|
 Gwada, who travelled 42 kilometres from Nairobi for the experience,
is one of a rapidly growing base of consumers in the East African
nation who are flocking to speciality teas, including purple tea,
due to their health benefits.
"You don't even need to add sugar. Its easily digestible, milder
than black tea," she said.
Kenya is the world's biggest exporter of black tea and the crop is
one of the country's top hard currency earners, along with tourism
and cash sent home by citizens living abroad.
Purple tea, which was developed by Kenyan researchers and released
to farmers in 2011, is part of a slew of new varieties, which the
government says have the potential to cushion farmers from
oversupply of black tea and low prices.
"Purple tea is twice the price of (regular) tea," said Karanja
Kinyanjui, the owner of the farm, which has 20 acres of purple tea
alongside 100 acres of the regular variety.
[to top of second column] |
 Unlike black tea, purple tea is
not fermented in processing, and contains
anthocyanin and other substances which experts
say have health benefits, such as helping with
weight loss.
"(It has) very strong anti-inflammatory
effects," said Samson Kamunya, director of the
state-owned Kenya Tea Research Foundation.
Total production figures for speciality teas
were not immediately available but the leading
producer, KTDA, said in September it was setting
up a specialised factory for the production of
Japanese sencha green tea.
(Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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