Category Archives: Tea Production

Smallholder Tea Farmers in Kenya

Leave a reply

We recently stumbled across an interesting news article in Coastweek.com, a Kenyan based online newspaper. The article focused on a mobile network provider, Safricom, partnering with the Kenyan Tea Development Agency Ltd or KTDA, to change the way payments to smallholder tea farmers are handled. Specifically, the arrangement replaces all cash payments with M-PESA. If you haven’t heard of it, M-PESA is a branchless banking system developed by the global mobile network operator Vodaphone. In part, the your mobile network operator and retail outlets become your banking agents. The objective for KTDA is to improve security for employees at the factories who pay or delivered tea leaf as well as increase accountability and overall efficiency in payments and accounting. As it turns out this is but one step in helping support and increase profits for small tea farmers.

Smallholder Tea Plantations

UN Food and Agriculture Organization Logo

The UN FAO reviews the tea trade through its Inter-Governmental Group on Tea

Rather than write about M-PESA this article got us curious about the smallholder tea farmer system in Kenya and the relationship with KTDA. Smallholders, not large corporate plantations, as it turns out are a major source of tea produced in many countries. A 2012 review of smallholder tea farmer contributions by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization indicated that in countries like Sri Lanka, Kenya, China, and Vietnam smallholders produce the majority tea in these countries. This is opposed to countries like Indonesia and India where smallholders produce only about 20-25%.

Smallholder plantations, in theory provide a greater share of the profits to those at a local level, though the UN FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea study suggests there are quite a number of opportunities for improvement. Smallholders typically have difficulties commanding top prices for a variety of reasons including the lack of knowledge or capability to implement environmental, pest management, or other best practices.

KTDA Ltd and Kenyan Smallholders

Map of Tea Production in Kenya

A Map of Tea Production Areas in Kenya By Philippe Rekacewicz assisted by Cecile Marin, Agnes Stienne, Guilio Frigieri, Riccardo Pravettoni, Laura Margueritte and Marion Lecoquierre CC BY SA-3.0

The Kenyan Tea Development Agency got its start back in 1964 as Kenya got its independence and it became legal for locals to produce tea themselves. At the time the KTDA was charged with helping develop the industry for smallholders vs the large multinational corporations who still own plantations and produce a large percentage of tea in the region (and globally).

More recently, in 2000, KTDA became KTDA Ltd, a private company which continues to develop the smallholder tea industry. This arrangement, is just one approach found globally to supporting smallholders. KTDA Ltd operates effectively as a management firm providing best practices for smallholders in many areas as well as providing services that help smallholders command a greater share of the income. These services include everything from guidance on plucking and fertilizing through operations of factories as well as financial, sales, and marketing support.

In effect, KTDA Ltd helps organize and unite all the smallholder members to be competitive with the large industry players by increasing the portion of revenue earned from higher levels in the value chain. This includes at the manufacture and global wholesale portion of the value chain. It does this by having over 50 subsidiary factory companies to which over 560,000 smallholders both sell raw leaf and own a share of the company and resulting profits after manufacture and sale at the Mombasa Tea Auction.

The Future for Smallholder Tea Farmers

The number of smallholders worldwide looks to continue to grow for some time to come. This happens for many reasons but often its due to large corporate plantation abandonment (and subsequent re-establishment in smallholder schemes) and the purposeful dismantling of large government owned tea plantations. As the smallholder population increases it will be interesting to see how various countries approach supporting farmers in the practices and ownership methods that can help them thrive.

Japanese Sencha Tea

Leave a reply
Sencha leaves are known to be flat needle shape and dark green in color.

Dry Sencha Tea Leaves and Liquor

One cannot talk about Sencha tea without talking about the history of tea in Japan.  Sencha is the most consumed beverage in Japan, whose beginnings date back several centuries. Tea was introduced to Japan in the 9th century via a cultural exchange with monks although it did not really take hold until the 12th century when Emperor Saga encouraged tea plant growth.  This allowed tea to expand from religious use to upper class consumption.  At the same time Japan adopted an isolationist policy, stopping communication with China, which left Japan to develop its own distinct way of manufacturing tea. Whereas most Chinese teas are pan fried to stop oxidation, most of Japanese green teas are steamed to stop oxidation.  This gives the tea part of its distinctive flavor and bright green color found with the first forms of Sencha.

