Kericho Gold

 Today’s tea is Kericho Gold, a Kenyan tea.  As it is a loose leaf tea I made 4 cups in the Assam tea press.  1 teaspoon of white sugar in each cup.  3 minute brew time.  First cup black, second and later cups with a quarter cup whole milk.  I got this tea via Amazon.  It came in a cardboard box holding 2 foil pouches.  I transferred one pouch to air tight containers, leaving the second un-opened.

Note:  This tea is CTC tea, a process normally used for making teabag tea, which means it’s going to be strong.  It also means it doesn’t have any subtlety about it.  Wikipedia says that CTC tea has mild bitterness, but I didn't find that in this tea.

First sip:  It’s a strong black tea that is fairly bitter.

First full mouthful:  It’s a bitter black tea.  It’s not so bitter as to be undrinkable, but it’s right on the edge of that.  The astringency of the tea is not pronounced. To be honest it taste a lot like generic cheap teabag tea, which I blame on the CTC process, as it is teabag tea with out the teabag. 

Second cup, with milk:  The milk mellows out the strong taste of the tea, but the some of the bitterness remains.  It really is like generic teabag tea in that regard.

Would I drink this if offered by a friend? Yes, it’s generic tea.  Despite being just generic tea I would take this over generic coffee.  Might think about freshly ground coffee over it.

Will I drink this tea again? Yes, but isn't going into either my day to day tea rotation or my special occasion tea rotation.  Basically it’s now my I have no other option tea.  I might use this as part of tea blending experiments. 

Would I buy this tea again? I don’t think so.  It’s generic tea and costs the same as my loose leaf Assam, which granted isn’t that much.

Did Explorer the Cat go nuts over this tea? No, she was busy running around the house. 

Final verdict: 6.5 out of 10, will drink again, but only if out of other black teas.  It is the bottom edge of will drink again teas.