Category Archives: Tea Production

Kenyan Tea Industry

If you are an American, it is highly likely you have consumed Kenyan black tea and not even known it. Unilever, parent company to Lipton, is the largest single tea plantation owner in Kenya. Not to turn my nose up at Lipton, because sometimes that is all you can get your hands on in the country that runs on coffee, but what about the other 40% of tea plantations?

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 industry began in earnest in the 1930’s, almost thirty years after the first tea seeds were planted. There are two main areas in Kenya that produce teas located on the east and west of the Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift Valley is a large trench first described by English explorer, John Walter Gregory, that stretches from Syria down to Mozambique. The rift in Kenya is now called the Gregory rift and lies along the edge of two tectonic plates that were once very active volcanic regions. These now dead volcanoes left a very valuable soil base that allows for agriculture to thrive in Kenya. Thanks in part to that soil, Kenya is now the third largest producer of tea on the globe and the largest exporter in Africa. Over 60% of the tea is grown on small farms and sent to one of 62 licensed manufactures that are overseen by the Kenyan Tea Board.

Kericho Tea Plantation By Victor O’ (Flickr) CC By SA-2.0

These manufacturing facilities are within 50 km (31 miles) of the farms they have an agreement with and the Kenyan Tea Board heavily regulates which manufacturers serve which farmers and only allow for a farm to do business with one manufacturer. The manufacturers combine all the delivered teas to produce their end product. So, unfortunately, if you want a single estate tea from Kenya you have to look to larger growers who also own the manufacturing process.

Even on the larger plantations, most of the tea is harvested by hand with the Kenyan Tea Board promoting the two leaves and a bud standard for plucking. This is not that surprising when put into context around Kenya’s overall economy, which is still very much agrarian. It has introduced a host of challenges for larger companies like Unilever, which faced a strike by its workers in 2007 concerning wages. Much to Unilever’s credit they have been very open with the public on the wages and benefits they provide their workers and how they have worked to improve these.

Tea Field – Kenya, By Shared Interest (Flickr) CC By 2.0

The majority of the Kenyan tea is manufactured using the Crush-Tear-Curl method or CTC. There are some teas produced with the more traditional methods but in much smaller quantities that are harder to find outside of the country. Even with the CTC method, Kenyan black tea carries a strong distinctive taste that holds up to milk and sugar or even just being drunk straight.

Have you had Kenyan tea? What is your favorite?

What Diversity in Tea Means to Your Next Cup – Japanese Green Tea Cultivars

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As we have discussed before, tea originates from the Camellia Sinensis plant. However, just as the leaf size of tea grown in China vary dramatically different from that grown in India, so too does the varieties, or tea cultivars grown in Japan differ. As the tea plant has traveled the globe, countries have invested in the tea industry, developing many different tea cultivars more suited for their part of the world. Tea cultivars are the cultivated variety of a tea plant selected and breed by humans for a very specific set of characteristics like flavor, resistance to pest or diseases, and speed of growth. What that tea cultivar was created for directly impacts the flavor of the final tea product. So why care about these tea cultivars, so long as I get a good cup of teas?

As climate change alters the behavior of the jet stream and therefore our weather patterns, it will affect the quality and quantity of tea being produced. Countries around the global are busy trying to breed a tea plant that can handle longer spells of drought, cold, rain and other weather pattern changes so as to minimize its effects on tea production. So how do these researchers balance the need for a more hearty plant with keeping its signature flavor?

Rows of Trimmed Tea Plants - Tea Cultivars

Tea Plantation Kirishima, By Akuppa John Wigha, CC By 2.0

Over Fifty Tea Cultivars in Japan

Japan, offers an excellent case study of the impact of cultivar diversity in the tea industry. Since the 1970’s, when Japan mechanized its tea harvesting in response for more demand for tea and less labor to harvest it, the country has been a study in both the positive and negative impacts of cultivar development and selection. There are currently fifty-two tea cultivars registered with the country that are part of the commercial tea industry, but that was not always the case. In the 1970’s, the Yabukita cultivar was selected as the best tea cultivar for mechanized harvesting while keeping the flavor that was expected in Sencha tea. Yabukita became the tea plant of choice and rose to be almost 75% of all tea plants used for commercial production (Chika Yagi, 2010).