Japan, more than other tea drinking countries, has mechanized most of tea making process.  This mechanization, along with local demand for tea, has lead the industry to focus heavily on cultivars that work well with the harvesting machines while still maintaining the flavor characteristics expected from a Sencha.  The main cultivars used for Sencha are yabukita and okuhikari.

Due to the geography of the Japanese islands, no tea field is more than 75 miles from the ocean, regardless of the prefecture where it is grown (Kevin Gascoyne, 2011).  Most of the Sencha grown in Japan comes from Shizuoka prefecture.  The Kagoshima, Nara, and Mie prefectures also grow Sencha.   The terroir of this tea gives it a marine flavor on top of the natural grassy notes of a green tea. Not surprisingly, there are many types of Sencha, few of which make it to the US for consumption given the high local demand.  Below is table describing the more unique types of Sencha:

Name Description
Shincha or Ichibancha This is the first month’s harvest of Sencha.  This Sencha is very hard to come by outside of Japan since it is highly prized.  It typically comes to market in late April through May.
Kabuse Sencha or Kabusecha This is Sencha that has been grown in the shade about a week before harvesting.  This is a milder Sencha in flavor.
Asamushi This is a Sencha steamed for less than the traditional 15 to 20 seconds to stop oxidation.
Chumushi This is a Sencha steamed for 30-90 seconds.
Fukamushi or fukamushicha This is a Sencha steamed for 60-120 seconds.
Photo of Japanese Sencha Tea after it has been infused.

Infused Sencha Tea Leaf

As defined by the North American Tea Championship, a Sencha will have flat green needle shaped dry leafs with a grassy smell.  The wet leaves will have a rich green color and fresh aroma.  The liquor will have a light green to bright gold color with possible particulate and the taste will have grassy and briny notes with a medium to full-body feel.  For the rest of us, to get that taste, we need to steep the Sencha between 175° to 180° Fahrenheit.  Should you choose to try it at the boiling point of 212°, most of the complex flavor will be lost to the heavy astringency and with some Senchas it tastes more like a mouth full of briny ocean water than anything else.  In fact, it is mistakenly brewing Sencha and other green teas with boiling water that often turns people off to green teas entirely.

If you are new to Japanese green tea, Sencha is a great starting point.  If this is a tea you consume regularly, try cold brewing it for summer (unlike black teas, green teas often do not brew well with conventional iced tea machines).  It is a very refreshing way to enjoy this tea on a hot summer day.

 

Works Cited

Kevin Gascoyne, F. M. (2011). Tea: History Terroirs Varieties. In K. Gascoyne, F. Marchand, J. Desharnais, & H. Americi, Tea: History Terroirs Varieties (pp. 98-99). Firefly Books Ltd.

Jasmine Tea – The First Nighttime Tea

Leave a reply

Jasmine teas have been made in China since the fifth century and only began being exported to Europe in the 1600’s. They include teas like the classic Jasmine Green as well as Jasmine Dragon Tears (aka Jasmine Pearls). This hugely popular variety of tea gets its scent from Jasmine flowers, which only open at night.

Jasmine Plant

Jasmine flower for producing scented tea.

Scented tea is often produced using jasmine petals.

The two main species of Jasmine used in Jasmine tea are native to Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, as well as the eastern Himalayan region and have spread into China and across the globe because of humans. Jasmine is actually a member of the olive family. It is a vine that looses its leaves every fall. Jasmine typically blooms in the summer, not early spring when most of the best teas are picked. The flowers are white and open only in the evening when they release the oil that contains their famous scent. This beautiful plant is pollinated by moths, not bees, which are nocturnal insects. Plants that have evolved to have nocturnal pollinators are very fragrant as they use the fragrance to guide in their pollinators. It is believed that the Jasmine plant was introduced to China sometime during the Han Dynasty (200 BCE to 200 CE).

