Teas from around the world

Tea is grown all round the world in regions which enjoy a warm, tropical type climate with good rainfall. For the governments of the producing countries tea is an all-important income on two counts: Firstly, from taxes and duties paid by both growers and buyers. Secondly, as a source of foreign exchange. Britain’s tea is imported mainly from the sub- continents of Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and China.

Tea from East Africa

Being the youngest of the tea producer countries, the East African countries successfully built on other countries’ experiences. The result has been that they have rapidly become a major force amongst the growers producing good quality teas which are very bright and colourful and used extensively for blending purposes throughout the world. The main East African producer country is:—

Tea from Kenya

Kenya, one of the oldest African tea producers. Her tea history dates back to 1903 when C S L Caine — so the story goes — imported tea seeds from India and began to produce quality tea on a ‘tea-farm’ two acres in size. Other experimental farms followed and by 1928 Kenya was sending tea, albeit of modest quantity, for sale at the London auction. From these early beginnings tea production in Kenya expanded rapidly.

It is a very fertile country and its climate is such that tea can be picked all year round. Kenya teas are very bright, colourful with deep briskness and flavour intensity. Their teas have a reddish or coppery tint. The flavour is pleasantly brisk. Kenya tea has now established a recognised place for itself in the ‘speciality tea’ market in Britain.

Tea from China

China was the birthplace of tea. For many hundreds of years its teas were the only ones known throughout the western world and were used extensively in blends. Today, although China still figures as a major producer, she tends to be known for her speciality blends such as Keemun, Lapsang
Souchong, and Oolong tea.

Tea from India

India produces approximately 30 per cent of the world’s tea, with some 400,000 hectares under tea cultivation. Tea is indigenous to the Assam region of India. After one or two false starts the Indian industry grew and tea estates were planted throughout the Indian sub-continent as far apart as Nilgiri in southern India to Darjeeling in the north.

Darjeeling tea production comes from tea estates at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet above sea level on the foothills of the Himalayas. Indian tea is seasonal in the Darjeeling district. The teas grown here are unique and are picked from April through to October. The quality of Darjeeling teas is so fine that they have earned the accolade of ‘Champagne of Teas’.

Sri Lanka

Tea from Sri Lanka falls into three categories; low grown — up to 2,000 feet above sea level; medium grown — between 2,000 and 4,000 feet above sea level; and high grown — teas grown at altitudes of more than 4,000 feet above sea level. Each ‘level’ produces teas with unique characteristics. Low grown teas are produced on estates in the tropical rain forest of the island. Middle grown Ceylon teas are known as mid-country teas and have a good colour and strength. The high grown Ceylon teas are famous for their lightness and flavour.

Tea from Indonesia

Indonesian teas are light and fragrant with bright colouring liquors, which are used mainly for blending purposes.

Tea from Malawi

Malawi was the pioneer of the tea trade in Africa, with its tea-growing dating from the Victorian era. Again it began in a small way in 1878, but from the 1880s commercial tea production was firmly established in Mulanje.

Tanzania

Tea in Tanzania is said to be the legacy of the Germans during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Tanzania was, at th time, a German colony. But the real development of its tea production occurred between the two world wars when the tea estates were founded under British ownership.