Tea in Africa
Tea is not native to Africa, but the continent has become one of the most important tea-growing regions in the world within a little over a century, thanks to climates well suited to the plant across the East African highlands.
Kenya
Kenya is one of the largest tea exporters on earth. Tea was introduced there in the early 20th century during British colonial rule, with commercial planting beginning around 1903. The country's high-altitude regions near the Rift Valley, with fertile volcanic soil and consistent rainfall, proved ideal for the plant. Kenyan tea is grown mostly by smallholder farmers organised through cooperative factories, and the country primarily produces bright, brisk black tea using the CTC (crush, tear, curl) method, which produces small, dense particles well suited to strong, quick-brewing tea: the kind commonly used in tea bags worldwide.
Malawi
Malawi grew the first tea planted in Africa, in the 1870s–1880s, making it the continent's oldest tea industry, centred in the Thyolo and Mulanje districts in the south of the country. Malawi remains a significant producer of black tea, much of it grown on estates dating back to the colonial era.
Rwanda
Rwanda has built a reputation for high-quality tea grown at altitude in its hilly, volcanic terrain, with production expanding significantly since the 1950s and continuing to grow as part of the country's post-1994 economic rebuilding. Rwandan tea, mostly black CTC tea grown by smallholders and cooperatives, is increasingly recognised for its bright, high-grown character.
Rooibos: South Africa's tisane
South Africa's most famous contribution to the world of infused drinks isn't tea at all in the botanical sense: it's rooibos ("red bush"), made from the needle-like leaves of Aspalathus linearis, a shrub that grows almost exclusively in South Africa's Cederberg region. Naturally caffeine-free, rooibos is traditionally fermented (oxidised) to develop its characteristic reddish colour and sweet, slightly nutty flavour; an unfermented "green rooibos" is also produced, with a lighter, grassier profile.
Elsewhere on the continent
Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi also maintain notable tea industries rooted in the same East African highland belt, while South Africa additionally produces honeybush, a lesser-known relative of rooibos with its own distinct, honey-like sweetness.