Mfrika

Out of a sudden, when reaching 1500 m altitude, the smooth hills around Lupembe start glowing in a familiar fresh green colour. I didn't expect to find tea here 🥳! On a farm I stop and walk into one of the fields. The friendly farmers are hand-plucking the new harvest right now. They send me to the next village to look out for the factory to inquire more information. I want to buy this tea!

At the Lupembe Tea Factory in Igombola I cause some irritation when driving onto the compound. Nobody is able to deal with my surprising appearance. After hesitations and phone calls, Baraka the young factory manager approaches me. He calls his lady boss for permission and a few minutes later I get a spontaneous tour through the factory which is active in processing the recent harvests. Perfect timing! And what a wonderful smell enters my nose!

Baraka answers my many questions and is eager to show me around. Like the pineapple farmer he is proudly emphasising that this is all organic tea. I learn about the fermentation process which leads to black tea. It is much faster than expected: after breaking the leaves into tiny pieces the tea needs around 2 hours where it turns from juicy green to brown. Afterwards the fermentation is stopped with hot air/steam. In a final step, unwanted fibres are separated and the dry tea is sorted into different grades and qualities. When I ask where to buy this tea, the answer is "Dar es Salaam". But then after another phone call I receive a huge package of yesterday’s production 😃. It is classified PF1 (tiny curled pieces, "Pekoe Fannings 1") which – after some research – is theoretically not considered to be top quality but is very popular around Eastern Afrika. This one is sold within Tanzania and yields an intense brew. (All the tea factories I saw in Kenya in 2021 produced a similar grade.) If a customer demands other grades, the machines can be reconfigured accordingly and off they go with a new production. Enlightening and interesting!

The next day, southwest of Njombe, I will encounter different farms, more industrialized, with tea bushes uniformly cut by machines and no people around. Less sexy.Läs mer