Tea Type:
Purple Tea
Where To Buy:
Butiki Teas
Product Description:
Purple tea is rich in anthocyanin (a flavonoid), which pigments the leaves a purplish color. This purple species has been in development for 25 years in Kenya and is more resistant to frost, disease, drought, and pests. Purple Tea of Kenya is a very rare tea that has sweet woodsy notes with a pleasant lingering astringency. The recommended brewing time is 3 minutes which will produce a mellow flavor; however, this tea can be brewed as long as 5 minutes for a more flavorful and astringent brew. One ounce makes approximately 24 servings.
Recommended Brew Time: 3 to 5 minutes
Recommended Amount: 1/2 teaspoon of tea for 8oz of water
Recommended Temperature: 160 F
Tasters Review:
The Sororitea Sisters are STOKED to be one of the first Tea Review Websites to review PURPLE TEA! Yes! Purple Tea!
We thank Stacy from Butiki Teas for the samples and the Tea Farmers in Kenya for Purple Tea, itself!
Purple Tea has higher medicinal properties than green and black tea and its seeds produce oil suitable for cooking, cosmetics and the pharmaceutical industries. The variety has been used to develop products on experimental basis whose value is four times that of the ordinary black teas. For more info on Purple Tea please visit The Tea Research Foundation of Kenya HERE.
I’m very excited to see the popularity of this tea grow! I’m hoping many tea companies will start supporting this as well as their customer base. Kudos to Butiki Teas for leading the way!
As for this specific Purple Tea…
At first glance it looks like a finely slivered black tea but after infusion I inspected the leaves and they were reminiscent of a darker green!
At first sniff I could pick up on a savory or food like aroma prior to infusing. After infusing it reminded me of a green and black blend! It ‘brews’ dark much like a black tea with a bit of a cloud texture to the color…NOT an actual texture to the liquid (like some greens) but the color if that makes sense.
At first taste it reminded me of a few grassier senchas I have tried…but then it changed up to a slightly astringent black tea taste. There is an interesting maltiness to it too – not your stereotypical maltiness like you would find in a black tea tho. The aftertaste has more stereotypical traits of a green tho.
I love the conflicts here. I love the change-up. I like how it morphs back and forth.
The aftertaste of the aftertaste is more of a combo between the woodsy and the grassy but it’s a neat happy-medium that I am appreciating!
I’m excited to try more PURPLE TEAS and am looking forward to their popularity growing!
Aaaaaah! You luckies! I wanna try this SO bad! It’s been on my Tea WANT list for months!
Hey Jeffrey, when I get this from TeaEqualsBliss I will save a little bit for you … I’ve got a package that I’ve got all ready with some teas that I thought you’d enjoy, I’ll be sure to include this one too.
🙂
I wonder if this purple tea is similar to the purple bud pu-erhs?
Yaya-As I understand it, most purple bud pu-erhs come from trees. They are named purple buds because the anthocyanin content is higher and a portion of the buds are redish purple. So, they would be similar based on the fact that the anthocyanin content is higher causing the color. However, more of the Purple Tea leaves are purple-ish and they are not grown on trees. Additionally, the purple tea variety is propagated by grafting and cutting as opposed to seeding.
@liberteas Believe it or not [I’m walking on air]…I got some today from Butiki. But I look forward to any others you have in mind. Thanks for thinking of me. 🙂
Awesome… I’m glad you get to try it!
Well, if anyone has any samples left over, sell them in your stores, so we can go buy some! 🙂
@lazyliteratus, if you’re not partial to this tea, you know where you can send it, ha ha