The challenges of growing tea on a small tea garden on Kilimanjaro's slopes

Bente from Tanzanian Kilimanjaro Specialty Tea shares her tea stories with us on a regular basis. Because her tea garden is a small one, she is always on the lookout for more space. “Two years back, we had bought tea from the Usambara Mountains, but had to stop, as the price became too high.”

“Early May this year, we began buying tea leaves from tea gardens in the Usambara Mountains.This is a mountain range not far from us and the only tea growing region near Kilimanjaro. On the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro it is only us with our truly small tea garden, and we have very few chances to expand. Two years back, we had bought tea from the Usambara Mountains, but had to stop, as the price became too high.”

{“total_effects_actions”:0,”total_draw_time”:0,”layers_used”:0,”effects_tried”:0,”total_draw_actions”:0,”total_editor_actions”:{“border”:0,”frame”:0,”mask”:0,”lensflare”:0,”clipart”:0,”text”:0,”square_fit”:0,”shape_mask”:0,”callout”:0},”effects_applied”:0,”uid”:”714DC63A-E295-4812-A06E-CDA3D4F43740_1578654833712″,”width”:1317,”photos_added”:0,”total_effects_time”:0,”tools_used”:{“tilt_shift”:0,”resize”:0,”adjust”:0,”curves”:0,”motion”:0,”perspective”:0,”clone”:0,”crop”:1,”enhance”:0,”selection”:0,”free_crop”:0,”flip_rotate”:0,”shape_crop”:0,”stretch”:0},”source_sid”:”714DC63A-E295-4812-A06E-CDA3D4F43740_1578654834166″,”origin”:”gallery”,”height”:1317,”subsource”:”done_button”,”total_editor_time”:253,”brushes_used”:0}

“Right now we are buying again from smallholders, but we are also looking into buying our own tea garden there. This will be in the next few months hopefully. So for now, we are buying leaf from smallholders, who’s leaf we carry in a car to our tea manufacture in Kilimanjaro and here we are processing it.”

“The taste of these leaves is rich in flavors with a warm mouthfeel and a pleasant texture. Our black tea is velvety and multi layered with a clear and coppery colored cup. The black tea has honey and stone fruit notes. The green tea has a clear cup of fresh green grass and it has a pleasant fruitiness and a buttery mouthfeel. The Oolong has a distinct complexity and a bright coppery cup; a slight maltiness and a refreshing fruitiness rounds up the mellow mouthfeel.”