Cameroon: Ndaware Tea Factory
Ndaware Tea Estate is one of the biggest tea producers in Cameroon, lying in the heart of the massive Djuttitsa Tea Plantation. We got a full tour of the production facilities, a tasting room experience, and the packaging hall. It felt a bit like you travel back in time and the whole factory belong to some period in the middle of the last century – outdated machinery and methods galore. We witnessed all various stages of tea production, including plucking, withering, rolling, fermenting, drying, sorting, tasting, and finally packaging. The tea is flavorful, brisk, and fragrant but not of the finest quality – here mature leaves and even some branches go into the production, resulting in brown color overall. While a legend claims that the Queen of England once tried a cup of Ndaware tea and loved it, the reality is more of a high volume production for the local market and export to Sudan, where the color and strong taste is valued.
