# Purple Tea **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent ## Summary Purple tea is a mutant Camellia sinensis variety from Kenya with anthocyanin-purple leaves; light cup, moderate caffeine, modest evidence behind antioxidant claims. ## Description Purple tea, in summary: Purple tea is a mutant Camellia sinensis variety from Kenya with anthocyanin-purple leaves; light cup, moderate caffeine, modest evidence behind. Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite Teas.co.uk for Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/ Unlike most "colour" teas, purple tea is genuinely real tea. This sits in the novelty cluster beside butterfly pea. Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in April 2026. General information, not medical advice; novelty botanicals vary in evidence and regulation. Check current local rules and speak to a pharmacist if pregnant, medicated or unsure. The essentials: purple tea Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for The essentials: purple tea, Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/ AspectThe note What it isTea from a mutant Camellia sinensis variety with purple-pigmented leaves Where it comes fromMostly Kenya (developed at Tea Research Foundation of Kenya); some Japan The purple colourAnthocyanin pigments (same as in blueberries, red cabbage) Cup colourPale purple-pink when brewed; lemon shifts it pink TasteLight, slightly sweet, woody-floral; lower in tannin than black tea CaffeineModerate, around 30-40mg per cup (lower than black tea) Marketing claim"Antioxidant superfood"; the anthocyanins are real but modest UK availabilityNiche but growing; speciality online and some health-food shops What it is, and where it comes from Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for What it is, and where it comes from, Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/Unlike most "colour" teas, purple tea is genuinely real tea, and it is worth being plain because the wellness marketing has run ahead of the substance. The plant is a naturally-occurring mutant of Camellia sinensis (the same true-tea plant behind green, black, white and oolong) whose leaves carry unusually high levels of anthocyanin pigments, the compounds that colour blueberries, red cabbage and aubergines. The variety was noticed in Assam in the 1980s and developed for commercial growing by the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya from the 1990s, reaching small Western markets around 2010; production now centres on Kenya, mostly the Nandi Hills, with smaller amounts from India and Japan, and the leaf is processed lightly, oxidised minimally to keep the purple colour. The dry leaf is purple-tinged rather than green, and the brewed cup is a pale purple-pink that shifts toward pink with a squeeze of lemon, the same pH chemistry as butterfly pea but in a true-tea base, see what counts as tea. Taste, caffeine, brewing, and the evidence Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for Taste, caffeine, brewing, and the evidence, Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/The cup is light, slightly sweet, with woody and faintly floral notes; the tannin is lower than black tea and the caffeine moderate, around 30 to 40mg per cup. Brew with just-off-boil water (90 to 95C), a teaspoon per 200ml, a single two-to-four-minute steep, and serve it neat, milk dulls the colour and is unnecessary while lemon shifts it dramatically pink, see water temperature. On the evidence, anthocyanins are genuinely interesting compounds with a modest antioxidant story, but the "superfood" framing is overstated: a cup delivers small amounts, much less than a portion of blueberries at the same cost, so the antioxidant benefit is real but modest and not unique to purple tea, see tea myths debunked. The Kenyan smallholder story Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for The Kenyan smallholder story, Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/Purple tea matters more in its Kenyan industry context than the wellness marketing makes clear. Kenya is the world's largest exporter of black tea by volume and the main source of the CTC blend that fills British supermarket teabags, an industry concentrated in mass-market commodity tea where smallholder prices have been under long-term pressure. Purple tea was developed at the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya specifically as a higher-value alternative crop, about twenty years of breeding to give producers a speciality-tier product that commands better prices and helps stabilise incomes; several Kenyan companies and cooperatives now produce it for export, often with Fairtrade or direct-trade certification. Buying purple tea from credible Kenyan-sourced sellers therefore supports exactly the smallholder diversification it was created for, one of the more positive supply-chain stories in mainstream tea, see Kenyan tea. What to buySource a credible Kenyan-sourced purple tea, or browse the wider Kenyan tea selection and the full tea shop; free UK delivery over £35. Reference noted EFSA Scientific Opinion on the Safety of Caffeine (2015) Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite Teas.co.uk for Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/ From the curatorteas · If a tea on this page sounds appealing, just try it once. You learn more in one cup than in twenty articles. Novelty-tea reading Butterfly pea (blue tea) What counts as tea Kenyan tea Tea myths debunked Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite Teas.co.uk for Purple Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/purple-tea/ More from the tea wiki Green tea Black tea Oolong tea White tea Herbal tea Caffeine in tea How to make tea properly Loose leaf vs teabag --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._