East of the Rift Valley around Mount Kenya is home to some of the briskest, brightest tea you can get and contributes greatly to our special Yorkshire Tea Recipe. I travelled there with Vincent- Quality manager for the Kenya Tea Development Agency to meet the farmers and the factories responsible for some of the loveliest tea in the world.

Dotting the feet of Mount Kenya are small holder plots growing beautiful lush green tea bushes. The altitude of the average farm here- around 2000m above sea level plays a major role in the characteristics of the tea. The air is crisp and cooler meaning that the tea is here slow-grown, so the lovely enzymes needed for flavour are more concentrated in the young buds that are plucked for tea processing.

There are several tea factories here all producing great tea which each week are competed heavily for in the Mombasa auction and I visited a few to find out what makes this tea so special. Factory managers all told me that ‘you are only as good as your raw material’, meaning that the magic starts before the tea gets near the factory. Now mountainous escarpments, good rainfall and altitude are all contributing factors, but the tea here would not be what it is without the most important ingredient- the farmers.

I visited a buying centre- where farmers from the area bring their leaf to sell to the factories for processing. Each Buying centre is managed by an elected board of members for the zone who are also tea farmers and organised into a chairman, vice chairman, treasurer and secretary. Since one buying centre can represent up to 100 farmers the buying centre board looks after the quality of leaf being plucked, maintenance of the centre, provides farmer support and links communication between factories and farmers. As I walked in the buying centre the smell of sweet green leaf was overwhelming, a real sign of quality and flavour.

It was just before a truck from the factory was due to collect the leaf so the centre was full of lush freshly plucked tea. The buying centre board ensures that there is always a member present at collection to facilitate and check the leaf quality and that most are two leaves and a bud. Sure enough, the leaf coming in is some of the nicest I’ve seen- plucked to perfection. Anything that is not prefect, perhaps has too much stalk or is damaged for example, is discarded before being sent for processing.

It is because of this dedication to quality and high standards in small holder buying centres like this one that enable us to source great tasting quality tea for Yorkshire Tea and to the farmers we are very grateful.

Small Holder Farmers at a buying centre- Mount Kenya