Zambia a landlocked Southern African country which has very little
population compare to her size, only 11 million. The country's size is
almost like western Europe. A former British colony so tea is part of
their daily life. in 60's the country used to be rich as a major copper
producer and one of the richest African country. When copper price fell
down in the international market the country became one of the poorest
country in the region but still one of the richest country in the world
for her natural beauty. I visited a cooper mine field and found out the
price is again 85% high in the international market for electronic
production boom in China. Zambia is well known for world famous
Victoria Falls, mighty Zambezi river, Bangweulu swamps, Luangwa river
valley and Sir Tomas Livingston's missionary adventure stories. The
country shares it's political border with Democratic Republic of
Congo(my next travel destination), Zimbabwe (the border between Zambia
and Zimbabwe is divided by mighty Zambezi river), Angola and a small
part of Mozambique.

The capital is Lusaka. The local currency is Kwacha ( $1 = 3 Kwacha).
The currency is strong compare to USD and indeed everything is
expensive. Overall Africa is expensive for quality life and travel. As
a former British colony English is widely spoken. Actually, I didn't
meet anyone who didn't know English in Zambia. I was there almost two
and half weeks most of the time spent in the capital city Lusaka for my
job related training but I also spend some quiet, quality time in
Livingstone with tea and enjoyed the peaceful natural scenery of the
Victoria Falls, mighty Zambezi river and the wild life around that
area. I was so thrilled and touched by the beauty of the area which
inspired me to create two new tea blends- a. Victoria Falls blend(
Zambian black tea with a touch of Georgian lightly fired black tea) and
Warrior Zambezi Blend (A blend of medium bodied Bangladeshi SFTGFOP 1
with Zambian black and South African lemon Roiboos).

I have been to couple of tea places in Lusaka. The hotel I stayed "Taj
Pamodji Hotel" serves average quality gunpowder and Darjeeling tea. Taj
hotel is Indian chain hotel, overall the service is average but I
enjoyed South Asian food every single day. Everyday I had tea in their
garden (beautiful set up with Southern African succulents) and met many
interesting business people from different countries, specially Chinese
and Greek. Lusaka has no formal tea houses like we have in the US but
Dilhma (the world famous SriLankan multinational tea company), red rose
dominates the local tea market. A year ago I wrote a post about Zambian
Yatu brand, unfortunately I haven't seen any strong presence. Dilhma
tea brand is the widely available tea in Lusaka. Recently a
SriLankan-Mozambiqan business family start importing Dilhma loose tea
in Mozambique(I will tell you about them some other time). Wherever I
go, I try to collect local arts/crafts and painting and also spend some
time with local artist. In Zambia it was great because everybody speak
English. My driver was very kind who took me many places and introduced
me with many interesting people. His kindness amazed me and his
friendship during my two weeks in Zambia will be always memorable. Day
and night Peter was like a shadow, always tried to make sure I am safe
and getting the best deal. He introduced me with a local cooking club
where I have learned how to cook some African cousins. He also
discovered tea places for me. One of them call Adis decorated
beautifully with African handicrafts and animal horn lamps, Elephant,
Hippo, Warthog ivories, Wooden Masks, Masai sword and shields, Zulu
baskets, animal skin sofa, runner etc. The tea/coffee place just
represent African beauty with a touch of class. Peter was my best buddy
and enjoyed tea with me. I was looking those beautiful Impala, Kudu,
greenbuck horn lamp and chose a table next to them. He advised me to go
to Zimbabwe and Livingstone where they sell this rare goods but legal.
At once I knew my next destination for the weekend. Peter booked my air
ticket, managed another car and driver in the Livingstone and
Zimbabwean side. The Zimbabwean driver was a real cool guy who
appreciate everything about America and movie. According to him America
is the best nation on earth. Everything in America is good to him and
believe America should take over China. Some of his ideas are very
crazy but he reads lot of critical political book and he love spy
thriller movie. CIA is his dream and he is ready to sacrifice himself
for any kind of CIA operation. Crazy guy but a wonderful person who is
very simple and kind. I had to tell him some facts about diplomatic
life. I tried to explain to him movie and real life are not the same. I
think he didn't believe me because he lives in his own dreamy world.
His another dream is to be a driver for a US diplomat and protect his
employer life from a terrorist attack. he saw Patriot Games and Mission
Impossible hundreadtimes and I believe it because when he talk he use
many statement of Harrison Ford and Tom Cruse. I will talk more about
him in my Zimbabwe adventure.

Actually, I don't know where to start and where to end. I am very bad
in writing. Let me try to start something. My tea experiences are
below:

Cafe Time Squa A well decorated Cafe serves good Ceylon with Zambezi
grilled chicken. I spend couple evenings there.

Arab Night Restaurant: A five star quality Pakistani/Afghani
restaurant. I have tried the most spicy spiced tea I have ever had in
my life with Lamb Rogan Josh and Basmati Rice. I went there twice
because it was hard to find table there. I had tea in Karachi and
Islamabad(Pakistan) but I never had this kind of spicy tea. I am
wondering if this somehow infused with some Zambian style or not.

Cafe Addis Ababa: Good place to have Irish style tea. Strong Malawian
and Kenyan tea with cream on top.

