Monthly Archives: August 2013

TEA TALK: A Safari through Kenyan Tea

Tea Talk, ,

Kenya is perhaps best known around the world for its game parks and beaches – but the tea industry is a huge and important part of Kenyan economy and culture. A Kenyan safari may mean lions and zebra for some, but Safari means journey in the local Swahili language – and the most amazing journey in Kenya is through the unforgettable tea fields. Kenya vies with Sri Lanka for the most tea exported in the world, yet everyone has heard of Ceylon and India and China teas, while Kenya tea is not so well recognised.

Kenya is situated on the east coast of Africa, a tropical country straddling the equator, the warm Indian Ocean to the east, and huge fresh water Lake Uganda to the west. Note that fifteen other African countries are also tea producers large and small – though Kenya produces more tea than all the rest added together – last year topping 300,000 tonnes for the first time.

Tea is naturally a plant of the moist tropics. On the equator and at sea level the temperatures are far too hot for tea to grow. Fortunately, Kenya has plenty of high land on both sides of the Rift Valley where, at elevations from 4,500 up to 7,000 feet the air is cool and rainfall is plentiful; combined with the rich acid volcanic soils the intense natural light and high humidity, the conditions are ideal for tea. In Kenya the tea growing conditions uniquely combine quality with quantity. In the 400 square miles that are carpeted with tea there are over 1 billion tea bushes growing, and every one of those bushes is visited every ten days by a trained tea plucker who selects just the newly grown tips for harvest. No harvesting machines operate here – just human skill. At 1,500 tips per kilogram a plucker will select and pluck over 30,000 per day! The Kenya tea industry is vast and, because it is labour intensive, it can achieve the very best quality.

The ongoing peaks and dips in tea prices at the Mombasa auction affect a lot of lives. Out of Kenya’s 25 million population over 12% are involved in the tea industry in some capacity, and half a million are directly employed in producing tea. KTDA – the Kenya Tea Development Agency, is a huge co-operative of small tea farmers established in 1965 (before then only multinational companies were allowed to grow tea). Now KTDA has 430,000 individual farmers growing and selling green leaf to the 55 tea factories it manages. An amazingly complex and successful undertaking that operates effectively despite all the problems found in a developing country.

Kenya was a late comer into the world tea scene with the earliest commercial plantings made in the 1920’s – compare this with China’s 5,000 tea history, Indonesia from the 1700’s, Indian production from 1830, and Sri Lanka from 1870. Brooke Bond still pluck from the original bushes planted just north of Nairobi. Commercial production took off exponentially in the 1930’s and now Kenya teas feature in virtually all UK tea blends. Kenya’s spectacular export growth is the more impressive when compared with India for example where growth in exports has only been 20% in 70 years (160,000 tonnes exported annually in 1930’s and 210,000 tonnes per annum now). To support this spectacular and consistent growth the Kenya industry has pioneered and perfected many innovations in tea production, like the withering trough, continuous fermentation, the CTC and the fluid bed drier, and giant tea factories that give economy of scale.

Multinational companies grow about 40% of the Kenyan tea with small farmers under KTDA guidance growing the bulk. KTDA has 55 out of the total tea 98 factories. Kenya’s tea factories are on average four times as large as those in Sri Lanka and six times as big as those in Assam.

At the tea auction that is held in Mombasa every Monday and Tuesday, tea is sold by the producers and is bought by local and international packers. Big names Lipton, Brooke Bond, Van Rees are represented there, plus many small brokers and traders. Before the auction commences they will have seen and tasted tea samples from each of the lots and will bid for their requirements. Some 70% of Kenya’s tea passes through this auction with the remainder sold by private treaty. The Mombasa auction attracts tea from surrounding countries too – Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi and Rwanda. All these are then shipped worldwide from Mombasa port for blending and packing in consuming countries.

Of the 300,000 tonnes of Kenya tea produced only 7% is retained for local drinking. For the rest there are three main customers – UK, Pakistan, and Egypt, who together purchase nearly three quarters. US consumption of Kenya tea is very small – of the 46 billion cups drunk in USA only 800 million are grown in Kenya. The main reason for this small uptake is that Kenya grows high quality CTC black tea. This is ideally suited to England’s “strong tea with milk and sugar” taste but is not so popular with Americans and most Europeans who drink their teas without milk. Prior to WW2 the US drank equal amounts of green and black tea of orthodox manufacture; but since then tastes have changed towards iced tea that now forms 70% of the US tea market.

With the rising popularity of the teabag Kenya has since the 1970’s (as has the rest of Africa) concentrated solely on black CTC tea – but globally this is fast becoming an oversupplied and stagnating market. KTDA is known for making the very best quality of CTC teas and has recently diversified into producing fine specialty leaf teas using traditional orthodox tea equipment imported from India.

