A Guide to Kenyan Tea

A Guide To

Kenyan Tea

Kenyan Tea is grown in the highlands and on higher altitude of between 1,500 meters and 2,700 meters above Sea Level. The growing conditions for tea include tropical volcanic red soils and favorable weather patterns such as well-distributed rainfall of between 1200 mm to 1400 mm per annum.

Kenya tea is famous for its quality and safety due to adherence to good agricultural practices (no pesticides or agro-chemicals); good husbandry practices; skillful processing practices (no additives, preservatives or artificial colorings); as well as compliance with environmental and social market requirements (ETP, Fair Trade among others)

KENYAN BLACK CTC TEA

CTC tea actually refers to a method of processing black tea. Named for the process, “crush, tear, curl” (and sometimes called “cut, tear, curl”) in which black tea leaves are run through a series of cylindrical rollers. The rollers have hundreds of sharp teeth that crush, tear, and curl the leaves. The rollers produce small, hard pellets made of tea.

CTC TEA GRADES

ORTHODOX TEAS

Our orthodox teas are Single-origin sourced, so that we can consistently guarantee the quality to our tea tasters. They are all unflavored Loose-leaf teas that are properly graded to industry standards in strict hygienic conditions.

FBOP (Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe)	The Tea presents you with slightly wiry, less twisted broken leaf and consists of few silvery tips too. It quickly brews and has a rich aromatic scent The liquor generally has a reddish color and a mellow flavory taste.
FBOPF (Fine Broken Orange Pekoe Flowery)	This tea presents you with twisted smaller and fairly blacker leaf with coppery bright color. Its flavor is rich and fresh.
FBOPFsp	It has short thin broken leaf and it contains lower amounts of colored tips. This premium grade of tea is considered a specialty tea. once brewed it has a sweet flavor to it.
OPA(Orange Pekoe A)	It consists of slightly larger leaves compared to other Orange Pekoe varieties like OP and OP1. Made of long bold and slightly twisted tea leaves. Its flavor is mild and the liquor is light in color.
OP1 (Orange Pekoe-1)	The leaf of this grade is delicate long and wiry. It contains a light liquor and a flavor of refined taste.
PEKOE	It’s made of young tender tea leaves and buds. This tea has unique appearance similar to Black Peppercorn as leaves of this grade are shorter, curly and not much wiry. Has a light golden reddish color liquor and a delicate taste.
FOP (Flowery Orange Pekoe)	This refers to a very good leaf tea. This indicates that the tea is made from fine plucking with just the right amount of bud and tender leaf tips

SPECIALITY TEAS

Purple Tea

Purple tea is a type of tea derived from the leaves, buds and shoots of a crossbreed variety of the Camellia Sinensis plant.
purple tea plant is purple-red in color and so are its anthocyanins (antioxidants which give rise to the purple color). Anthocyanins are the same compounds found in other purple foods such as raspberries and purple grapes. Purple tea has many health benefits and some people prefer it to green tea due to its appealing taste.

Green Tea

Green tea is a type of tea derived from the leaves, buds and shoots of the Camellia Sinensis plant. Unlike black tea, it is not fermented.
It has gained popularity around the world due to its many health benefits.

White Tea

White Tea is derived from the leaves and buds of the Camellia Sinensis plant. it is mainly processed from the tea buds.
white tea is also the least processed of all types of tea, only undergoing withering and drying after plucking. As a result, it contains much of antioxidants. White tea has a delicate taste.