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Tea in Malawi: Africa's oldest tea region
"For many residents of Thyolo and Mulanje, tea is more than just agriculture. It determines the working week, the seasons and often the opportunities for families."
In the south of Malawi, between the villages and hills of Thyolo and Mulanje, tea fields have been part of daily life for generations. The climate proved suitable: cool nights, regular rainfall and fertile soils. Since the late nineteenth century, tea has grown into one of the country’s most important agricultural products and provides work and income for thousands of families in the Shire Highlands.
From Ceylon to Malawi
Malawi was the first African country to produce tea commercially, even before Kenya began. The man who made this possible was Henry Brown, a Scottish planter who had lost his coffee crops to disease in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1891 he started afresh in Malawi, this time with tea instead of coffee.
Some tea plants in Thyolo and Mulanje date from this period and are considered the oldest on the continent. Today the sector exports approximately 31,000 tons annually and provides work for around 50,000 people. This makes it one of the largest employers in a country with 19 million inhabitants.
Thyolo and Mulanje
The tea-growing regions lie close together, in the shadow of Mount Mulanje—at 3,000 metres the country’s highest mountain. This massif, locally known as ‘island in the sky’, influences the region’s microclimate. The tea fields run across the hills, interspersed with small settlements and patches of forest.
Between December and March the rainy season brings heat and abundant rainfall. From April to August it is cooler and drier. Then the Chiperoni winds blow cool mist across the hills—the time when the finest orthodox teas are produced. The landscape, the climate and the work of the community are closely intertwined here.
Production methods
In Malawi most tea is processed using the CTC method. This involves machines grinding the leaves into small granules, producing tea destined mainly for blends and everyday consumption. At the same time a smaller but growing segment of orthodox tea is developing. This occurs mainly at estates and small producers who focus on quality and origin. This creates a division in the sector: a large, volume-oriented production and a smaller group of producers focused on craftsmanship and specialty tea.
Although black tea remains the main category, diversity is growing. Some estates produce green and white tea, or lightly oxidized varieties that show more subtle aromas. This development comes mainly from smaller tea gardens that are deliberately moving away from bulk production.
Working in tea
For many residents of Thyolo and Mulanje, tea is more than just agriculture. It determines the working week, the seasons and often the opportunities for families. The sector provides work in plucking, field maintenance and processing. Yet conditions are not equal everywhere. In various regions wages and working conditions are under pressure, while other producers invest in better housing, training and additional income streams for local families.
Adapting to change
The tea fields are interwoven with forest edges, streams and older terraces that remain part of the farming system. Climate change brings longer dry periods and more intense rainfall. Erosion is a growing problem. In parts of Thyolo and Mulanje work is being done on soil restoration and planting trees among the tea bushes to retain water better and make the fields more resilient.
The Tea Research Foundation, established in Mulanje, has spent the past forty years working on cultivars specifically adapted to Malawi’s terroir. These local varieties, high in theanine and catechins, form the basis for experiments with specialty tea and offer resistance to drought and pests. The research is essential—without healthy soil and adapted plants there is no future for tea in Malawi.
Satemwa: an example
In the Thyolo region lies Satemwa Tea Estate, a producer active since 1923 that plays an important role in the development of specialty tea in Malawi. Their work shows how orthodox processing, attention to origin and support for local communities can together give a new direction to the Malawian tea sector.
Read more about Satemwa Tea Estate.
Tea from Malawi in our collection
In the Tea Kulture collection you will find various artisanal teas from Malawi.
Zomba Pearls is a rare white tea where the leaves are hand-rolled into compact pearls—just twenty kilos per year. The infusion has notes of chocolate truffle, sandalwood and champagne, with fresh lemon meringue. Whiskey Tombolombo is a hand-rolled oolong that matures for two to three weeks in used whisky barrels. The result is an infusion with subtle notes of whisky, wood and gentle maltiness. Handmade Treasure is a black tea made from Bvumbwe cultivar leaves that are entirely hand-processed. The flavour recalls honey blossom and Belgian Orangette chocolate, with notes of honey, cocoa and fruit.
Future
The future of tea in Malawi is connected with diversification, quality improvement and a stronger network of small producers. Through better water management, sustainable cultivation methods and a growing demand for tea whose origin you know, there is room for a sector that can become both ecologically and socially stronger. Whether this happens depends not only on Malawi itself, but also on buyers willing to pay for transparency.