Having a nearly mono-culture tea industry created two very big problems for Japan. First, there were frequent outbreaks of grey blight and pest infestations that would practically wipe out a single season’s harvest. Then, in years when the crop could be harvested it caused price fluctuations in tea because the entire tea harvest occurred at the same time, glutting the market and dropping prices. The National Institute of Tea Science quickly caught onto these problems and, in the 1980’s, began the development of more tea cultivars with different harvest periods and better pest and disease resistance.

Tea Cultivars Plus Standardized Cupping Methodology

In breeding more tea cultivars, Japan developed a regimented harvesting and simple tasting procedure to ensure flavor was not lost while breeding for other traits. Their steps go so far as to dictate time of day of harvest, number of leaves to harvest, drying time and then cupping instructions. They even require the tasting bench to be placed near a window with diffused morning sunlight to help standardize the evaluation of the color of the dried leaves and brewed liquor during cupping. This attention to the small details around testing for the final product of cultivar allowed the Japanese tea industry to introduce more cultivars with extended harvesting periods, disease and pest tolerance, without losing flavor (Chika Yagi, 2010).

It gives me great hope that as other countries like India and Kenya start their own cultivation of new varieties in response to climate change that they can turn to Japan as a model to follow. Do you see the cultivar that makes your favorite Japanese green tea below?

Five of the Most Widely Used Tea Cultivars in Japan
Tea Cultivar Name:	Yabukita	Okuhikari	Okumidori	Saemidori	Yutakamidori
Spring Harvest Time:	April to mid-May	5 to 6 days later than Yabukita	Later than Yabukita	Earlier than Yabukita	5 days earlier than Yubakita
Cold Resistance:	High	High	High	Low	Medium-High
Pest and Disease Resistance:	Susceptible to anthracnose	Resistant to anthracnose	Slightly susceptible to anthracnose	Resistant to anthracnose	High Resistance to anthracnose
Main Type of Green Created from Cultivar:	Sencha	Sencha/Bancha (higher yielding than Yabukita)	Tencha	Matcha	Gyokuro

Works Cited
Chika Yagi, N. I. (2010, August). Characteristics of Eight Japanese Tea Cultivars. Honolulu: College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Tea Travels: How Does Tea Get to Market?

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As we noted in an earlier blog about where tea is grown, tea comes from a large number of countries around the world, though only a relatively small number including China, India, Japan, and Kenya produce it in large scale. But we were curious, how does the tea actually get into our hands for consumption?

Tea, of course, starts with the plant, Camellia sinensis. Tea plants begin life as cuttings in a nursery before being planted in fields for commercial growing. These fields may be corporately owned or those of smallholders which makeup a substantial, if not the majority of growers around the world. (United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization, 2012). After a flush of new growth appears, pluckers will pick leaves ranging from a bud only to a bud and two or three leaves, collecting the leaves in a basket or other container. While manual labor is used for most plucking, some tea is harvested by mechanical means.

After plucking, tea immediately begins to loose moisture and begin oxidation and must quickly get to a manufacturing plant. So the farm and the manufacturing plant must be close enough to allow raw leaves to be delivered immediately. Farmers rarely own manufacturing facilities themselves, so after tea is picked in the field it is carried to a factory on foot, car, truck, bicycle, or motorcycle depending on what happens to be at hand. This may be done by the farmer or by middlemen who purchase the raw tea leaves and transport it to the factory for processing.

Tea Chests by Flickr user mikecogh, CC BY-SA-2.0

Once at a factory the tea leaves are processed and turned into one of the major types of teas. This may be done using CTC or Orthodox methods, ultimately resulting in a finished tea product that is ready for packaging and sale. At this stage tea is packaged in large containers made of a variety of types including polypropylene, jute (vegetable fiber spun into threads), or paper sacks or in tea chests. Tea chests are made of plywood lined with aluminum foil and parchment paper to ensure they resist absorption of other aromas and, when full, may weigh 75-160 lbs while foil lined tea sacks may weigh 55-130 lbs. (TIS-GDV, 2013)

Depending on country and local arrangement, tea may be sold directly to distributors and wholesalers or may go through auction. There are well established auction houses in Colombo, Mombasa, Calcutta, and cities in other major tea producing countries of the world. In some cases the tea is actually packaged and leaving port before money has traded hands!

