The Story of Tea

by Mary Lou Heiss

  Kenya produces black tea almost exclusively; just a very small amount of green tea is made. Because of the warm climate tea bushes flush all year in Kenya; they do not have a dormant period. But the best tea is plucked in the earliest part of the year, from January to early March, and again at the end of June into July. Kenyan tea is cultivated from clonal varieties developed to be pest and disease resistant; consequently pesticides are rarely used.

  CTC Tea Dominates Production. Kenya is the recognized leader in CTC technology and uses its expertise to favorably position Kenyan teas in the world market and consequently in the tea blends of many internationally known tea companies. Nearly all production yields CTC black teas; less than 5 percent of production ends up as orthodox leaf. Kenyan teas are tippy in appearance and strong and full-bodied in style. Most Kenyan tea is sold as bulk, used by tea blenders around the world to add flavor, strength, and vigor in the cup. In fact, their pleasing character accounts for much of the backbone in many popular proprietary tea blends from England, Ireland, and Scotland.

  Smallholder members of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) grow and process more than 60 percent of Kenyan tea. The KTDA markets this tea as one brand, and as a result of the collective efforts of the smallholders, the KTDA functions as the largest producer of tea in the world. The KTDA operates fifty-six tea factories that process the leaf from the farms and gardens of 400,000 smallholders. The tea factories are situated in locations that are central to the surrounding tea gardens. The tea farmers brings their fresh leaf to the weighing center on a daily basis, where the quantity of leaf is credited to their account for future payment. From there the leaf goes to the tea factory, where the lots of tea are graded.

  For many of these farmers tea accounts for 90 percent of their yearly income; additional income is generated from other marketable fruits and vegetables. The remaining tea produced in Kenya is brought to market by large estates that are owned by multinational tea or commodities firms. The Kenya Tea Growers Association promotes the tea grown by these estates. An additional thirty-nine privately owned tea factories process leaf from these estates. James Finlay, Unilever, and Williamson Tea (based in the United Kingdom) and the Kenya-based Eastern Producers are four of the largest tea companies in the country.

  Production figures from 2004 show that the combined efforts of large and small tea growers in Kenya’s thirteen tea-growing districts have paid off: Kenya now ranks third in world tea production (325,000 metric tons) and an impressive first in the world for tea exports (293,000 metric tons). Ironically, tea production is on the rise in Kenya while highland coffee production is on the decline. Value-added incentives, such as Fair Trade certification, organic certification, and the creation of a national brand identity, are being incorporated into promotional efforts to attract consumer attention and command higher prices in the retail marketplace for Kenyan tea.

  The second-largest tea auction house in the world is located in Mombasa, Kenya’s main port town, situated on the Indian Ocean coast. Here, every Tuesday of the year, brokers sell marked lots of tea to importers from all over the world on behalf of the producers. Close to 85 percent of annual tea production in Kenya is sold this way; the remaining tea is either sold privately to tea importers or consumed locally. Kenyan tea is rarely found unblended in the United States, but look for garden marks from these estates: Gathuthi, Githambo, Imenti, Kangaita, Keigoi, Kinoro, Marinyn, Mugania, Mununga, Rukuriri, Theta, and Thumaita.

  TANZANIA

  Tea is among Tanzania’s dominant agricultural products, which also include cloves, cashews, coffee, and maize. Located along the Indian Ocean south of Kenya in East Africa, Tanzania is another relative newcomer to the tea trade. More than fifty thousand families make their living in the tea industry. Tanzania’s tea history began with German settlers, but commercial cultivation did not begin until British interests took over the tea plantations after World War II. From 1934 until 1960 the production of Tanzanian tea tripled. Independence for Tanzania in 1961 brought about a change to the old Tea Board of Tanganyika, now named the Tea Board of Tanzania. Before independence the British estate system of private tea garden ownership was in effect in Tanzania. Large tea estates primarily dominated production, but after 1961 programs were established to encourage the involvement of smallholder tea growers, whose contribution to the total tea production in Tanzania was now strongly encouraged.

  Unfortunately, the situation in Tanzania has not mirrored the success story of Kenya, which is buzzing with worker effort and opportunity. Initially, smallholder involvement contributed as much as 29 percent of tea production up to the 1985–1986 season, but by 1988 it had severely fallen back to just below 5 percent. Reasons for this decline range from farmers not being paid by the government for tea that was previously delivered to crumbling or nonexistent infrastructure. A lack of working roads prevents fresh leaf from reaching the factories in time, and rundown transport equipment and facilities are also in generally poor condition. In the former Tanzanian socialist government incentives for worker productivity did not exist; consequently efficiency was not encouraged or rewarded. This laid-back attitude plagues the tea industry today.

  Matters only became worse from the early 1960s to the early 1970s, when the Tanzanian government began to nationalize most of the tea factories in the private sector. Some tea estates were exempt from this, but two of the largest tea estates were nationalized. The lack of overall infrastructure in Tanzania affected these tea factories and tea estates, as it did the smallholders. Government tea research programs were woefully underfunded and ignored, stalling progress in clonal plant development, effective plant maintenance and pest control, and proper cultivation and soil maintenance techniques.

  Relief came in the way of government reform right before the complete collapse of the tea industry. First, the two nationalized tea estates and four nationalized tea factories were privatized. Now these factories are being renovated and brought back on line from investments that have been made to ensure their future success. The two remaining government-owned tea factories are in the process of being privatized. The government-funded Tea Research Institute of Tanzania, which works in conjunction with tea research institutes of Ngwanzi in the south and Marikitanda in the east, was formed to advance tea production for both the smallholders and the large estates. Since 1995, government funding stopped, however, and today large tea estates are privately funding the work of the Tea Research Institute. Efforts are being made to replant with clonal hybrids developed for each growing region and to educate tea farmers in water and soil conservation as well as the use of fertilizers.

  The Tanzania Smallholder Tea Development Agency was formed in 1997 to promote and develop tea production in the smallholder section of the industry. To date, smallholders contribute about 10 percent to the total tea output per year, significantly less than the output of smallholders in Kenya. Reports from the World Bank are optimistic for this overhaul of the tea industry: production figures of marketable tea rose in Tanzania from 20,000 metric tons in the 1990–91 season to close to 29,482 metric tons in the 2001–02 season. But perhaps more telling than figures of quantity are figures that underscore a directional return to quality for Tanzanian tea. Tea traders working the Mombasa tea auction in 1996 reported that sales of Tanzanian tea sold for the lowest price of any African tea at auction that year. Today the prices have climbed above that of Uganda and Malawi but still below that of Burundi, Rwanda, and top-rated Kenyan highland tea.

  Tea production in the north of Tanzania is centered in the high-plateau regions of the Masai Steppe near Mount Kilimanjaro and the highlands of the Usambara Mountains. In the south tea grows around the Njombe and Mufindi districts of the Iringa region, not too far from the Livingston Mountains that rise up to the Great Rift Valley and Lake Malawi to the south. Most Tanzanian tea is processed by the CTC method and is used to add strength and vigor to tea blends. Look for Tanzanian tea from Ambangulu Estate in Usambara.

  Vietnam: A Mod
ern Tea Industry Begins

  Like Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand, Vietnam has a long history of tea consumption. For centuries village residents have consumed tea brewed from the leaves of indigenous tea trees found growing wild in the jungles of northern Vietnam. This tea is called shan tea and is now recognized as a subclass of tea known as Camellia sinensis var. shan. In the mid-1800s the French were responsible for establishing the first cultivated tea gardens in the north midlands region of Vietnam in Phu Tho, in what was then called French Indochina. From then until 1945 the French established tea research stations in three locations in northern Vietnam; they had 33,000 acres of land under tea cultivation.

  During World War II the tea gardens were abandoned and left to fall into a state of decline. Production reached a near standstill. After the war Vietnam began to rebuild its tea industry from a hodgepodge of assistance and influence from other tea-producing countries. Russian tea-processing technology and Russian tea machinery were used in the mid-1950s for exports of Vietnamese tea to Russia. In the 1980s assistance from Japanese firms helped establish the production of sencha-style green tea, to augment Japan’s growing tea needs. Later, Vietnam turned to India for technical help with black tea production, a style of tea that the green tea–drinking Vietnamese people were not familiar with. Taiwan provided expertise in pouchong-style oolong tea production, much of which is manufactured today in Lam Dong Province in the central highlands.

  In 1986 the Communist Party of Vietnam instituted sweeping economic reforms. Known as “the Renovation,” this was necessary for the tea industry; one outcome was that the government began to transfer landownership to individual farmers. In addition, the Vietnam National Tea Corporation (Vinatea), the government arm in charge of the tea industry, emerged to improve productivity and marketing. Vinatea is the largest tea producer and exporter in Vietnam, and manages more than thirty-four tea factories and six thousand acres of tea gardens, sixty tea producers, and six joint ventures with Belgium, Iraq, Japan, and Taiwan.

  In all, 108,000 acres of tea gardens are under cultivation in Vietnam and 2.5 million people are involved in the tea industry. In the 1990s the government began to privatize a portion of its ownership in the tea factories. This new open-door policy was designed to provide growth opportunities and expansion by attracting joint ventures with foreign partners. But despite twenty years of active restructuring since 1986, this country is still grappling with a struggling socioeconomic situation. The growing pains of modernization are difficult, and results take a long time to be realized, but the benefits are widespread and important. Agriculture adds positively to the national economy and the health and independence of farming communities; tea holds the promise of great potential for Vietnam.

  The Viet Nam Tea Association (VITAS) advises the government and outside investors of necessary tea projects on how to further develop the industry’s infrastructure and productivity of the tea gardens. VITAS also works with issues of quality and high standards and workers’ rights. Through the efforts of VITAS injections of capital and foreign investment from private companies and limited partnerships have allowed tea growers and tea exporters to update to new and efficient processing equipment. This will allow them to keep up with projected increased output from the tea gardens. Dozens of vigorous new tea bush cultivars have been selected from China, India, and Sri Lanka and planted in Vietnam’s existing tea gardens to bolster cropping yields and cupping quality.

  A Vietnamese teapot in the shape of a water buffalo.

  In addition, problems of inconsistent leaf quality are being addressed. Guidelines have been established to help farmers maintain strict quality control and product consistency from year to year. For instance, from north to south, cultivation and harvesting skills are weak; many farmers do not follow standard methods for growing and harvesting tea, and the hand skills that China excels at from centuries of practice are not deeply rooted in Vietnam. Low levels of productivity can often be blamed on former plantings with the wrong choices of tea cultivars for the soil and climate of a specific region, or from tea gardens that have become too old or overexploited and are thus unable to deliver leaf with yield and flavor. Additionlly, Vietnam is subject to problems of prolonged droughts, which lead to decreased production, poor harvests, and inferior quality.

  Until recently, Vietnam did not have a recognizable trademark to identify its tea. The Vietnam Tea Association has created a national brand—Cheviet—that establishes national identity and a guarantee of origin. Now Vietnam’s tea producers and tea exporters will have the value-added strength of national identity to help them compete in the global marketplace. Additional trademark protection is being applied to prevent fraudulent use of the names of Vietnam’s most unique teas—Shan Tuyet, Thai Nguyen, and Lotus tea.

  LOTUS TEA

  Lotus tea is said to combine the essences of the flower, the earth, and the sky. It is extremely delicate and does not lend to export. In fact, lotus tea can be difficult to acquire in Vietnam because of its fragile and ethereal nature. Lotus tea is made from lotus blossoms that are hand-harvested by boat from Hanoi’s West Lake. Only thirty families still make this labor-intensive tea from May to July, prime time for picking lotus blossoms before they open.

  Lotus tea scenting is an art in Vietnam. In the past the flower buds were gently opened and the tea was placed inside the buds at night, when the nectar was fullest. Today, however, expert tea scenters select their favorite varieties of lotus flowers and disassemble the flowers to remove the stamens and the aromatic pollen. Expert scenters use between 1,300 and 1,500 flower blossoms to fragrance just over a kilo (2.2 pounds) of tea. The pollen is applied to the dried tea in several small applications over the course of two weeks. Such exquisite lotus tea, made from Thai Nguyen or shan tea, sells for more than $125 per kilo in Vietnam.

  VIETNAM’S TEA-PRODUCING AREAS

  In 2005 the French Development Agency and Vietnam’s finance ministry signed a deal for an 8.5-million-euro credit agreement to fund a project for tea development in the Phu Tho Province. This money will allow new farmers to begin cultivating tea and for the Phu Tho authorities to expand existing tea gardens. Some of the funds will be used to improve the road system in this area, which will facilitate transportation of the tea from garden to market. It is estimated that three thousand families will directly benefit from this loan and program.

  Vietnam’s harvest season runs from April into October. Tea grows in thirty-four provinces spread throughout the north, central, and southern coastal regions. In the mountainous north subtropical weather brings all of the benefits of warm days and cool nights. In the central regions tropical, humid weather brings much needed moisture during the hot summer months. Table 4.5 shows how the regions compare for average annual output of tea, based on production figures.

  Table 4.5. Vietnam’s Annual Tea Production Figures, by Region

  Detailed list to follow

  Region: Northern Uplands and Northern Midlands, including the provinces of Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Quang Ninh, Son La, Thai Nguyen, and Phu Tho

  Percentage of Annual Tea Production: 65 percent

  Region: Red River Delta

  Percentage of Annual Tea Production: 4 percent

  Region: North Center, including Nghe An Province

  Percentage of Annual Tea Production: 2 percent

  Region: Central HIghlands, including Lam Dong Province

  Percentage of Annual Tea Production: 6 percent

  Region: South-Central Coast

  Percentage of Annual Tea Production: 23 percent

  Vietnam produces CTC black tea and some orthodox leaf (60 percent of production), green tea (35 percent of production), jasmine tea, lotus tea, oolong tea, and a specialty highland green tea called Shan Tuyet or Snow Green tea (5 percent of production combined). Shan Tuyet is made from the leaves of indigenous tea trees found in the mountainous provinces in the northern uplands. In these forests the shan tea trees are found in groups of thirty to forty trees t
hat are interspersed in between other types of trees on steep mountain slopes. This region—comprised of Ha Gaing, Lao Cai, Son La, Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, and Yen Bai Provinces—is large and shares a border with China’s Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, locations of other indigenous tea trees. Local varieties of shan trees include green leaf shan (shan la xanh), small leaf shan (shan la nho), yellow leaf shan (shan la vang), and snow shan (tuyet). The Yen Bai Province is home to a region with five-hundred-year-old tea trees that workers must climb up into to gather the leaves.

  The populations of Kinh, Nunh, Giao, and Hmong peoples in these provinces also produce several other unique Vietnamese teas—Bat Tien, Keop Am Tich, and Kim Tuyen tea. Given the geographic location of this region to Myanmar, Laos, and Yunnan, one would expect this region to have a history of making compressed cake teas and other preserved styles of tea. Ha Giang brown tea is a traditional tea made from shan leaf that is quickly dried in a cast-iron pan, hand rubbed to shape the leaves, and then laid in the sun to dry. The finished tea is stuffed into a hollow bamboo tube and set aside to age and mellow.

  VIETNAM’S INCREASED TEA CULTIVATION

  Most Vietnam tea today is mass-produced and not made by village artisans, however. CTC tea production dominates in the world of foreign needs and foreign investments, and that is where Vietnam’s production efforts are being directed. Although the country is embracing modern, high-tech tea production, it also plans to put more emphasis on these high-grown Shan teas from the border region with China for the specialty trade. Today the total amount of land in Vietnam under tea cultivation is 185,000 acres, and projections for 2010 are that this will increase to 222,300 acres. Annual output of tea has risen dramatically, from 40,000 tons in 1985 to 95,000 tons in 2004. The Vietnamese tea industry is poised to become a vital force in world tea commerce. Vietnam is ranked eighth in the world for tea production, with an annual yield of 83,000 metric tons.