Whole leaf · orthodox · African

The good leaf
never left the farm.

Africa grows much of the world's tea. Almost none of it leaves as itself — it's crushed into dust, sold by the kilo at auction, and buried in nameless teabags. The farms were never the problem. The chain was.

Taste the range How the 20% works

The chain, not the farm

Most "African tea" you've had
was never meant to taste of anything.

Picked fast, machine-crushed into dust, blended anonymous, and priced by the kilo. The whole leaf — withered slowly and rolled the orthodox way — could be world-class. It rarely gets the chance, because the auction only pays for volume.

We changed who we buy from, and how much of it comes back.

~6.6% of a normal bar or box reaches the farm gate
20% of every highveld pack goes straight back to the grower

Not a donation. Their share.

We'll show you the receipt.

Twenty percent of revenue — not profit — computed on every pack, paid on a real schedule, and reconciled in public once a year. If we can't trace a euro, we don't claim it. Drag to see how a single pack splits.

highveld · proof of trade Kenya · Tumoi Estate
€12.00
To the farm (20%) €2.40
↳ whole leaf we'd buy anyway €1.50
↳ premium on top — the honest half €0.90
Packaging€1.20
Fulfilment€0.75
Fees€0.48
Telling the story€3.00
Everything else that keeps us going€4.17

vs the ~6.6% the industry sends farmers. 20% is our floor, not our ceiling — we pay at least a living-income price, even when that's more.

The range

Four teas and a flight.
Start where you're curious.

A tight, honest range — enough to learn the leaf, not enough to lose you.

Loose whole-leaf orthodox black tea (placeholder image)
Kenya · Nandi Hills

The Hero

Orthodox black · SFTGFOP1

High-grown, one-bud-and-a-leaf. The "wait — this is African tea?" cup. Malt, stone fruit, a clean finish.

€1250g
Loose whole-leaf Kenyan purple tea (placeholder image)
Kenya · purple

The Surprise

Purple-leaf orthodox

Grown commercially nowhere else on earth. Naturally purple, gently floral, soft tannin. The one nobody's tried.

€1450g
Loose whole-leaf orthodox white tea (placeholder image)
Malawi · Satemwa

The Range-Proof

Orthodox white

Proof that orthodox isn't only black. Delicate, honeyed, barely there — from the only orthodox estate in Malawi.

€1350g
Loose rooibos tea (placeholder image)
South Africa

The Everyday

Rooibos · caffeine-free

The gateway cup, and the one that earns the name. Warm, smooth, no caffeine — good from morning to last thing at night.

€850g
Start here

The Tasting Flight

4 × 15g · guided

The whole story in four small pours, with brewing notes for each. The low-risk way to meet the leaf.

€18flight
Subscription

Any two, monthly

Your choice · cancel anytime

Steady orders mean steady income — farmers hate auction volatility. Subscribing is part of the fair trade, not just a discount.

from €20/mo

Two farms, by name

We'd rather know two farms well
than a continent vaguely.

A tea grower among orthodox tea bushes on Satemwa Estate, Malawi (placeholder image)

Satemwa Estate

Thyolo, Malawi · est. 1923

A third-generation family estate and the only orthodox producer in Malawi — white, green, oolong, dark and black. They've run a direct-trade office in Europe for years, which is part of why we can do this honestly from day one.

Read their story →
A tea grower hand-plucking whole leaf in the Nandi Hills, Kenya (placeholder image)

Tumoi Teas

Nandi Hills, Kenya · ~2,000m

A high-altitude single estate handcrafting orthodox black, green, white, oolong — and the purple tea grown almost nowhere else. One relationship gives us both our hero and our surprise.

Read their story →

Sorwathe (Rwanda) and Emrok (Kenya) join as new-origin drops once the model is proven. We grow by deepening relationships, not by adding logos.

Why highveld

Africa grows much of the world's tea. Almost none of it leaves as itself.

highveld buys the whole leaf — picked, withered and rolled the slow, orthodox way — straight from the people who grow it. We pay a price they can live on, and we send 20% of every pack back to their farm.

Not a donation. Their share. And we'll show you the receipt.

— highveld · high ground, honest trade

We're pouring the first cups soon.

Leave an address and you'll be first to the launch — and first to read the opening Fair Report.