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Having arrived late into Menglian we rise early the next day to head to the tea cooperative run by Mr Xu. I had last visited here in 2017 and fallen in love with the mission of the team here and of course the quality and profile of the tea The cooperative was founded in 2005 when, in response to a call from the government, Mr Xu and a number of his trusted colleagues from Bao Shan City : Teng Chong, came to this area to start a tea cooperative. Tea was not new to Mr Xu he is a 5th...

Like any good day in china we started with noodles, greens and omelette at a small store on the roadside - very welcome after a long trip which saw us finally arrive in Kunming the evening before.   Felling ready for the day ahead we headed to the tea market to meet with Mr Ni and Mrs Zhao who I had previously visited in 2017 [pictured below - entrance to Kunming Market] We started chatting over our first tea - a sheng puer that they refer to as "old and pollarded" - meaning that back in the 1950s and 60s they...

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...