Treasured Tea

A tea gourmand picks up a cup with a shark tooth edge. Swirls some tea in it. Puts in a little milk to test it’s colour. And tastes the brew, every hour. Teas brought to super markets are blends that will ensure consistency of taste. But it is the small holders whose teas change every harvest, along with climatic conditions, that are producing the best quality teas. Tea farms like Kiambethu in Limuru, where just the leaf bud is hand picked, then sent to a factory close by, before it has a chance to start oxidising.

According to Fiona Vernon of Kiambethu Farm, “pluckers tend to go back to the same rows and bushes they picked before - picking them carefully - that means good tea for the factory, farmer and plucker. Tea picking machines are rather like a lawn mower and go across the bush taking more stalk which does not make the best quality tea. The soft bud and first leaf will probably make the best tasting tea. The second leaf does not make a poorer grade, it is just a larger more granular tea that does not brew so strong. The stalks are separated from the leaf and are used for the lower grades of tea.”

Even pruning, which is done harshly every three years after which a bush is put to rest for three months, is better done by hand. Cutting stems at an angle, brings the bush back quicker than a machine’s lopping.

Hospitality has been linked to tea ceremonies in the East where the drink has been revered for the longest time. Tea, the infusion of Camilia sinens which began in China

CLOCKWISE: 100 year old faarmhouse; Vegetable garden at Kiambethu; Kiambethu Tea Farm; highly medicinal piper carpense in indigenous forest; Colobus; Abandoned termite nest in indigenous forest

5000 years ago, was brought to the rest of the world via ancient spice routes and adopted by the British and their colonies. India is now one of the largest producers of tea and it is their Assamese variety that is grown at Kiambethu.

The flavour of tea is affected by soil, altitude and eco system. Kenya’s tea is now distinct from india’s Assam variety, taking on flavours from mineral rich red soils. In some parts of Sri-Lanka and India, a red spider mite attacks tea and it has to be sprayed with neem. Kenya is lucky not to share this problem. The only thing that will kill a bush is a root fungus, then the bush’s long tap root will have to be dug out or burnt to avoid it spreading. We’re told, during our tea tour. As long as the soil is nitrogen rich, Kenyan tea will thrive without any spraying. And due to relatively unchanging seasons, tea here can be picked twice a month all year round. Unlike in it’s original home, where first flush tea is picked after spring.

At Kiambethu, Fiona Vernon’s family have been farming tea for five generations. Before selling it to factories, in the early 1900s, her grandfather, AB McDonell would pluck the tea leaves, air dry them, have them pounded in a hollowed-out tree trunk by two women with synchronised mortars. It would then be sifted and the sun dried tea taken to the Indian bazaar where it was sold by tin cup measures.

Today, other things cloud the tale of tea. Studies on climate change show that some regions where tea has been thriving may not be suitable for Camillia sinens at all in the future. Scientists are now working towards genome editing – identifying genes associated with flavanoid metabolic biosynthesis, which enhance catechin production and terpene enzyme activation and stress tolerance, which are important features for adaptation and flavour. Their hope is to make tea drought resistant in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall.

For now though we’re lucky to experience the hundred year old farm house, an indigenous forest with medicinal plants and a story of the first farmers who brought tea seed from India and turned it into a cash crop in Kenya. Whilst we are learning about tea, there’s a family of colobus monkeys swinging from a tree; they roll onto the roof of the house, watch us and chase each other back and forth.

To book an enjoyable lunch with fresh produce from the farm, tea tasting and tour, visit www. kiambethufarm.com.