Yesterday afternoon was wonderful. Five of us went to Satemwa Tea Estate and spent the day hiking, gorging on sugar and butter in multiple combinations, and playing Killer Croquet.
An hour outside of Blantyre lies tea country. Satemwa is one of the only tea estates that is open for day visits and overnight stays. Privately owned, it has 890 hectares (2200 acres) of verdant, rolling tea fields. Over the years I have visited over a dozen times. Early on I found the perfect combination of activities for a day trip. At noon, our friends Karen and Peter, and their daughter Mia, headed out with us from rainy Blantyre to the village of Thyolo (inexplicably pronounced “choh-low”), just outside Satemwa. Our destination was Huntingdon House, the estate’s center.
In the 1920s, the Kay family visited Malawi from their native Scotland. They never left. Their house, built in the 1930s is now divided into five huge suites for overnight guests, a beautiful library, and indoor and outdoor dining spaces each seating 12, all set in a magnificent lawn and gardens and surrounded by tea fields. We arrived at 1 p.m. and promptly left for a two hour walk. The iridescent green bushes were backed by the dark clouds of nearby thunderstorms. Though the sky rumbled and threatened, it never rained.
A round three tiered serving platter has huge warm crusty scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam on the bottom tier, four kinds of cookies on the middle tier, and slices of orange-ginger cake with cream cheese icing on top.
We returned to Huntingdon House for High Tea. Supposedly a prequel to dinner, the size of the meal is impressive. On a large rectangular platter are crustless sandwiches, tomato with fresh basil or caramelized onion with cheese. A round three tiered serving platter has huge warm crusty scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam on the bottom tier, four kinds of cookies on the middle tier, and slices of orange-ginger cake with cream cheese icing on top. Accompanying this is four pots of hot tea, each a different variety. We finished it all. Oink.
Post-gluttony, croquet on the manicured lawn is my preferred activity. Since neither Karen nor Peter had played previously, guess who won in a manic sugar high? Yep. My spouse Jones, knowing my Killer Croquet instincts, played with Mia as I danced to my victory.
Drinking tea, originated in China. In the 1600s, the Dutch began exporting it to Europe. It soon became popular. The first tea houses opened in England in the 1650s. When Great Britain colonized the world, it exported the entire British way of life to places like India and Africa. Tea is an important export crop in Malawi. Taxes on it provide a significant percentage of the government’s operating income. The country’s history of tea production dates from 1828 when colonists from Great Britain began planting bushes which eventually grew to large estates. Satemwa is one of the few that remains in private hands.
Our croquet game completed and sugar comas receding, we headed back to Blantyre. As Peter drove, we looked across the rolling tea fields backed by distant mountains. I think we all loved today, immersing ourselves in a bit of history, enjoying our time together, and celebrating the beauty of this small African country.
