Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea: What-Cha

Seriously! What is with all the stinky people and places?! I don’t know if I’m just becoming more hypersensitive, or if the world is just getting a whole lot stinkier! First of all, there’s the ongoing saga at work where I had to not only move to a different desk, but move to a different room because of the disinfectant smell coming through the vents! Then there’s the ongoing saga of my apartment, where despite the disinfectant smell coming through the vents, I CAN’T move to a different desk, or a different room because there’s nowhere else to go! Then there’s the guy at work who bathes in perfume every day, and leaves a trail of lung-clogging stink wherever he goes (think `Pepe le Pew`). Then, I get on a bus to come home from work, and this gigantic man sits down behind me just reeking of spray disinfectant/deodorant/aftershave (???) which closed up my lungs completely and gave me a pounding headache! (40 minute ride… nowhere else to go). THEN I get on the subway for the rest of my ride, and all I can smell is air freshener/disinfectant/chemicals (???) for the next 30 minutes!! I’ve just got home and I’m feeling sick and nauseous, and my lungs are aching, and I can’t breathe.  If people have peanut allergies, we do not go spraying peanut juice all through their workplace. We go out of our way to make sure that our environment is peanut-free. Yet apparently, it’s OK to use toxic chemicals to pollute the air we all share, and anyone with respiratory problems can just suck it!

Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea by What-Cha

Rant over… I need some tea. Something to clean my body, mind, and soul. I’m thinking green; simple and clean. This “Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea” from What-Cha‘s fantastic “Discover Malawi Collection” looks like just the thing! It’s described as “grassy green taste with citrus notes”, and when I open the package, all I smell is green green grass! Great!

The leaves are a crazy mix of shapes and sizes, from hard clumpy twists, to short little wires, to long stringy bits, and even some twigs that remind me of the “Antlers” tea. The directions call for a 1-2 minute steep at 75 deg. I’m going with 1 minute.

Malawi Zomba Steamed Green Tea in Grandma’s teacup

The tea is a lovely clear, pale yellow, and it looks so refreshing and purifying… I can’t wait for it to cool! The first sip is sweet and initially nutty, almost like a “DragonWell“, but as I swirl it around in my mouth, I get the full green grass and green beans flavour. It’s so clean and light, I can feel it scrubbing all the chemical pollution right out of my system! I feel better already! The aftertaste does have a wee little citrus note… a little bit of grapefruit and tangerine. It’s super refreshing! Just what I needed!

Steeped leaves

I steep a second cup for 2 minutes, and the tea is a deeper yellow colour. This one is very grassy and vegetal all the way through, and I’m now picking up smoky notes as well. There’s some added astringency here. I think I’ve oversteeped it a bit. Perhaps it’s best to stick with 60 seconds. I’ve never been one to follow all the “health benefits of tea” hype, but it’s amazing how much better I feel after drinking this cup of green! I guess the “psychological benefits of tea” is more my style.

Let me finish with a plea to the perfume addicts and germ-a-phobes of the world: If you need to clean yourself, or your environment, or your vents, or your subway cars… do it gently. Treat the air as if your life depended on it. Find a clean solution that isn’t going to hurt anyone with allergies, asthma, emphysema, or lung cancer. Water and vinegar, or lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, or even plain, unscented soap can work wonders… and are free of artificial and carcinogenic chemicals. Everyone has a right to clean air… and good tea!