Kenyan Tea
Kenya is the world’s largest exporter of black tea. Internationally renowned for its full-bodied and smooth flavor, Kenyan tea draws its premium quality from the ideal growing conditions found in the lush, rolling highlands of the Aberdare Ranges.
Situated at the base of Mount Kenya, ‘The Aberdares’ is a volcanic range that straddles the Equator. At elevations of 5,000 – 7,000 feet above sea level, the tea growing slopes receive direct exposure to sunlight and ample moisture from water catchments in the area. This combination of high altitude, nutritious soils and steady streams of rainfall and sunshine yields teas that are lively and floral with a markedly smooth character.
The world continues to discover the robust flavors of Kenyan tea and in the United Kingdom, where tea drinking is a staple, almost half of the tea is imported from Kenya.
The Highland Tea Company
The Highland Tea Company, LLC was founded by Watiri and Wanja Michuki, Kenyan mother and daughter, to wholesale and retail Kenyan specialty teas.
Watiri is a member of the small-scale farming community that collectively grows most of Kenya’s tea. She planted the first seedlings on her beautiful 30-acre tea garden (pictured below), which she affectionately called ‘Karurumo’- meaning 'Little Treasure' in the Kikuyu language. In 1991, she incorporated The Highland Tea Company in Kenya with a mission to grow and distribute only the finest premium teas and, in the process, provide her children with a solid education.
After graduating from Columbia Business School in New York in 2002, Wanja established the company's presence in the United States. Watiri and Wanja's dream is to support the economic development of local tea farmers by distributing Kenyan premium teas all over the world.
The Highland Tea Company is also a proud member of the Specialty Tea Institute (STI), a division of the Tea Association of the USA.