Shipping Containers by Flicker user wirralwater, CC BY-2.0

Packaged tea is shipped in a variety of methods although excessive handling is not desired as sacks and chests are easily damaged resulting in loss of the tea within. It is normally placed on pallets and then moved by forklift into a shipping container to be shipped around the world. When it gets to the destination port this container may be emptied and the contents re-shipped, or the container itself may be forwarded on to the end buyer.

Upon reaching the distributor or wholesaler the shipment of tea is then split up, sold in existing packaging, or repackaged into smaller sizes for purchase by retailers and in some cases direct to consumer. At this point some tea may become the base of a blended tea or may remain as is. Finally, the retailer will repackage the finished product into sizes that are manageable for consumers and sold directly or sold to other retailers, tea houses, or hospitality establishments.

Since tea does have a shelf life it is important to get the tea to retailers and consumers quickly. Some aspects of shipping can be done faster, especially with air shipping and consumer purchase direct from the grower. However, these are generally niche solutions with low volume, appropriate for specialty teas and buyers who really know what they want and are willing to deal with some added risk of placing orders with a company overseas.

So where do you buy your tea? Physical tea store, on-line retailer, farmers market, other?

Like what we have to say? Let us know, follow the Dominion Tea blog or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

David @ Dominion Tea

Works Cited

TIS-GDV. (2013). Tea. Retrieved from Transport Information Services – GDV: http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/genuss/tee/tee.htm

United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization. (2012). Contribution of Smallholders to the tea sub-sector and policies required to enhance their livelihood. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Intergovernmental Group on Tea.

Tea Bags vs Tea Leaves Part 2: Orthodox Tea

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Last week we looked at CTC Tea manufacturing. This week look at the other major method of tea production, Orthodox. While the CTC manufacturing process is primarily focused on black tea production, the orthodox manufacturing process is used to produce a much wider variety of teas including white, yellow, and oolong as well as green and black teas. Orthodox tea production varies substantially in the actual steps used but generally features hand rolling of tea or use of a machine which mimics the hand rolling process. It does not seek to cut and tear the tea leaves into small particles used in teabags though smaller pieces can be a byproduct of orthodox production. Production by orthodox methods does not necessarily imply manufacturing by hand and many steps, including rolling can involve the use of machinery. Instead tea produced without a CTC machine is referred to as Orthodox.

After plucking and, depending on desired product, withering of the raw tea leaves, there is an initial firing to halt the oxidation. In the production of green tea one does not want oxidation so leaves are immediately steamed or fired. Black tea, on the other hand is fully oxidized so undergoes withering in order to start the oxidation process. The firing process may be accomplished in a variety of ways. Pan fried oxidation is traditional in China, while steaming is more traditional in Japan, however there are other methods of firing depending on region, and degree of industrialization of the tea manufacturing process.

Hand Rolling Tea by flickr user spinster cardigan, CC BY 2.0

The actual rolling process involves rolling the tea, breaking up the tea to separate the leaves, and rolling again. Very much like kneading dough for bread, this is repeated multiple times depending on the specific variety of tea being produced. Rolling tea causes the cells within the tea to rupture exposing them to air and allowing the liquids or sap within the leaves and stems to be released. This process helps to produce and enhance the flavor of the tea being produced and can take an hour or more when processed by hand.

Dragon Pearls

The liquid within the tea tends to be sticky and as the tea is rolled the leaves will start to stick together. As a result a step often called roll-breaking is required to break up clumps of tea leaves before it is rolled again. Regional differences and qualities of the tea being manufactured will dictate how much the leaf is rolled and special steps necessary to form specific products like Dragon Pearls, Precious Eyebrows, or other shapes. Hand rolling tea is a specialized skill handed down within families and results in unique tea products not found in other parts of the world.

