Assam and Kenya rarely end up in the same cup, but this blend leans on both: black tea from Assam in India paired with black tea from Kenya, East Africa. It pours a deep coppery liquor with ruby highlights, light in tone, and settles into a malty, earthy character that lingers on the palate — expect notes of lemon, date, honey, milk, malt, coffee and earth across the cup.
The two origins carry separate histories. Assam's tea story begins in 1823, when the Scottish explorer Robert Bruce identified Camellia sinensis var assamica, the tea plant variety native to the region. Kenya's came later and more slowly: a Briton named G.W.L. Caine brought plants there in 1903 but never developed them commercially, and it took until 1918, when the Scotsman Arnold Butler McDonell began growing tea for sale, before Kenya's tea industry got moving.
This blend predates Kent and Sussex Tea and Coffee Company itself. Richard Smith, the company's founder, brought the recipe back from India when he returned to the UK in the 1970s, along with his mother and co-owner Janet Smith. They named it after Pluckley, the Kent village where the company has been based since 1982, a place better known to most people as the most haunted village in England.
This 1.5kg bag suits a household that goes through tea quickly, or anyone who would rather not reorder often. Brew with freshly boiled water and infuse for three to five minutes. Take it with milk, sugar, honey or lemon, or drink it plain. Tea has long been drunk with half an eye on health as well as flavour, and some research has looked at links between tea drinking and lower cancer risk, though that's a matter for ongoing study rather than a claim the company makes.
