East African Tea Trade Association organized a Tea Quality & Processing Workshop on the 14th and 16th October, 2010 in Kericho at the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.
The workshop was officially opened by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of EATTA - Mr. Nelson Orgut. The participants had been drawn from Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. The facilitator of this training was be Prof. Martin Obanda a renowned Tea scientist with the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.
The training covered actual training in a tea farm and factory in addition to the following topics among others:
- Proper tea husbandry and cultivation
- The Tea plant, varieties clones, types of processed tea (Green, Black, Oolong, CTC, Orthodox)
- Chemistry of tea leaf
- Effects of black tea chemical and sensory quality
- Climatic conditions, rainfall patterns, geographical production, fertilizer, plucking standards, methods, intervals
- Post harvest leaf handling
- Types of maceration, CTC, LPT, Orthodox, fermentation and effects on chemical and sensory quality of black tea dryin
The training covered various aspects of the chemistry of tea and the different chemical components that make up the different types of tea including the two major types of pigments that make up black tea i.e. “Theaflavin and “Thearubigin”. The training also covered tea husbandry and cultivation as well as the process of plucking and the importance of plucking two leaves and a bud and the different levels of polyphenols and catechins found in the leaves and buds of tea.
During the training there were visits to Kitumbe tea factory run by James Finlay and Kapkatet Tea Factory run by KTDA.