Making Jasmine Tea

Jasmine tea is traditionally made with green tea but you will also find it made with white or black tea. As mentioned earlier, Jasmine does not bloom when tea does. So the tea is picked, manufactured into its green state and then stored for 3-4 months, pending location, before being scented with jasmine. The jasmine blossoms are picked in the morning while closed and kept in a cool shaded place until evening, when it will be applied to the tea. The scenting process is rather laborious regardless of whether the tea is ultimately turned into a pearl or left in its original state of being twisted.

There are typically two methods of infusing the tea with the jasmine scent. The first method is to alternately layer the tea and the jasmine blossoms. These layers are built typically with a fine mesh cloth, almost like cheese cloth in between the layers to allow for the removal and replacement of the jasmine petals. Given the type and grade of tea that the scent is being applied to, the blossoms may be replaced multiple times before the tea is considered complete. On average, it takes about four hours for the jasmine scent to permeate the tea. However, some of the highest grade jasmines may take as long as 12 hours for the scenting application process. The tea is then sent back through the drying process to remove the moisture it absorbed from the jasmine flowers. The second method involves blending together the jasmine petals with the tea and allowing it to sit overnight in a cloth bag to allow the scent to apply. The petals are then removed by hand and the tea is generally rolled into tiny balls, or pearls. Some of those pearls may still have a jasmine petal in them that you will not see until it is brewed and the pearl opens into a full leaf.

Jasmine Tea - Scented Green Tea and Liquor

Jasmine Dragon Tears – Scented Green Tea

Enjoying Jasmine Tea

Like all green teas, Jasmine Green Tea or Jasmine Dragon Tears are best brewed at water temperatures between 170-185° Fahrenheit for 3-5 minutes. A high quality jasmine tea can be steeped at least twice before losing its fragrant nose. If you haven’t had a Jasmine tea before, it is a light refreshing tea made with considerable care.

Puerh – Raw ‘Sheng Cha’ vs Cooked ‘Shu Cha’

Leave a reply
Puerh Tea Cake

Raw Puerh Cake from CNNP

We’ve written before about puerh and dark teas. This style of teas are the only ones which are truly fermented instead of being oxidized like all others. In our earlier post however we just barely scratched the surface so in this post we revisit the topic in a bit more depth. Puerh emerged via a happy accident from the transport of tea along the tea horse road from Yunnan Province to Mongolia where it fermented along the journey and was traded for war horses. Over time demand overwhelmed supply and a method of speeding along production was needed. Thus production shifted to one of two methods; raw or cooked. Both provide a distinct, mellow and earthy taste though they are certainly not the same in taste or cost.

Sheng (Raw) Puerh Cake

2008 Raw Tea Cake (7 years old)

Raw ‘Sheng Cha’ Puerh

Raw puerh is also referred to as sheng or green is produced naturally, allowing the tea to ferment as it ages over many years. Some of the best raw puerh is actually decades old, like a fine wine, getting better with age. Good quality raw puerh, stored well, will steadily increase in value with some fetching tens of thousands of dollars. For some, though very risky, it’s even seen as an investment.

It is produced in slightly different ways depending on the factory producing it and their own closely guarded method. However, the general process is to air dry fresh leaves, process and knead the leaves and sun dry the leaves. Finally, the loose puerh leaf is steamed and placed in a mold for final shaping before going into storage, ideally for 15 to 20 years of aging and fermentation.

Raw puerh cakes generally look a bit more green and the liquor color tends to be quite a bit lighter than that of cooked puerh. As it ages the flavor will develop and mellow.

Cooked ‘Shu Cha’ Puerh

The far more modern development is cooked puerh. Also called shu or ripe, this version is artificially aged in order to produce products in a short period of time and satisfy some of the demand for puerh. Like its raw cousin the factories which produce it each have their own variations, though the process originated in 1973 at Kunming Tea Factory.