Tea Rolling Table by flickr user oldandsolo, CC BY 2.0

Hand rolling of tea is time consuming and labor intensive with the resulting product more of a work of art. Production of greater quantities of orthodox teas, at lower prices, is sought through the use of rolling machines. These machines consist of a round table with ribs over which the tea is pressed and rolled in an attempt to reproduce the hand rolling process. Factories can scale production of orthodox tea quickly by adding machines rather than relying on artisans who have spent years learning to roll tea.

Orthodox manufacturing can result in a tea product in a variety of grades. Indeed the processing of tea by orthodox methods can result in fine specialty teas of whole or near-whole leaf all the way down through broken leaves as well as fannings and dust. So, just as orthodox does not necessarily imply hand processed vs mechanically processed it also does not necessarily imply crafted artisan tea vs fine grades in tea bags.

At Dominion Tea we are always curious – Do you look at your brewed tea leaves? What do you see? I enjoy finding a bud and two leaves and thinking about how they can stay attached after being rolled.

Happy Holidays!
– David & Hillary

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Tea Bags vs Tea Leaves Part 1: CTC Tea

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There are two basic ways in which tea is manufactured for the global market, CTC and Orthodox. The process results in very different end products serving dramatically different needs. CTC tea manufacturing produces small bits of tea leaves that are typically found in tea bags while orthodox manufacturing provides a product with larger tea leaf parts on up to whole leaf. In Part 1 we will look in more detail at CTC tea manufacturing, the product derived from this method, and the consumer products that result. When we get to Part 2 we will examine Orthodox manufacturing methods and the resulting products.

Tea Processing – Flicker by Swaminthan – CC BY 2.0

CTC Tea Explained

CTC tea is defined as “Crush Tear Curl” and is a manufacturing method developed by William McKercher in 1931. By one account McKercher developed this method as a way of producing greater quantities of black tea using more mature, larger leaves which, when prepared with milk and sugar could appeal to a broader market (Srivastava, 2011). Regardless, CTC manufacturing spread widely between the 1950’s and 1970’s as teabags gained popularity.

CTC machines themselves are made up of large steel cylinders, manufactured with U or V shaped teeth in them, placed tightly together and turning at different rates of speed. After withering, tea is often pre-processed with a rotorvane, a machine that takes tea from a hopper and causes some initial tearing and crushing of the leaf before passing it along to the CTC machines. The tea is then crushed, torn, and twisted in passing between the steel cylinders of the CTC machine before falling onto a conveyor belt and moving along to another set of CTC rollers. This process can be repeated several times depending on the desired size of the finished product before finally moving along to be fired.

CTC Tea by USAGI-WRP CC BY 3.0

Finished product ranges in size substantially but is generally small pieces of tea leaf down to dust particles which are then rolled into small balls or pellets. The goal with CTC is generally a black tea product that oxidizes quickly and can be reliably produced with uniform size. CTC manufacturing really took off with the introduction of tea bags, thus it is not surprising today that the product of CTC manufacture is primarily for this market. Today CTC tea accounts for about 80% of the market for tea and is a significant part of production in most countries of the world. This probably should not be surprising since much of the word drinks black tea and CTC is synonymous with production of most black teas.

CTC Tea and Quality Tea

A quick word on quality. CTC tea is a very different product from that of Orthodox manufactured teas. The focus for CTC is much more on high volume, large scale tea production with faster oxidation of the product, and consistent taste and liquor appearance. The goal is normally consistent product such that buyers know what to expect with every purchase. The goal with Orthodox production is often very different where the aesthetics of the finished product is important, a wider variety of taste and aroma is desired, and in many cases it’s acceptable or desired to have product which varies from season to season. Therefore, it would really be unfair to hold Orthodox tea products up as “higher quality”. It’s more a question of what the buyer is looking for and if they wish to have greater opportunities to explore variations in tea or if they are just looking for a consistent cup of tea each and every day.

What is your preference, CTC, Orthodox, or does it matter as long as it tastes good?

Follow me @DominionTea or @DavidSColey

Works Cited

Srivastava, D. (2011, September 23). Methods of Basic Research: Issues of Ethics and Plagiarism, http://www.vecc.gov.in/colloquium/dks_lecture.pdf. Kolkata, India.