Only 2kg of tea was produced this harvest, and I'm hoping a bit more is produced in the next harvest as this is a tea I really want to taste. The terroir, light, and uniqueness that Scotland is must have resulted in a highly interesting tea. Produced from mixed varietals including ex Soviet Georgian and Soviet clone Kolkhida, the tea was grown near Angus at an altitude of 400' above sea level; the hand-rolled, golden tipped tea sounds highly unique!
Pekoe Tea in the UK is the only place selling the tea, so it will not come to the US market, but I would love to get a pound next year to try out if it does. The owner of Kinnettles Gold, Susie Walker-Munro has an interesting history with tea, as it was her great-great-great-grandfather Charles Alexander Bruce who was largely responsible for bringing tea from India to the British market in 1839.
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Last year I brought into the cafe the delicious and expertly produced Amba OP1 from Sri Lanka. One of the better Ceylon teas I have tried, this tea sold well and was one of my favorites. Yet, I was saddened to learn that it was no longer going to be produced, and that the Amba Tea Estate was going to focus on mixed blends rather then high-end artisan tea. The reason, I found out, was that the main person at Amba was leaving and so the Estate was taking a new direction. Now, here is the news of this Scottish tea and who is behind it, but Beverly-Claire Wainwright, the same person who had worked at Amba to create the Amba OP1. Because of my love for the Amba OP1, I was even more excited to hear about this new Kinnettles Gold.
With fond memories of the Amba OP1 still fresh on my palette my hopes are high that the Angus Farm will continue to produce Kinnettles Gold and that I will get to try a small bit in the future! For a tea buyer, it is always exciting to learn about new artisanal teas, and it doesn't get much more artisanal than this.
**I've been informed that Kinnettles Gold is not the first tea out of Scotland, and that there are other Scottish artisinal teas, so I changed the headline.
