Reviewer: Alex Zorach
✓ 1453 teas reviewed
✓ 501 of Black Tea
✓ 954 of Pure Tea (Camellia sinensis)
✓ 6 of TeaSource
✓ 27 from Kenya
Review of Kenya Michimikuru Estate FBOPF
June 18th, 2019
| Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
| 9 of 10 | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 | 94 of 100 |
| Superb | Excellent | Outstanding |
I love teas from Kenya, and I've been loving the teas I ordered from TeaSource, so it makes sense I would love this one! I think it is my favorite tea of the whole batch.
The dry leaf smells amazing: there is a sweet, bready quality, and a hint of the juniper smell that is mention in the commercial description.
Brews up to produce a transcendental cup...the aroma, which was pleasant in the dry leaf, really comes alive, with floral and vegetal notes, wintergreen, and I get that "hint of juniper" when I look for it. The aroma is multifaceted and complex, and I can keep finding more qualities when I look for them: it's a little woody, a litlte spicy. There's a lot going on in this tea.
Flavor is surprisingly sweet, but also with significant bitterness and savory qualities. Finish is pleasantly astringent, but not too much.
I recommend being careful with the quantity of leaf used. It's easy to brew this tea too strong, and it becomes a bit overbearing and perhaps harsh. I recommend using less leaf than you would use, and a max 3 minute first steep, ideally a little less.
Because this tea infuses so quickly, it can be hard to resteep, but if you make the first cup only 2-3 minutes, you'll easily get a second cup out of it. The second cup has a somewhat different character...thinner, but darker. Still very enjoyable, but not quite as magic as the first.
I also really like how I feel after drinking this. It feels strongly caffeinated and makes me alert but it is also rather relaxing.
This tea being slightly tricky to brew was my only complaint, and a minor one. This was one of my favorite teas I have tried in a long time, and was a complete steal at the price TeaSource is selling it for. $7 for a quarter-pound? Definitely one of the best teas I've ever had for this price, especially given how the leaf stretches so far. I found this lasted longer in my cupboard than I expected, even though I was drinking it a lot, because the leaf is packed with so much flavor that I wasn't using very much.
