Reporters look at the world! Hello everyone, I am Wang Xinjun, a correspondent of the General Taiwan Bureau in Nigeria. Today, I want to talk to you about Kenyan tea.
Located in eastern Africa, Kenya is the third largest tea producer in the world and the largest tea producer in Africa. The tea industry occupies an important place in Kenya's economy, and together with coffee and flowers, it has become the three major foreign exchange-making industries in Kenya. When I first came to Kenya to work, I used to go to the Limouru region of Kiambu County, about 30 kilometers northwest of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Inadvertently, one tea garden after another comes into view, like a green carpet spread on the hills and valleys, and there are scattered tea farmers on the "green carpet" who are bending down to pick tea. Looking around, the view is like a beautiful landscape painting. That time, I was impressed by the picture. Since then, every time I see this scene in the Kenyan countryside, I will stop the car, find the right angle, and record the picturesque green tea garden with my camera.
Kenyan tea farmers picking tea in tea gardens (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
In fact, compared with the hometown of tea in China, Kenya's history of growing tea is not long, from the British Kaina introduced tea plants to Kenya in 1903 to today, in just over a century, Kenya has become the largest tea producer in Africa and the world's largest exporter of black tea. The quality of Kenyan tea is excellent. Thanks to the average annual temperature of 21 °C, abundant sunshine, abundant precipitation, relatively few pests, and altitudes between 1500-2700 meters, as well as slightly acidic volcanic ash soils, Kenya has become an ideal source of high-quality highland tea. Tea plantations are basically distributed on both sides of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, as well as in the southwest immediately south of the equator.
Tea gardens in Kenya along the Great Rift Valley (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
Kenya's tea plants are evergreen all year round, and every June and July, tea farmers pick an average of one round of tea every two or three weeks; In the golden season of tea picking in October every year, it can be picked once every five or six days. When picking tea, some tea farmers use a cloth strip to hang the tea basket on their foreheads and carry it behind them, and gently pick one or two pieces of tender tips at the top of the tea tree and put them into the basket. Usually, every 3.5-4 kg of young leaves can produce a kilogram of golden color and strong aroma of good tea.
Kenyan tea farmers picking tea in tea gardens, seeing reporters taking photos and waving their hands (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
Unique natural conditions give Kenyan black tea a unique taste, the black tea produced here is all red crushed tea, not like Chinese tea can see the leaves, but the smell is as strong and fresh, the soup color is bright red, the taste is mellow, the quality is superior, there is a flavor, even the tea farmers and tea merchants in China, the birthplace of tea, have come many times to learn the scriptures. And black tea seems to be like the character of Kenyans, in the rich taste, mellow and sweet and permeated with a sense of enthusiasm and simplicity.
Kenyans' habit of drinking tea is mainly to drink bag-packed broken tea, but there are also afternoon tea drinkers. The habit of brewing black tea with sugar is common, and places serving tea breaks can often be found in large restaurants and important events. Simple white porcelain cups and trays, delicate stainless steel spoons, bags of black tea, with a small can of hot milk, a small jar of brown sugar, feel free to mix. The general Kenyan people like to boil milk tea to drink, first boil the milk, then add the tea bag to boil, and then filter into the cup, add sugar to drink, the taste is different from the domestic Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places of milk tea is also different.
Kenyans like to drink boiled milk tea (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
In the Swahili language used daily by Kenyans, the pronunciation of "tea" is "chai", which is very similar to the Chinese word for "tea", which shows its origin with the origin of China. At the tea counter of a Kenyan supermarket, there are many bags of local black tea, which is very good and cheap. Every time I returned home during my work in Kenya, black tea was an essential gift for relatives, friends and colleagues.
Kenyans love to drink milk tea (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
Today, although I have been working in Nigeria in West Africa for several years, I still think of Kenyan black tea with a strong and mellow flavor.
Kenya Tea Garden (Photo by Wang Xinjun)
The above is the observation of Wang Xinjun, a correspondent of the General Taiwan Station in Nigeria, on the local area.
The author of this issue of "Reporters From the General Station Looks at the World" is Wang Xinjun, a reporter of the General Station in Nigeria
(From the Voice of China column "Reporters From the General Station Look at the World")
Producer 丨 Zhao Jiuxiao
Reporter 丨 Wang Xinjun
Editor 丨Du Yuting