West African tea

Dear group,

Does anyone know anything about west African teas? I was speaking with a Hausa friend from Ghana and he mentioned that his father receives deliveries of a local "tea" from the neighborhood teamonger. This is apparently a handpicked something that comes in long, thin leaves. He mentioned that it is a strong competitor for Lipton among the locals because of its freshness. Maybe it's like mate or something. Any ideas? Rufus T. Firefly Tokyo

Must admit I've never heard of any tea out of any part of Africa other than the northern parts. Love to hear what it's like.

You sure he's not speaking of Roiboos, which is not really a tea, but it is a bush that is harvested in Africa for it's long thin honey-fragrant leaves. I actually drink this as opposed to breakfast teas. It holds milk very well and has a natural sweetness.

Falky foo3Uytd.55974$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com12/8/04

I had drunk some whole leaf Kenyan tea acquired from "Nothing But Tea," which I found quite pleasant. Guest drinkers of black tea loved it. A bit malty, a bit fruity, quite pleasing -- both guests and tea, that is..

Michael

My local tea shop has 4 varieties of black tea from Africa, 2 from west Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), one from east Africa (Cameroon), and one from the Isle of Mauritius off the western coast.

They're all pretty good teas, but the tea from Mauritius is my favorite of the bunch. It's grown in the same fields as vanilla, so it has a naturally subtle vanilla flavor.

There's also Rooibos, as WadeM mentioned.

Uh, those countries are in *east* Africa.

Make that "west".

Eastern.

/Lew

You know what, you're absolutely correct. My internal compass is off. I'd better get that fixed before I try and go anywhere.

Dang, that's embarassing.

I call that Duck Tea

I thought about that too. Roiboos has a reddish/brown color. Maybe Rufus could clarify that?

What kept me from posting: Roiboos sounds very much south african (afrikaans) to me, and I don't think they speak that in Ghana. Then again it might just have a diferent name there...

ciao Patrick

I'm fairly sure I asked him about rooibos and it seems he mentioned it was something very local. It's probably some herb he's confused for camillus sinensis (feel free to correct my spelling). Interestingly enough, he mentioned that Senegalese tea is a favorite of the region. It is made in the north African style (Morocco, etc.) with about 3 spoonfulls of sugar per person. But north Africans typically use Chinese gunpowder (or so I was told by the Moroccan embassy recently) and small cups like cappucino cups (Africa - go figure). I don't think he considers Japanese tea to be "tea". If you can't fill the cup with sugar what's the point, right? I was so very stupid. I thought he was from Uganda and that's why I started the tea conversation in the first place. Call it extreme cultural ignorance on my part, but I sadly doubt that even most African-Americans would have a clue. Just a small reminder of the inequalities of the world we live in. The crimes of the last several thousand years continue to haunt us. Perhaps tea can help. "Teas Across America?" "Tea are the world?" (Fairly horrible. My apologies to all those with taste.)

Rufus T. Firefly Tokyo

Derek wrote:

locals

All the Rooibos at my local shop is from South Africa. And according to one site I found...

"Rooibos is grown only in a small area 250km north of Cape Town in the Cedarberg area and no alternative source of supply of this unique product is available anywhere in the world."

You're right. Not many people there speak afrikaans. They have a national language and some other variants. They also speak 'piddgen' if I spelled that right.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

That's interesting. I always liked Rooibos, it's a nice tea for the Winter Time.

Well, I know that Gunpowder is drunken in the northern africa. I guess there should be some more consumption n this continent. But is there any production of tea (made from camellia sinensis) in africa? Does anyone know that?

ciao Patrick

Yes. From Cameroon, Kenya and Tanzania at least. As I noted in a different post, my local shop has black teas from those three locations as well as an island off of the *eastern* coast.

(See, Lew? I got it right this time. ;)

You can add Ethiopia to available African teas. I got a commercial brand called Addis from their export Tea Development Enterprise.

Jim

Derek wrote: