RUPI MANGAT: Tracing the fascinating roots of tea in Kenya

“This is where the tea story in Kenya started,” states Fiona Vernon, the granddaughter of Arnold Butler McDonell, a settler who planted the first commercial tea farm in Kenya. Seated in the living room of the gorgeous farmhouse that AB (as Arnold Butler was called) built, I’m enjoying a cup of the tea that Kenya is world-famous for. On a cold chilly morning, it goes down really well.

 AB’s first house was eaten by termites. He built this house that’s surrounded by a beautiful old-world garden with a lush lawn edged by colourful flower beds in the 1930s. Beyond the house, as far as the eye can see, the green tea fields of Limuru can be seen in every direction.

We’re at Kiambethu Tea Farm – a word derived from the local Kikuyu lingo meaning ‘a dancing ground’. In the days of old, dancing was a regular feature for farm workers in the evenings after work, especially when there was something to celebrate.

AB bought 350 acres from the British government in 1904 and set up a farm, but as fate would have it, all the crops he planted – coffee, maize and others – failed to grow. The soil and the 7, 200 altitude were not suitable. However, 14 years later, his saving

grace arrived in the form of a friend who visited him from India and brought him a gift that would turn his fortunes around – tea samplings. AB planted 20 acres of the Camelia sinensis assamica (Assam tea). It thrived, giving him the title of the pioneer tea farmer in Kenya.

In 1926, AB became the first commercial tea producer, not only in Kenya, but the whole of Africa, because in the absence of tea factories, AB had to process the tea on the farm, load it on the train and sell it to traders on Nairobi’s Bazaar Street (now known as Biashara Street).

“Today, Kenya is the biggest exporter of tea in the world,” states Fiona proudly, holding a tea twig in her hand to show how tea pluckers nip the bud – two leaves and a bud from the top of the bush.

“All the tea is plucked by hand, but in parts of western Kenya it is becoming mechanised which compromises the quality of tea,” continues Fiona. Where the human hand plucks only the healthiest leaves, the machine mows the top of the bushes indiscriminately.

It takes only 24 hours from bush to cup, reveals our hostess through a process termed CTC – for crush, tear and curl. CTC, invented by William McKercher in 1930-31, spread rapidly in India and Africa between the 1950s and 1970s and is widely used for processing black tea.

“Tea is like wine. It all depends on the soils,” says the tea girl (I couldn’t help myself). “Limuru’s rich red soils and perfect weather conditions – rain and sun – have produced very good quality tea,” Fiona shares.

AB also pioneered girls’ education in the area, building Limuru Girls High School to cater for his four daughters and the All Saints Cathedral which he designed and built and where Louis Leakey the famous fossil finder is buried with other members of the family.  AB never left Kiambethu and died just two years short of hitting a century. Let’s raise a cuppa to him.

FACTS ABOUT TEA

• The first tea bushes in Kenya were planted in 1903 as ornamental shrubs.

• PF1 is the best quality tea.

• Tea leaves have more caffeine than coffee beans before brewing.

• Black, white and green tea come from the same plant, Camillea sinensis. It’s the oxidation that determines the type.

•  Mombasa hosts the largest black tea auction in the world.

• A tea bush can last 50 to 70 years.

You can take a guided tour of the Kiambethu Tea Farm and enjoy gourmet lunches thereafter at the farmhouse, but you have to book beforehand. Call 0733 769 976 or 0729 290 894 or log on to www.kiambethufarm.com.