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.