Country
Cameroon
Cameroon is one of very few tea producers in West and Central Africa, and its two estates sit about as far apart in character as one country allows. Tole grows low on the volcanic flank of Mount Cameroon a few kilometres from Buea. Ndu sits on the Bamenda grassfields at around 2,000 m. Both were laid out by the colonial plantation economy, both were state-run for most of the twentieth century and both are in the Anglophone regions, where the conflict since 2016 has made production irregular.
What grows here
Black tea, at a volume that does not register internationally, almost all of it packed for the domestic and regional market. Tole, near Buea in the Southwest region, is the older planting and the one on volcanic soil at the foot of the mountain. Ndu, in Donga-Mantung in the Northwest, is far higher and cooler. Djuttitsa, around Dschang in the Bamboutos highlands of the West region, is a third and smaller planting and the one outside the Anglophone regions.
The ground
Two very different grounds under one flag, which is the interesting thing about this country. Tole sits low on young volcanic soil on a mountain whose seaward side is one of the wettest places in Africa, so growth is fast and hard. Ndu sits on the grassfield plateau at around 2,000 m, cool enough that growth is slow and the estate sells the leaf as high-altitude tea. Between them they cover most of the range tea can occupy without leaving a single country.
The bushes
Assamica-derived, from Indian seed. The record of the first Tole planting describes light-leafed and dark-leafed Manipuri material set out on an experimental block, which is unusually specific for a place this obscure. Ndu was planted later, reportedly from Tole seed alongside East African stock.
What to look for
Cameroon is barely an export origin, so the practical question is which estate, and Tole and Ndu are not interchangeable: one is low and volcanic, the other high and cool. The more important thing to know is not agronomic. Both lie in the Northwest and Southwest regions, where the conflict since 2016 has closed roads, interrupted plucking and displaced workers, so supply is irregular for reasons that have nothing to do with weather or season. Availability here is not a signal about the crop.
How it got here
Tea was first tried on the slopes of Mount Cameroon in 1928, with a nursery at the botanic garden in Limbe and an experimental block at Tole planted from Indian seed. Labour had to be recruited from the grassfields hundreds of kilometres inland, because there was not enough near the plantation. Tole passed to the state-owned Cameroon Development Corporation in 1947 when the colonial plantations were transferred, and Ndu followed in 1957. Both were sold out of the corporation in 2002, in a privatisation that was opposed in the Anglophone regions at the time and has been contested and investigated since.
Places in Cameroon
Named places inside Cameroon. The ones with a page of their own are links.