TEA TALK: Getting to Grips with Japanese Tea

Tea Talk, ,

Japanese tea has many terms and names that are at first confusing – but understanding a little about its history and manufacture will enhance your enjoyment of the Japanese teas we offer.

Tea brought originally as seeds from China has been grown in Japan for over 800 years and a Japanese tea culture soon grew up, based originally on the ancient Chinese methods, utensils and traditions but, particularly during the 16th Century, was refined to reflect a period of flourishing Zen Buddhist based Japanese cultural development. The tea ceremony (Chanoyu), tea masters, tea schools (including Urasenke) and exquisite ceramic tea utensils date back to this time. Chado (The Way of Tea) then reached its purest form under the influence of artist Sen Rikyu (1522-1591) with its highly aesthetic and ritualised tea ceremony recognising the beauty of ordinary life. The basis of Chado is Harmony – expressed in four written characters:

Kei Reverence – respect for all things and beings

wa Harmony and Peace – deeply felt, honest sympathy with everything and everybody

sei Purity – inner and outer purity in thought, deed and word

jaku Quietness

When, by following the tea ceremony ritual, this state of Harmony is reached then the final goal – Tranquillity – is achieved.

Technically the history of Japanese tea has evolved through three main stages – Boiled Tea, Whipped Tea and Steeped Tea. Originally Japanese tea was made into compressed cakes for transport and storage – the tea at this time was manufactured as parched green tea using the technique learned in China. Cake tea was broken into pieces and boiled to reconstitute it. At some time in the 15th Century steaming was introduced and Japanese tea manufacture could then produce a very bright green product; eventually this crude leaf tea was powdered by grinding between stones instead of being pressed into cakes. This powdered tea (Matcha) was used for making Whipped Tea – frothed by whipping the powdered tea and hot water with a bamboo whisk. This is method still central to the tea ceremony. Finally, in the 18th Century a tea seller in Kyoto developed an entirely new method of rolling and rubbing steamed leaves by hand on a hot surface. The method produced needles of rolled leaf (Sencha) that retained a better flavour and colour and made possible the steeping of tea in a tea pot. Steeped tea developed its own much less formal ceremony (Sencha-do) which became particularly popular among literary artists who prized freedom under the hierarchical feudal system of the period.

Japan has many types of green tea the names of which reflect how the tea was grown, the type of leaves used in its manufacture, the method of manufacture, how the tea is sorted and any final processing it received. When you understand the meaning of these tea names it makes choosing a Japanese tea much more interesting than a black tea, whose name tells nothing about its process history. In our next Newsletter we will explain the essential sensory differences between Kukicha and Kokeicha, Kabusecha and Konacha, but for the moment we look at the broad manufacturing methods used that give the major different tea types.

Growing Method – Japanese tea farmers unlike any others shade some of their bushes with bamboo mats (now mainly black nylon shade material) for three weeks to increase chlorophyll and amino acid development in the young leaf. The very best teas – Gyokuro and Tencha are shade grown teas (Matcha is produced by grinding Tencha leaves). Sencha is grown in full sun and has a more bitter, less sweet taste.

Age of Leaf – young leaf makes the best tea. Japanese farmers harvest their bushes four times during the growing season (four flushes) and the first or Spring flush (Ichibancha) is the best quality. Tea made from very mature or coarse Autumn leaf produces Ban-cha.

Initial Heating – for green tea production the leaf enzymes must be destroyed or the green leaf will ferment (oxidise) to produce black tea. Most Japanese tea is steamed, but a small amount is still “pan fried” or roasted in the Chinese manner – Kamairi-cha is an example of Japanese pan fired tea – rolled into round shapes. The very rare Kamanobi-cha is pan fired and then rolled into needles.

Rolling – now, except for very expensive hand made Japanese teas, all are machine rolled. A distinction is made between needle shape (Sencha and Kamanobi-cha) and round shape (Ryoku-cha and Kamairi-cha).

Unlike teas made in countries under former British influence the manufacture of all Japanese tea is made in two stages – first the Crude Tea Process, usually undertaken in small factories operated as cooperatives where the tea is produced and dried but not graded (Aru-cha). The Refining Process which takes place in tea dealers’ central factories produces by repeated sifting, standardised leaf teas called Hon-cha and stalk teas called Ban-cha.

African White Teas

Tea Talk

Satemwa Tea Estate in Thyolo, Malawi, is the smallest commercial tea garden in Malawi; it has been in the same family for three generations and makes some of the best black teas that Malawi sells. Technical collaboration between Satemwa and our associate company Teacraft Ltd has resulted in the perfection of a range of natural White Teas that are unique in flavour and to our knowledge are the only White Teas being produced in the whole of Africa.

White Teas traditionally come from China. When we first discussed hand made white teas with the Satemwa’s General Manager we didn’t know if it could be done or, if it could whether it would even taste of tea, and if it did whether we could teach the art of white tea making in the Dark Continent. Now we know the answer to each question is Yes! – and we let the teas speak for themselves.

White tea making begins in the field – hand plucking single buds (for Needles) and fine tender two leaves and a bud (for Peony). This is hard work and needs nimble fingers and great patience but white tea cannot be made from tough old leaf.

We are plucking leaf from a range of cultivars – bushes with local names of Zomba, Chilwa, Salima and Mulanje – each cultivar showing its own distinctive flavour and colour when the teas are finished.

White teas are minimally processed and are never made using machinery as are conventional green, black and oolong teas – everything is done by hand. First the plucked leaves are laid out to wither on a tray in a shady place – this gives slow loss of field moisture while, within the leaf, the finished flavour and aroma is generated. Depending on ambient conditions withering can take up to two days during which time the leaf is turned over – carefully to avoid bruising it – and inspected many times.

When the withered leaf is ready it is moved to a dry airy place, sometimes in the sun, sometimes in a breeze, depending on the local weather, to encourage drying. This process can take another two days before the leaf is crisp and dry – sufficient to keep it stable during storage. Before packing all Malawi White Tea leaf is carefully inspected again and sorted into grades.

We suggest you steep your Malawi White Teas at 75°C (170°F) for five to six minutes – but do experiment to discover what suits your personal taste. And we find that multiple steeping gives a wonderful spectrum of flavours with rosy floral and spicy notes becoming more marked in successive steeps while the pale apricot hue of the liquor remains constant. The Malawi wild crafted White Teas are available as single bud Needles – equivalent to Chinese Yin Zhen Needles, and young tippy Peony – equivalent to Chinese Pai Mu Dan – made from fine two leaf and a bud shoots. The colours, tastes, and aromas are not at all like standard China White Teas – but the delicacy and sweetness are similar.

A particularly pleasurable feature of these teas is the distinctive floral aroma on the infusion (the wet leaves) best enjoyed by separating leaf from liquor using an infuser or better still try our professional tea tasting set [AC03] – sniffing the warm infusion from beneath the lid offers a galaxy of changing aromas.

Tea Types – Oolong Tea

Tea Types, ,

Oolong is a semi oxidised tea traditionally from south east China, though now some excellent oolongs are also produced in Taiwan (Formosa). Ooolong combines the clarity and fragrance of green tea with the refreshing strength of black tea, and has a natural lingering aroma of its own.

The process method can vary dramatically between different oolongs – just as with black teas. We describe here the production of premium Phoenix Oolong from the Phoenix Mountains of northern Guangdong in Fujian Province where the warm moist Pacific air and the high elevation combine to make ideal conditions for high quality tea plantations.

The tea bushes grow at around 1,300 to 1,500 metres in damp air and mist, in soil that rarely dries out. Many of the bushes are propagated from very old trees that have been famed over the years for producing high quality teas. Some even can be traced back to the Sung Dynasty of 600 years ago, when oolong was first manufactured.

The best Phoenix tea is made in small village factories by tea masters – traditionally skilled craftsmen, each of whom guards his secret methods. Bushes are plucked around mid day when the leaf surface has lost its dew coating, unlike premium green teas where cool damp early morning leaves are preferred. Plucking at noon allows a couple of afternoon hours for the harvested leaf to be spread in thin layers and withered in the sun – an essential step for developing oolong character. Leaves are turned several times during sun wither to ensure that all are equally exposed to the hot sun light. Then the leaves are collected and cooled, and spread in the shade. During that evening and through the night the tea master will fluff and rub the leaves briefly by hand for a five minute period every 1 to 2 hours. Each time the massaging is done with more vigour so that, by the end of fermentation each leaf margin is reddish, while the leaf centre is green. During this stage essential volatiles are produced that give the oolong liquor its characteristic taste and aroma. Judging the extent and timing of fermentation demands great skill as it is affected by weather conditions before and after plucking and by the plucked leaf quality. The fermentation is halted by roasting the leaf in a large wok, traditionally charcoal fired but now more often electrically heated. This end of this brief drying process is judged by smell and it makes the leaf soft and pliable, ready for twisting. Exceptional quality oolongs are still hand twisted, but many villages have introduced small rolling machines. Phoenix oolong is a hard twisted leaf that liquors slowly and retains is flavour through several brewings.

Final drying is done in baking basket over wood charcoal, for five to ten minutes with a rest time of one or two hours in-between when the tea master will check progress.

This long and painstaking manufacture is typical of the very best village manufactured oolongs, but many fine oolongs are also made in larger tea factories in Fujian. All are a living link with the Sung Dynasty.

Now is the time, if you haven’t tasted it yet, to try our Phoenix Dancong?