Production of cooked puerh is substantially different than for raw. In this case leaves are piled on the factory floor and watered down in a process akin to composting. The specific steps here vary as does the length of time depending on the desired speed of this artificial aging. As a last step, like raw puerh, it is finally steamed and compressed.

Cooked puerh cakes are much darker, with leaf tips having darkened considerably to a golden or brown color. Similarly, the liquor of cooked puerh is a deep red or brown color.

Puerh in All Shapes & Sizes

Just one of the shapes of puerh.

Mini Puerh Bricks – Easy Single Serving

Puerh is available in loose leaf form, though more often it is found compressed into various forms.  Puerh cakes can be quite large, almost the size of a dinner plate or even a discus. While this is a very typical form, it can be compressed into any number of shapes and sizes. For example some puerh is compressed into small squares, enough for one serving and sold in boxes of many squares. Other options include rectangles similar in size to a large candy bar, balls, small birds nest shapes, large balls, coins, and more.

A great place to start is with a small package of cooked puerh. This allows you to dip a toe in the water without waiting years to enjoy your tea and experimenting at a reasonable starting price.

Focus on Nepali Tea

Leave a reply

Our focus at Dominion Tea is on finding great tea from around the world that we can share with our customers. Since our definition of great tea is actually a combination of great quality loose leaf tea, its ties to history and culture, and having a great story, we are thrilled to be offering a number of great Nepali tea products from the rugged landscape of eastern Nepal where farmers work together to share in production and success from specialty loose leaf tea.

Nepali Tea from Ilam District

Napli Tea comes from eastern Nepal at the foothills of Sandakphu peak.

On the way to Sandakphu peak. By flickr user meghma. CC BY-SA-2.0

As we’ve mentioned before in our post on the history of Nepal tea the country has a significant lack of infrastructure and getting products out of the country can be quite difficult. The Ilam District of Nepal, which has emerged as the major tea producing region of the country, is located 350 miles from Kathmandu. However, travel to Ilam averages 18 hours. Compare this to a trip of similar distance from Washington, DC to Hartford, CT which would take closer to six hours and one can imagine just how difficult travel can be in the country. Despite the difficulties, or perhaps because of the relative closeness to Darjeeling India, which is about 45 miles away, the Nepali government has focused on developing the tea industry in this region.

The Ilam region is dominated by  Buddhism and Hinduism and lies in the shadow of Sandakphu peak. The area is very rugged and a favorite of hikers and trekkers from around the world. In the Nepalese language, Sandakphu is a place for monks to meditate. It is the highest habitable point near the district of Ilam. The Ilam district is located on the far eastern edge of Nepal, adjoining Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills of India. This area is famous for the Maipokhari Ramsar Site, which is a world heritage site for mountain wetlands and the Maipokhari Holy Shrine. In addition, this tranquil environment has a biodiversity that is highly unique, and is home to many endangered species of wild flora and fauna. The character and flavor profile of Sandakphu produced teas is unique to its bio-diversity, relatively new plants, and its high altitude location.

Nepali Tea Production

The production of Nepali tea products which we selected come from tea gardens located between 6,500 feet and 8,000 feet and above. The location is in the foothills of Sandakphu peak and while it is relatively close to Darjeeling, the tea crafted here provides flavors and character which can be compared to none in the world. It is a unique cooperative tea enterprise and is unlike many others in the industry. In additional to the woman who owns the production facility, local farmers actually own the property, tea plants and are share-owners in the factory. This helps ensure that farmers have a significant stake in the success and, as shareholders, directly benefit from the high quality product. Tea quality starts from the green leaf that is provided to the factory for processing, and since ownership of the garden is at farmers’ level, the farmers commit to grow and harvest only the finest leaf for processing resulting in outstanding product.

Nepali Tea Products

Ruby Oolong Gourmet Tea - A Nepali Tea

Close up of steeped Ruby Oolong tea leaf.

We’ve selected a number of these great teas to offer at Dominion Tea. They run the gamut of white, oolong, black, and green tea. Our Nepali tea offerings include: