for awhile.

I then added some cream (I was told the tea was too strong to drink plain but found it to be smooth enough for me).
After drinking a full mug of tea, I ordered a ginger cookie to eat along with my tea. The taste of these two together was out of this world! I’m a bit of a ginger cookie, black tea lover. An addiction as a treat!

A great piece of information!
100% of the profits from the tea sales of AJIRI goes to pay for uniforms and books for orphans in Western Kenya! What a great way to
enjoy tea and help others!

Check out www.ajirifoundation.com

Asante sana (thank you very much!) http://flic.kr/p/dphd5h

My daughter woke me up this morning to tell me that she had made birthday biscuits for breakfast! In the kitchen, the pink sparkly bag was waiting with this tea and a Snoopy plushie, so soft and wearing his little aviator cap. Cap? Helmet? Leather hat?

She told me that she bought this tea mostly because she knows I like “tea for a cause” and since reading Alexander McCall Smith’s books set in Botswana I have been ordering tea for education in Malawi from Rare Tea Company. This tea benefits the women and children of Kenya. It came in a foil bag, that was inside of a plastic bag, in a cardboard box that has a front cut out as a window for a little piece of handmade artwork as decoration. I will keep that piece after the tea is gone and display it somewhere. It is textured paper that I initially thought had a traditional scene painted on but realized on close inspection is actually little pieces of paper cut out and glued on to depict a scene in Africa of women in bright red dresses in front of a hut, one chopping wood and the other resting on the fence.

Happy Lucky said in their description “above all, strong” and they were right to emphasize. GMathis, you should have been here. Combat boot tea. Sam Vimes would love this.

The instructions say 3-5 minutes. I put one teaspoon in my infuser that holds seven ounces of water and after one minute I saw by the color that I dared not let it go longer. I did a second steep for thirty seconds and added it to the first steep in the small pot. The tea, when poured into my cup, is almost as black as coffee.

As richly dark as it is, it is drinkable without additions even though HL recommends them. This has that bold, cherry/fruity flavor and body I associate with Assamica teas. I drank most of it plain, but I decided to try it with cream and sugar as well. It is really lovely that way and still very strong.

It occurs to me that this profile is probably brilliant iced and sweetened, so I think that will be my next adventure with this tea!

From the queue

This is a tea that Bonnie shared with me, and it is also the first real tea post I’m writing in the new house. It was also one that Bonnie chose to give me, I think, with an eye on Project Africa.

Therefore I’ve spent some time trying to work out where Ajiri was on the map. Turns out Ajiri is a company name and not a place name. They have a rather lovely and informative website. The actual tea is produced at the Nyansiongo factory, which was made a LOT easier to find on the map once I discovered that I’d been spelling it wrong all along. The factory itself didn’t appear to be marked in, so I just placed the arrow somewhere in the middle of the town. The Nyansiongo factory is a cooperative of several small local farmers in the Kisii highlands.

There’s a veeeery strong and malty aroma here, which smells on the verge of turning bitter. I may have leafed it wrong after all. It’s CTC and I’m always very careful with those because they get strong so very quickly. I put less leaf in my pot than my brain felt like it was used to, but I still think I’ve got a super strong cup here. There’s also a smidge of that high-grown feeling in it, but that might actually be down to sheer strength. I am sitting here with a cup almost as dark as coffee after all!

GOSH! It is quite strong! It even has that sort of bitterness at the back of the throat that I get when drinking coffee. It’s not unpleasantly bitter or at all undrinkable, but it’s just a tad much. I would do a rare instance of milking it (I usually have milk in my coffee), but as it so happens, we haven’t currently got any milk until I’ve been to the shops, so I’ll just have to power through and try making a second cup with even less leaf. This is why I’m not a fan of CTC. It messes with my habits learned through a decade!

Now, if we ignore that hit of bitterness at the moment of swallowing, we’ve got a strong cup of tea here, which feels suitable for this time of day (morning). Until swallowing it feels very smooth, so if I had made it a little weaker I believe it would have been all-over smooth and lovely. It definitely shows some promise in that regard.

It’s hard for me to really analyse the flavour, though. It tastes like default tea. Quite a good body to it, but it’s a one-note deal all in all. I get the impression that this might be very good in blends, adding body to some lighter teas with more distinctive notes. I think this + not too fancy keemun, for example, would make a lovely blend.

The second cup felt, when I made it, severely understeeped and underleafed, but the result was much better. It is indeed very smooth but still with a lot of body. It’s less of a one-note default tea deal now, and has taken on leather-y, wood-y, malty notes and it finishes with a touch of high-grown-ness. I still think it would go wonderfully in blends, though.

Map reference: http://goo.gl/maps/ULUUD

(Awwwww, very purry and cute lap-Charm in a rare social moment. ♥)