March 23

Gianpierre and Cartas welcome us into their home. Their baby, Brighten, is wriggling around on his mum's lap, desperate to get on the floor and master walking.

The have two sons. The eldest, Happy, was at school the first time we visited - you can see him on the bench in the photo above. Their youngest, Brigthen, is also in the photo, but he's hiding, asleep on his mum’s back (there’s a photo of him below). 

We introduce ourselves and explain we want to bring their tea to the UK.

Then Gianpierre tells us their story.

Gianpierre has been growing tea since 2018 when he bought a small piece of land straight out of school. It was a very small piece - just 0.04 hectares (that's 4% of a football pitch).

He was able to pluck tea leaves from his plants that very first year and make a small profit. So he decided he’d plant more. And in 2019, bought another 0.04 hectares. 

In 2020, he went bigger, with 0.15 hectares.

And then another 0.15 in 2021. 

They now have nearly 4 football pitches worth of tea - with eyes on more! And their earnings from tea have quadrupled since 2018. 

“Everything I have, including this house, I have bought through tea."

Gianpierre and Cartas look after all aspects of tea growing themselves except one - drinking it.

• "How do you drink your tea?" we ask.
• "We don't drink tea" they say. Big grins.
• "But your tea is so good!" we say.
• "We like it sweet " they say, "and sugar is expensive"

They drink banana juice instead.

In Rwanda, tea is a sweet drink.

We tell them we drink our tea without sugar. And that Lou drinks 6 cups a day.
 
Everyone thinks we're mad.

Cartas and baby Brighten

Gianpierre in their tea field which is just behind the house