Kenyan Tea

You could've found this by googling "Safari Pure" and tea

&cID=1&c%1644

Ooops, I thought they were US based at first glance for some reason, sorry!

I knew it was too easy to be true :)

@ Linda Quick

Jambo Linda!

I am a Scottish/American tea professional of 30+ years who has lived and worked in Kenya for many years and have family there. KATEPA is the government tea packer (brands include Safari Pure). This is important to understand because Kenya is not only the largest exporter of tea to the world market, but the majority of Kenya Tea is produced by a government company called Kenya Tea Development Agency Ltd (formerly Kenya Tea Development Authority). And ALL of the BEST African tea is made by KTDA. So, yes, indeed you have nailed the correct tea producing company!

Now, the issue becomes (1) which blend/brand?; (2) how do you buy it? This is easily answered with no intermediate parties sticking their two cents in - contact KTDA (and KATEPA if you must) directly after studying their fascinating websites and ask them!

Go to

which will answer all your questions about Kenya tea including weekly Mombasa Tea Auction price realisations by garden mark which the world's largest traders like Lipton, Tetley, Dilmah etc pay for massive bulk quantities. Of course, if you like, you can directly to the Katepa site as well but it's nowhere as in-depth as KTDA's. As well, Katepa is obliged to through in non-KTDA teas for politically sensitive reasons.

In your email to KTDA, tell them the KATEPA brand you have enjoyed but that you "are looking for a loose tea blend of pure KTDA teas that's even better than Safari Pure if such a best KTDA-marks-only blend is available." Use that exact quote. Make certain you close the email to KTDA by asking them if you may buy such a blend "directly from KTDA."

There is much propaganda and disinformation in the tea industry fed to ultimate consumers like your goodself about such matters. There are essentially two types of MAJOR tea production methods in the world: "CTC" (of the KTDA variety) and "Orthodox" (of the Sri Lankan and the other Asian lesser quality origins including such as the Indian and Chinese varieties). Should you like to sample a trial order of the latter as well, it is a frighteningly different cup and far preferred by tea professionals. For that, go directly to Sri Lanka's largest producer Dilmah at

- their tea website is far more awesome than any on earth. AND they'll ship to your exact taste prefs if you provide them with the sort of liquor your palette prefers.

Happy Tea Drinking!

-jd

much snipping

Hi jd,

Putting aside the issue of bigger is not necessarily better, is the world of tea production really divided neatly into but two MAJOR categories; CTC and Orthodox? I've actually heard this before. Can we say of this, that if it isn't CTC, it's Orthodox by definition?

I'm happy to hear about the success of Kenyan tea since it must, I hope, provide income to many thousands of workers. Would you share a little bit about working conditions on tea plantations in Kenya. Thanks.

Michael

Michael; enlightenment -

KTDA is not a government organisation - it was privatized in 2001 and is now a limited company owned by its shareholders many of whom are the

430,000 (yes 430,000!) small farmers whose tea the KTDA processes and markets and to whom it shares the profits. KTDA does not have plantations - each member farmer has on average less than an acre of tea but these bushes and land are solely owned and managed by himself and his family - private enterprise par excellence. Total production of the small farmers is around 200,000 tonnes of CTC tea -around 65% of all Kenyan tea (and about 50 tonnes of Orthodox tea - I put in this single Orthodox line in 2003). KTDA manages some 60 tea factories to process all this tea, but the factories are also private companies owned by their shareholders, and again many of these shares are owned by small tea farmers. KTDA tea is certainly the best in Kenya as the farmers pluck much "finer" than the plantation sector represented by Unilever, Brooke Bond, Finlay, and Linton Park.

Most tea is indeed either CTC or Orthodox in the ratio 60:40 globally. A very small amount of tea (5%?) is made by the LTP process (Lawrie Tea Processor - mainly in Malawi) and the SVTP process (Sniechowski Vertical Tea Processor - mainly in Argentina) - but the teas they produce are virtually indistinguishable from CTC teas. Orthodox teas include those made with Rolling Tables and/or Rotorvanes. Hand Rolled Teas (of which I am a devotee) are a sub set of Orthodox.

Nigel at Teacraft

[Nigel]

Thanks, Nigel. Impressive. It's always nice to believe that the tea I drink puts food on the actual tables of actual human beings, not merely money into the hands of middlefolk.

Hand made teas are a subset of Orthodox, you say, so the terms begin to make sense. How about Pu'erh? It defies classification.

Michael

Kenya lies on the equator and the tea is grown in the high mountainous central plateau. I could see Australopithecus enjoying a cuppa.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:

Hi Nigel ,

We are a big Tea producers & exporter in Vietnam. Could you pls give me some email addr from who are interested in importing all CTC Black Tea and Green tea also. We are looking for new buyers from new market. Appreciate your good gestures with us.

Awaiting for your reply at: snipped-for-privacy@hn.vnn.vn or ntc snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

Nigel viết:

Yes, from 4,000 up to 7,000 ft either side of the Rift Valley and much of it with Mt Kenya in the background. I like the idea of our ancient cousins taking a cuppa but it would more likely to have been coffee which is native to the areas north of Kenya. It was as an alternative to the ubiquitous coffee in Kenya (viz. Karen Blixen - Out of Africa) that planters brought in tea in the 1920's - I have plucked leaf from those self same original bushes planted 1923 on Brooke Bond's Mabroukie estate at Limuru near Nairobi - and still going strong.

Nigel at Teacraft

Yes, pu'erh is always somthing of a special case - but its primary format is orthodox manufacture, with the benefit of post-process added value manipulation. It will offend the purists no doubt but in tea manufacturing logic it therefore occupies the same sector as instant tea, decaffeinated tea or RTD tea! - all having their final product character produced by further processing (be it natural or artificial) of the dried leaf.

Nigel at Teacraft

[Nigel [Michael] Doesn't offend me at all. Systematics and taxonomy are strange creatures indeed. You can organize the tea and the language however you like. Right now, for example, I'm settled down to a nice pot of blue tea. (When it comes to "purists," one has to ask what they're pure of.)

Michael