purple tea

Purple tea is a rare and special type of tea that produces purple spiced tea leaves. Like black, green, or white tea, purple tea belongs to the genus Camellia Sinensis, which is the botanical name for tea.

Where does this tea plant grow?

Purple tea is grown exclusively in Kenya. Kenya has a large tea cultivation culture, but until recently it has mainly focused on black tea. From the beginning of the century, however, the government began to encourage farmers to diversify their tea cultivation. As with grape varieties in viticulture, there is also the possibility of developing a new variety by crossing tea. Near the nature reserve of the second highest mountain in Africa, the Kenya Tea Research Institute has been systematically developing this rare tea plant over the past 25 years. (Mount Kenya is 5610m, the second highest mountain in Africa). There are therefore several dozen variants, but in the end one gene type prevailed. Cultivated in high and cool regions between 1000m -2000m, the plant tolerates more intense sun rays than a conventional green-leaved tea plant due to its purple prickly leaves.

Is Purple Tea Healthy?

Due to the altitude and the intense sunlight, which it can withstand thanks to its natural UV protection, it produces a particularly large amount of anthocyanins and polyphenols.

This higher concentration of anthocyanins and polyphenols makes it healthier than black and green tea. In addition, purple tea has a lower caffeine content than said tea type, which makes your tea infusion taste less bitter.

How does purple tea taste?

If a tea is variable, then this one. Exciting, not only because it magically changes its color with lemon, but above all has the characteristic of having an incredible variety of flavors. How is this property expressed in the cup? Well first of all, where can I buy purple tea? Argument exclusively towards the original or unfermented ( not oxidized ) variant of the tea. You can find these in our Lilac Tea Original , Lilac Tea Chai Masalla , Lilac Tea Ginger and all Lilac Iced Tea varieties. We recommend that you call up the individual varieties to find out the properties in detail.

Purple tea changes color

The color change occurs because the molecule binds an additional hydrogen nucleus – i.e. a proton – to itself in an acidic environment. Conversely, in a basic environment, the dye donates a proton to the environment. And even such a small change changes the color. So it depends on the PH value.

How do you prepare the tea?

Purple tea is prepared in a variety of ways. That depends on how you want to cook it. The classic method of preparation is to boil and brew for three to five minutes. In addition, we have several preparation tips for you, for example a YouTube video on how to prepare Lilac Tea Chai Masalla with soy milk, or a Lilac Tea Original as iced tea. There are also mega cool food recipes to snack on.

Here we have created six types of tea for you

You can find recipes here.