Ernestea Limited (ST)
Code: ELSP
Entry Date: 06/2022
Contact Person: Box 2768 Nairobi
Email:
Street: Kericho-Kisumu Road Kericho-P.O Box 2768
Nairobi
Kenya
Phone: 0722206155
Fax: 254722206155
Business Days: - Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
Ernestea Ltd is a specialty teas manufacturing enterprise based in Kericho, in South Rift Valley of Kenya. Kenya is the leading exporter of tea in the world and 60% of the tea is grown in South Rift region. The green leaf used to produce Ernestea specialty tea comes from our single garden in Kerich
Ernestea’s story began over 60 years ago. Every school holiday, Ernest Lang’at and his wife, Ludiah, took their nine daughters to their Kaptabeswet village farm in Kericho County, Kenya. For a chance to make a shilling or two, the girls purposefully learned how to plant tea seedlings: perpendicular to the slope, one meter apart. This practice evolved into an annual tradition as, year by year, the farm grew from 48,000 bushes on 12 acres in 1961 to over 80-acres rolling tea gardens today. Ernest, Ludiah and their daughters collected their yield with leaves from neighboring tea gardens to deliver to several factories for processing. Decades later, Ambassador Ernest, along with his nine daughters and their own families, saw an opportunity to go beyond merely delivering raw leaves to factories for mass production to engaging discerning tea drinkers with an authentic tasting product with greater health benefits. The process of producing orthodox and specialty teas involves gently rolling, instead of cutting and crushing, the leaf. The entire production process is carefully monitored to ensure desired taste, appearance, aroma and flavor of the leaves emerge and are preserved. In 2017, Ernestea Limited was licensed by the Tea Board of Kenya as a Cottage Tea Factory to begin the journey of processing its very own tea leaves and those of neighboring gardens.