Amber in the cup, light in tone, and citrusy through to the last sip — that's the profile here. Tea & Coffee builds this iced blend on half-fermented Malawian oolong, folding in mango flakes and whole kumquats alongside natural flavouring and sunflower blossoms, so the sweetness of mango sits against the tartness of kumquat rather than fighting it.
Malawi is Africa's second-largest tea producer after Kenya, and its oolongs have a strong reputation among connoisseurs. The industry there goes back to 1891, when a Scotsman named Henry Brown began experimenting with tea after a plant disease ruined the coffee he'd been growing in Ceylon. His first seeds came from Scottish missionaries, who had received them from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, and the gardens he planted in what was then Nyasaland became the country's first successful tea estates. Others followed in the lowlands of Malanje and in Thyolo, in the Shire Highlands. Today more than 50,000 people work in Malawi's tea industry, 51% of them women, with the season running October to April as rains keep the bushes flushing.
Oolong itself has a murky start. No one can say for certain when it was first made — guesses range from the 10th century CE to as late as the 17th or 18th. One story ties it to tribute teas offered at the Chinese royal court; another places its invention in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian. Anxi County has its own versions, both involving a farmer who dropped a bag of freshly picked leaves, startled by either a snake or a deer, and came back to find they'd oxidised on their own.
To brew it, use about 2 teaspoons of leaf per person and pour water at 80°C over just enough to cover it. Steep for four minutes, strain, then top up with cold water and ice. For a sweeter glass, stir in sugar or honey while the water is still hot rather than after.
