Thursday, November 3, 2011

Off to Kenya

Aah, Schweiz.

But we are going elsewhere today, for some Kenyan tea, kindly sent to me.  It is Chimchim Tea and hails from the evergreen Kericho Highlands.  This particular sample was marked D1.  The tea is very, very finely cut, almost, dare I say it, dust?  It gives of a scent of dry twig and hearty tea.  The suggested brew time is 3 minutes, but I only did 2, as I was sure 3 minutes on tea this fine would yield an awful cup.  Two was just fine.

The brewing aroma  was metallic with a roasted winter squash component.  The liquid was very, very dark brown.  This is really quite a plain tea, which takes milk and cream quite happily.  It would be a good breakfast tea, but remember -just 2 minutes.

We are hastening towards a winter look once again, all gray and brown.  We still have a few touches of rust, magenta and some red.  By far the most brilliant is the bright gold of the tamaracks.  They are classified as evergreens, but lose their needles in the late fall, leaving the ground looking like cloth of gold.  The burning bushes are all aflame and the ornamental grasses are blooming, so there is lots to see.

For some reason our squirrels seem to have disappeared.  maybe their nest tree was felled.  They often annoyed me greatly, but they were also amusing and I miss the cheeky little buggers.

2 comments:

Alex Zorach said...

I haven't yet posted my review of teas from Chim Chim tea, but I tried one of a different grade (PF1) at World Tea East and I also have a sample sitting around that I'd like to review again.

It was interesting, given how finely broken it was. PF1 is larger particles, though, than D1.

Here there is a remarkable amount of green...we still haven't had a hard frost. It's funny, the linden tree on the west side of the street has very few leaves left, and the remaining ones are yellow. The one on the east side of the street, where it is warmed by afternoon sun, has greenish-yellow leaves and has lost very few leaves.

Kaptea Inc. said...

Thank you for tasting and reviewing our Chim Chim tea produced by Kapchebet Tea factory in Kericho, Kenya. We are proud of the quality and flavor of our tea. Our famous blend of four different grades BP1, PF1, PD & D1, is popular for its rich flavor and rich color. We would love for your bloggers to sample our tea, which we are happy to provide. They can visit our website at www.kaptea.com. Happy holiday happy tea tasting.