Blog

It's time for the final stop on our #60days#60partners journey around the tea world : Malawi - a landlocked East African country around half the size of the UK. Currently in the top ten world tea exporters, it was one of the first African countries to market its tea and has been growing commercially since the early 1890s.   .Extract from Tales of the Tea Trade : [....] Tea was first brought to Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) by the gardener to the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland in 1878. These initial attempts failed, but in 1886 seeds sourced from Kew Gardens were successfully...

Emma Mullins - Tea Supply Chain Manager, Fairtrade Foundation Hopefully you have linked to this blog from our #60days#60partners campaign : Malawi blog - if not there is some link text below or you can hop over and read it here >>___________________________________________________________ Extract from#60days#60partners campaign : Malawi  Malawian tea is a key origin in many British blends.  Known to blenders for its brisk flavour and quick colouring the lack of transparency in cheaper commodity teas means that sadly most of us are ignorant of the contribution of it makes to our daily cup.  Behind these tea leaves that we enjoy is one of the...

Kenya - one of the first countries in Africa to grow tea after the first bushes were introduced in 1903 by the Briton G.W.L. Caine and planted near Limuru in the Kiambu district - admittedly at the time only for ornamental purposes - but a foundation that was built upon when commercial production started in 1924 by Brooke Bond on colonist-occupied farms. The country’s location means few fluctuations in weather and year round tea growth and production.  This combined with the high levels of polythenols in the tea [which creates a bitter taste that repels bugs and eradicates the need for pesticides] has...

After a short break to recover from the book launch we are back to continue our journey around the tea world with our #60partners60days stories.  Our next destination is Taiwan a small mountainous island [located just off the coast of China] with a big presence in tea.   Over the next few days we will introduce you to a number of the parters we work with and have profiled in our book through our social media #60partners60days stories Rob first visited Taiwan back in October 2013 for a whistle-stop tour of the most famous tea regions, travelling from Taipei down the east coast to, among others, Alishan mountains. "The...

Hi, its Rob here.  I thought it might be interesting to share a number of short blogs from my trip to South Korea - so here goes with day 3.  Any questions please do just get in touch!  Cheers Rob _____________________ Day 3 started with a coffee in a butchers  shop with a restaurant attached. All restaurants have free coffee machines in them, serving paper cups of very sweet, fairly light coffee. This apparently is the most popular type in Korea, and very popular amongst sweet toothed American tourists. This led to a conversation about the fact that Korean students...