Taming the wild Malawi

One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
infuser. Brew for 90 seconds, no more. (Square Peg may find that 88
seconds is better.) Take out the tea in infuser and brew in a second
mug (eight ounces) all morning or until you want it. Drink first
mugful when it's cool enough. Drink second mugful whenever you want.
The first mug should have most of the caffeine, and the second mug has
a crisp bitter/sour taste, like grapefruit. Toci

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:37:19 -0700 (PDT), toci <gina39dm>
wrote:

>One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
>infuser. Brew for 90 seconds, no more. (Square Peg may find that 88
>seconds is better.)

I'd be more likely to try it at increments of 5 seconds (90, 85, 95,
80, 100, etc.) and then average the taste ratings.

On Oct 29, 1:37 am, toci <gina...m> wrote:
> One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
> infuser.  Brew for 90 seconds, no more.  (Square Peg may find that 88
> seconds is better.)  Take out the tea in infuser and brew in a second
> mug (eight ounces) all morning or until you want it.  Drink first
> mugful when it's cool enough.  Drink second mugful whenever you want.
> The first mug should have most of the caffeine, and the second mug has
> a crisp bitter/sour taste, like grapefruit.     Toci

I find Malawi Black a rather crude tea. Not surprising, considering
the noise, the steam and the dark industry of a typical Malawi LTP
factory. Most of the country's black teas are LTP - the Lawrie Tea
Processor, named after the inventor - a thunderous hammer mill with a
huge yawning maw swallowing more than a tonne of withered leaf an hour
and belching out macerated leaf in a six foot arc of steaming green.
So different to the delicate Malawi white teas skillfully hand made
from the same bushes.

For me in African black tea mood I choose a Rwandan BOP1 grade cut on
freshly sharpened CTC rolls and preferably from Gisovu Tea Factory -
possible the best CTC tea in the world. Bright, orange colored,
brisk, tasting of tea country itself. Five grams (two teaspoons) in
an infuser in 240 ml (8 US flud oz) of rolling boiling water and steep
for 60 seconds while agitating the infuser, add 12 ml of semi skimmed
cows' milk (2% fat) and no sugar. And no second steeping!

Nigel at Teacraft

On Oct 28, 8:28 pm, Square Peg <Square...@Round.Hole> wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:37:19 -0700 (PDT), toci <gina...m>
> wrote:
>
> >One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
> >infuser.  Brew for 90 seconds, no more.  (Square Peg may find that 88
> >seconds is better.)  
>
> I'd be more likely to try it at increments of 5 seconds (90, 85, 95,
> 80, 100, etc.) and then average the taste ratings.

I did an inexact something like that to get to the 90 second mark. I
also tried less than a spoon full; that doesn't work. Of course you'd
be brewing for your taste, not mine. Toci

On Nov 1, 5:04 am, Nigel <ni...@teacraft.com> wrote:
> On Oct 29, 1:37 am, toci <gina...m> wrote:
>
> > One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
> > infuser.  Brew for 90 seconds, no more.  (Square Peg may find that 88
> > seconds is better.)  Take out the tea in infuser and brew in a second
> > mug (eight ounces) all morning or until you want it.  Drink first
> > mugful when it's cool enough.  Drink second mugful whenever you want.
> > The first mug should have most of the caffeine, and the second mug has
> > a crisp bitter/sour taste, like grapefruit.     Toci
>
> I find Malawi Black a rather crude tea.  Not surprising, considering
> the noise, the steam and the dark industry of a typical Malawi LTP
> factory.  Most of the country's black teas are LTP - the Lawrie Tea
> Processor, named after the inventor - a thunderous hammer mill with a
> huge yawning maw swallowing more than a tonne of withered leaf an hour
> and belching out macerated leaf in a six foot arc of steaming green.
> So different to the delicate Malawi white teas skillfully hand made
> from the same bushes.
>
> For me in African black tea mood I choose a Rwandan BOP1 grade cut on
> freshly sharpened CTC rolls and preferably from Gisovu Tea Factory -
> possible the best CTC tea in the world.  Bright, orange colored,
> brisk, tasting of tea country itself.  Five grams (two teaspoons) in
> an infuser in 240 ml (8 US flud oz) of rolling boiling water and steep
> for 60 seconds while agitating the infuser, add 12 ml of semi skimmed
> cows' milk (2% fat) and no sugar.  And no second steeping!
>
> Nigel at Teacraft

Crude was what I was serching for to replace the waker upper Assam
fannings that I can no longer get. The Malawi will do nicely, but
imagining it being belched out of obtrusively noisy machinary does add
to the ambiance. Toci

On Nov 3, 6:49 pm, klu...@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> In article <807d401e-f820-4b25-abd8-bc4e32e21...@w39g2000prb...com>,
>
>
>
>
>
> Nigel  <ni...@teacraft.com> wrote:
> >On Oct 29, 1:37=A0am, toci <gina...m> wrote:
> >> One teaspoon of Malawi black in eight ounces of boiling water in a mug
> >> infuser. =A0Brew for 90 seconds, no more. =A0(Square Peg may find that 88
> >> seconds is better.) =A0Take out the tea in infuser and brew in a second
> >> mug (eight ounces) all morning or until you want it. =A0Drink first
> >> mugful when it's cool enough. =A0Drink second mugful whenever you want.
> >> The first mug should have most of the caffeine, and the second mug has
> >> a crisp bitter/sour taste, like grapefruit. =A0 =A0 Toci
>
> >I find Malawi Black a rather crude tea.  Not surprising, considering
> >the noise, the steam and the dark industry of a typical Malawi LTP
> >factory.  Most of the country's black teas are LTP - the Lawrie Tea
> >Processor, named after the inventor - a thunderous hammer mill with a
> >huge yawning maw swallowing more than a tonne of withered leaf an hour
> >and belching out macerated leaf in a six foot arc of steaming green.
> >So different to the delicate Malawi white teas skillfully hand made
> >from the same bushes.
>
> I believe that Toci is talking about Upton's _Malawi BOP_ which is an
> orthodox process tea from the Chisunga tea estate.  It's good stuff...
> much better than a typical CTC tea, but still extremely stout.

Chisunga tea factory is operated by Makandi and much of its leaf is
from the Chisunga small farmers. I do not know the factory personally
but the factories in that area of Malawi are LTP not CTC and certainly
not Orthodox. The Upton photograph is of a very mediocre flaky tea
which is much more likely from LTP (and a poor wither at that) than
CTC, though I have seen another photo purporting to be Chisunga BOP
that was of better style. An orthodox BOP is very much a larger
particle size. Makandi is an innovative company, so the Upton photo
could also be of tea derived from small scale rotorvane processing, as
practised in Argentina.

Nigel at Teacraft