Nandi Hills
A Kenyan highland district north of Kericho, growing at similar elevation and producing a slightly brighter, more aromatic leaf that increasingly goes into orthodox rather than CTC production.
Elevation
Recorded at 1700–2100 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
Year-round plucking on a rainfall calendar, with the quality window in the cold dry months. The Nandi escarpment is high and wet and its tea is picked on the same short round as Kericho's.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How production is organised
A mix of large estates and dense smallholder settlement, which makes the escarpment the clearest place to see the two Kenyan industries side by side on the same soil.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as nandi hills. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Teas this region is known for
- Kenyan purple tea — Light, faintly tart and plum-like, with a pale pinkish-grey liquor that changes colour when acid is added. More interesting as an agricultural development than as a daily drinker.
Other growing regions in Kenya
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this region against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Kericho vs Nandi Hills — Kenya’s two named highland districts, growing at similar elevations near the equator and diverging on what they do with the leaf. Kericho is the centre of the CTC industry; Nandi Hills is where more of the orthodox and speciality output is coming from.