SerendipiTea is proud to include this special tea amongst our offerings. The garden area conditions are excellent for growing tea: hot & humid days, cool evenings, rainy seasons, rich soil, hilly terrain & elevations reaching nearly 6,000 ft. This Green, OP is lovely to see & smell & is smooth in the cup. Enjoy the aroma of the dry leaf which reveals hints of apricot, the steeped leaves which offer notes of steamed greens & faint wisps of tobacco. Then sip a smooth, mildly astringent mellow cup of yellow chiffon-colored tea.

Rukeri Estate is the only tea garden in Rwanda owned by Americans. The Wertheim family purchased the garden in the 1970's & guided its development to great successes. Until 2 years ago the factory produced CTC only, today Rukeri is the first garden in Rwanda to manufacture orthodox Green Tea & the first to become Certified Organic. In addition, their company Sorwathe won the highly coveted Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) in 2012. The ACE is an annual award recognizing U.S.-owned businesses that exhibit exemplary corporate citizenship, promote innovation, and advance democratic principles around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the award & praised the Wertheim family by stating, "Sorwathe is the top single producer of tea in Rwanda. It's an environmental leader, the first tea factory to grow organic product and introduce green technologies like waste recycling. It's a pioneer on workers' rights, campaigning against child labor and becoming the first private company in Rwanda to sign a collective bargaining agreement with its workers. It's also reaching into the local community. After the horrible experience of genocide in 1994, Sorwathe produced and distributed efficient, low-cost stoves throughout the country, even teaching people how to build the stoves themselves so they could earn a little extra income."