STiR coffee and tea magazine

44 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 3, 2018 (June / July) "After many trials and patience, the Canadians and Kenyans established Kenya's first-ever, small-scale farmer-owned, artisanal tea factory!" according to JustTea, which tells the story on its website. The factory contracted with purple tea farmers in the Nandi Hills to supply tea processed and dispatched to Canada for packaging and mar- keting. From these beginnings Tumoi has become an international bulk tea supplier. Tumoi started with very basic processing units that were fabricated from old metallic equipment and household utensils. "We could hand roll the tea while seated round a table and make probably one kilo and then dry it," said Katah. "We then sent these samples to potential customers who would tell us the taste was not good. So we repeated the process. This to me was our research and development phase," he said. "Throughout the process, I learned more about tea cultivars in Kenya and became skillful at tasting the tea," he added. "Soon one of the Canadian customers said he liked the sample we sent and that set us on the road to making more of it, and of course with the first order we had to look for funds to acquire equipment and replace the fabricated processing system," he said. Katah initially purchased Chinese-made tea processing equipment. The equipment was powered by liquefied petroleum gas with no alternative for other fuels. "We have since ordered new equipment from India, and we believe it will be a big boost, especially after we complete our 2018 expansion," said Katah. During the low season, the staff upgraded the factory to enhance its processing capacity and perfor- mance. The small specialty factory is not only processing unique orthodox purple but also green, oolong, and black artisanal teas on display at tradeshows worldwide includ- ing World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. "Purple tea has become the big story for us," said Jacob Katah, who retired from Eastern Produce Co. Ltd. in 2105 as a senior manager in charge of seven tea factories that served 13 tea estates. He said that after participating at the 2016 and 2017 World Tea Expo in Las Vegas it became apparent the potential for purple tea in the international market is huge because it has less competition than other forms of tea and is saleable. "For Tumoi Teas the purple tea venture came at an opportune time. The factory is able to take up all the purple tea produced in Nandi and Kericho counties and still need more," said Katah. "At our booth during the 2017 World Tea Expo we exhibited purple tea from Kenya, and there was big interest," he said. After attending two World Tea Expos Katah says: "The mission for us now is to be the best source of novelty tea in the world. Tumoi Teas wants to produce world-class shelf-ready products that are in demand globally." It was at the World Tea Expo that Katah was introduced to another Canadian tea buyer, Millennia Tea. "We process tea very much the opposite of what the rest of the world does," explains Tracy Bell, who started Millennia Tea with her husband, Rory Bell. "We take the leaves, and we flash freeze them as quickly as possible," she says. This process is meant to keep intact the biochemical state of the green leaves because the useful oxidants in them "are highest in the hours immediately they are picked," according to Rory Bell. At Tumoi Teas, the green leaf is frozen and shipped to Millenia Tea in Canada for packaging and distribution. Back in Nandi, Katah says the ulti- mate goal for Tumoi Teas is to transform Kenya's tea industry into one that makes outstanding teas. "Let future generations trace this transformation in the country's tea industry to Tumoi Teas," said Boaz. "The plan for Tumoi Teas include be- ing in every tea producing country in Af- rica where we dream of setting up shop to produce the very best tea in that market," he added. Katah says he has a dream. A dream of a story being told about Kenya becom- ing "a country of a thousand teas" and that hopefully, when this story is told, it will be narrated through Tumoi Teas. General manager Boaz Katah demon- strates hand rolling tea. Processing the purple tea in the Tumoi Tea factory panning machine. Examining leaves from one of the farms that supply the Tumoi Tea factory

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