Hi all,
Black tea might be the most taken for granted variety of all tea, grown in mass quantities to supply the biggest brands and often meant to be tempered with milk and sugar to start the day. Don’t get me wrong: I love consuming it in that style, and think our Earl Grey and Breakfast Blends offer an incredible depth of flavor for everyday drinking. That said, I wanted to shine a spotlight on some black teas that offer a different drinking experience this summer.
We’re bringing on two new teas, one meant to be served cold and the other hot. The first is already available for wholesale, in fact: a very special black tea from the highlands of Malawi. We source our Black Orange tea and part of our Breakfast Blend from this longstanding tea plantation, Satemwa, which focuses on sustainable production and investing resources into the local community. Tea in Malawi and Kenya is all too often grown for scale and pure profit–which is to say, poor quality leaves grown in poor quality soil for little pay, intended to be ground up and put into the tea bags of big brands. But amidst all of this, some very high quality tea does get grown when companies choose to prioritize the right things. Satemwa calls this tea their "Handmade Treasure" black tea, which speaks to how these prized leaves are hand-processed. I get notes of vanilla, guava, and honeysuckle. It can be brewed hot or cold, and only benefits from a squeeze of lemon.
The second tea just shipped from Vietnam this week. We’ll make it available for purchase as soon as we can, and will be offering it as a limited run, at least to start. For fans of natural processed coffee or natural wine, this one checks all the boxes. It’s plucked from ancient tea trees in the high mountains of Ha Giang, then sun-dried to concentrate its inherent sweetness and fruitiness, a flavor profile that might be eye opening for folks that have only tried conventional black tea. On the Chinese side of the border, these same tea trees are considered to be some of the most prized in the world and produce sought-after, spendy puerh and white tea . The Vietnamese side is of the same quality, just rarely gets the proper recognition or distribution it deserves. I’m excited to offer this black tea as a glimpse into just how good Vietnamese tea can be.
Looking forward to sharing these teas with you!
Warmly,
Brennan Johnson
Tea Buyer, True Tea PDX