Ketepa tea houses raise competition for local coffee chains

Kenya Tea Packers (Ketepa) is seeking a piece of the emerging restaurant culture action with the opening of specialty tea houses.

Ketepa managing director Albert Otochi said the plan is to position tea as a national beverage.

“For us to compete with coffee we have to invest and market tea as a healthy beverage especially to the millennials who are the biggest targeted consumers,” he said last week.

One tea house located at KTDA Farmers Building on Tom Mboya Street is already up and running while another will be opened next year at the KTDA Koinange Street.

The tea shops will offer customers a wide range of teas and also present them an opportunity to learn new tea making skills.

Mr Otochi said the tea houses will also help increase consumption in the country, which is a small percentage of what the country produces.

37m kilos consumed

“Kenyans only consume 37 million kilogrammes of tea, which is not even 10 per cent of our production, we want to use this window to promote tea especially among the millennials,” he said.

The tea houses will also offer an online e-shop platform to clients in Kenya and across the globe to deliver tea within 72 hours via courier services.

“We have two delivery partners the DHL for global delivery and Posta’s EMS for local delivery in the country,” he said.

Atochi said that the shop will offer an array of tea products other than black tea which Kenya is famously known for.

“We are proud to launch the KETEPA tea shop that will be selling specialty teas plus our traditional black tea. The tea house will offer a great drinking experience to our customers who will enjoy a perfect cup of tea, brewed by professional baristas,” Otochi said.