Sorwathé

February 1, 2011

Kigali

Tuesday was National Heroes Day (somewhat like our Veteran’s Day) so we all had the day off.  We decided to hire a driver and take a trip north to visit the Sorwathé (Societé Rwandanise pour la production et le commercialisation du Thé) tea factory and tea plantation.  The factory is located about 75Km from Kigali in a small town in the north.  The Sorwathé tea is the only fair trade and grown without pesticides tea in Rwanda.  Both tea and coffee are exported from Rwanda.  Sorwathé produces about 3 million kilos of tea annually which is 15% of all the tea production in Rwanda.

This was my first chance to get out of Kigali to really see the countryside.  The trip started on a paved and potholed highway which, we turned off of after an hour of driving onto a dirt road that wound through fields and fields of tea.  When we arrived at the factory, our driver arranged (in spite of the holiday) for all of us to go on a tour and learn how they produce the tea. First we needed to garb up.

Tea Fields

The latest in tea factory fashion

The tea making process has 7 steps:

1.  La Cuillette (plucking/harvesting) - every ten days the top three leaves of a plant are picked by hand

2.  Le Transport (transport) - baskets of tea leaves are dropped into a truck and then brought up the mountainside to the factory

3.  Le Fletrissage (withering) - in the factory the tea is laid out and allowed to wither and then it is sorted and a sample is weighed to determine if the tea picked is of sufficient quality to continue with the process

Box for sorting tea

4.  Le Roulage (rolling or twisting in the case of “orthodox” tea) - over many stages machines roll the tea leaves and move it to the machines in which it ferments


Rolling tea

 

Tea as it is rolled and fermented

 5.  La Fermentation (fermentation)

6.  Le Sechage (drying) - huge fires are kept burning from local wood which they cut down and then replant

From tea leaves through the stages to tea

7.  Le Triage et L’emballage (sorting and packing) - tea is sifted and different grades of tea are used for different purposes like medicines or drinking



The train is a mystery since Rwanda does not have a rail system

At the end we went to the tea tasting room and had a chance to buy some of Sorwathé tea.  We tried to walk in the village a bit but the number of children following us (they rarely see Muzungu) and trying to touch Nava and her hair was intimidating so our walk in the country was extremely short. 

As we drove off our driver offered to take us to Ruhengeri/Musanze to see the volcanoes.  We had a lovely late lunch in Ruhengeri as we waited for the clouds to lift but the clouds never lifted so we had no view.  Ruhengeri is both home to the Volcanoes National Park and the start of most gorilla trekking expeditions so I am sure I will return at some point soon.  In spite of the clouds and the rain we had some amazing views of the mountains and hills of Rwanda.