For over 30 years The Metropolitan Tea Company Ltd. has provided their customers with the finest loose premium teas and accessories the world has to offer. Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc. and Karen’s Collectors Cottage, Inc. & Art Gallery are proud to say that we offer these products in our online stores.  These  and other delicious drinks will also be served at our Getaway Studio Bed and Breakfast.

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Information Source: The Metropolitan Tea Company Ltd.

Kambaa Tea is a luxury black tea from the Kiambu region of Kenya.  It  has a very malty flavor that has hints of currant. With milk the cup is bright golden and inviting.

Kambaa is one of the premiere factories under umbrella of the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA), a state run corporation. Each factory in the KTDA relies on the ‘small holder’ (small individual farming unit) to provide the green leaf for the making of black tea. Within the KTDA there are 150,000 small holders supplying green leaf to 39 factories scattered throughout the tea growing districts of Kenya. Despite such a diverse supply of green leaf to the various factories, there are very rigid quality control mechanisms in place which ensure that farmers tender top quality produce. Kambaa is consistently within the top four quality tea estates of the KTDA and indeed Kenya.

Tea is a very important product for Kenya. The industry provides employment for several hundred thousand people, from the small holders through to the steamship companies that transport it around the globe. Tea is a relative newcomer to the Kenyan agricultural scene.  It was started by British planters after the Second World War. Many of these planters were feeling unwanted in India (India achieved independence in 1947) and migrated to Kenya. Despite a ban on the transfer of plants and information, these planters smuggled Indian plants into Kenya. The plants thrived in the Kenyan climate and today, Kenya is the world’s second largest exporter of tea.

Organic Nile Delta Camomile is very aromatic with a fruity tending floral flavor.

The Nile Delta, where grows the finest Chamomile in the world, is perhaps the oldest continually farmed piece of land on earth. For at least as far back as 5000 years, farmers have sewn seeds and pruned crops in the Delta, coaxing lush fields of every imaginable variety to bloom and blossom.  What made the Delta so fertile?  Annual flooding.  Every year the Nile would burst its banks and flood the plains alongside the river.  River-silt loaded with nutrients and minerals would be carried and deposited along the banks. This silt served as a natural fertilizer for the year’s crops and made the flood a highly anticipated event.  Although the 1902 completion of the Aswan dam put an end to the annual flood, to this day the Nile Delta is still home to wonderfully rich soil that infuses its agricultural produce with intense flavor.

This organic Egyptian Chamomile is a perfect example of the Delta’s agricultural bounty.  Grown in accordance with European organic standards, this pure herbal tea produces a cup that is at once lively and relaxing.  On the nose, the cup presents a soothing floral bouquet.  On the tongue, the infusion impresses with exceptionally lively honey notes.  A freshly brewed cup is as relaxing as watching the sun set over the Nile and as flavorful as a pot of fresh honey.  In a word, the flavor of this fantastic flower is “superb”!

Pai Mu Tan is a luxury white tea grown in the Fujian Province of China, and is shipped from the port at Fuzhou. It is grown at an altitude of 2000 feet to 4000 feet above sea level. This tea is naturally withered.

Cup Characteristics: Clear, slightly pale cup with a fresh aroma and a smooth velvety flavor.  Delicate jammy notes reminiscent of Keemun or a mild Bordeaux.

This is the highest grade of white tea available before one enters the stratosphere in pricing for white teas such as Peony White Needle Tea.  Pai Mu Tan leaves are plucked from a special varietal tea bush called Narcissus or chaicha bushes.  Only special two leaves a bud are selected.  The leaves are naturally withered and dried in the sun.  If mechanical drying is required, it is a baking process at temperatures less than 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). These leaves must show a very light green almost gray-white color and be covered with velvet peach fuzz down.  White teas that are withered in conditions that are too hot will become reddish, and in conditions that are too cold, they will become blackish.  You will see a Pai Mu Tan the perfect balance between solar and indoor withering, resulting in a perfect white tea.

Tea has a calming and detoxifying effect on the skin.  White tea is especially potent in that it has three times as many antioxidant polyphenols as green or black tea and has been shown to be 100% more effective in mopping up free radicals that cause skin to sag.  Some of the world’s top cosmetic companies are becoming interested in white tea for skin creams, and the result is that high grade white tea is becoming even more rare.  Researchers in the Linus Pauling Institute in Oregon tested white teas on selected rats for the ability of white teas to inhibit natural mutations in bacteria and to protect the rats from colon cancer.  White teas were found to be more effective than green tea in inhibiting the early stages of cancer but researchers were quick to point out that their study was on rats, and the effects should not be extrapolated to humans.

One tea expert has been quoted ‘unlike black or green tea, it isn’t rolled or steamed; this preserves its antioxidant properties.’