Hotel Taj Pamodzi: I had Darjeeling and Chinese Gunpowder tea twice a
day with grilled Ostrich meat, cassava and spiced snacks.

Holiday Inn: I had a good selection of Twining tea- Lapsang Souchong,
English Breakfast blend, Earl Grey there.

The best and regal tea experience was in historic hotel calls The Royal
Livingstone Hotel in Livingston, Zambia. The hotel is very historic,
Safari-Victorian design. The entire hotel is decorated with antique,
animal skin rug, wild animal horn lamp, Victorian style furniture. The
huge hotel lay down on 46 hector natural reserve which fringes the
Zambezi river and overlooks the Victoria Falls. It is a deluxe holiday
hotel who loves to travel with style. I enjoyed wonderful food with
fine selection of wine, cheese and fine Swiss milk chocolate with
liquid Cognac filling. I was there three days and everyday in the
evening I sat on the wooden deck built on the mighty Zambezi river.
Half of the deck is on the ground and half on the river. The deck had
upper and lower level. The lower level almost touches the water which
is little scary. Zambezi river is full of crocodiles and hippos. For
your information, hippo looks very quiet and cute animal but in reality
they are not. Many people die or loose part of their body by hippos in
Africa continent. They have bad temper. Everyday I brewed fine tea and
share with other hotel guests. The deck was always full of people
during sun set because the lay out is perfect for tea and coffee
drinker as well as for cigar lover. The sunset view from the deck was
breathtaking. It was an wonderful experience drinking tea and watching
bunch of hippos or elephants bathing on the other side of the river. I
even saw a leopard came to the bank of the river to drink water. The
river has bunch of small islands where you can fly by a chopper and
have your romantic dinner just next to the Victoria falls. The Falls is
loud, water flowing noise was just classic. The other side is Zimbabwe.
The tea, coffee and cigar bar offers finest quality of crackers and
cheese with tea or coffee. The swimming pool is just next to it. I
enjoyed wonderful foot massage, drinking tea, smoke a fine Cuban
cigar(not illegal in Zambia) and enjoyed the beauty of Zambezi river.
The Victoria Falls indeed the seventh natural wonder in the world. Its
huge and couple km walks. The Falls has a boiling point where all the
water merge and creates huge misty area. They have a iron bridge over
the boiling point where I couldn't see anything except loud noise of
the falls and mist. It was a thrilling experience for me. Before going
there I planed to drink on the boiling point. I took my Starbuck travel
mug which had brewed Bangladeshi black pearl tea. I took out the mug
and drank the whole mug. Drinking a cup of tea just on the boiling
point of the Victoria Falls. My one life time dream was full field that
day about Africa, my other dreams are drink a cup of tea on the snowy
Mount Kilimanjaro and on the heart of Kalahari dessert. The bridge is
long and people try to pass quickly because you can't see anything
except mists around you with roaring noise of the falls. One lady was
passing me and looked at me with surprise and ask- "Are you drinking
here? Are you crazy?" I smiled and whispered in her ear my dream come
true. Definitely she though I was crazy but who cares. Oh, man that was
a cool experience.

Monkey loves tea:

The swimming pool in the Livingston Hotel is huge surrounded by many
African flower plants and Victorian style design. Lots of money hang
around and look for a kind guest who might offers them some fruit kabob
or snacks. I saw one baby monkey was hanging around my arm chair while
I was drinking tea. I took a cup from the table and gave him some tea
with a slice of sandwich. I was surprised to see he or she took the tea
first and drank just like human. The monkey was drinking and looking at
me. I was so touched by his cute look. They have mobile guards who
throw small stone to the monkeys. I was annoyed but the guard told me
most of the guest feel uncomfortable with monkeys. Well, after all I
was in a so called elite place so I had to pay the price for being in a
gentleman hotel. I have been to many safari lodges and usually people
are animal friendly but majority guest in the hotel are senior citizen,
retired gentleman and woman. That was annoying experience for me.
Anyway the bottom line is monkey also love tea and they drink like us.
After all, human being has strong connection with monkey- The red,
green and white wine collection was very impressive from all around the
world. I had a wonderful Pinotage wine in this hotel- full bodied,
round and mouthful taste, slight smoky and fruity taste. You guys will
be surprised to see tea and wine taste shares similar vocab and almost
the same style. I regularly join in wine tasting session in Cape Town
and I love South African wine.

Anyone interested to travel and stay in this place please visit this
web site:

http://www.southtravels.com/africa/z...one/index.html

I truly fallen love with Africa. The colorful culture, kind people,
rich art and music, wild life all attracts me. I know someday I have to
leave Africa and start over my life again in another part of the
continent but Africa will be always in my heart. Specially the rich
culture and wonderful people will always remind me once I was here. I
am a modern gypsy and I have learned to live with it. When the plane
leave the cute Livingston Airport it flew around the Victoria Falls
couple of time to say goodbye. I was sad to leave Livingstone. I will
talk some other time about my Zimbabwe tea experience. Zimbabwe very
rich in soft stone curving and wild life painting. I always separates
politics from culture, people and the religion. That is the only way we
can build understanding between people. After having many warning from
our Embassy folks in Lusaka and other people, I still wanted to visit
Zimbabwe but indeed it was true in some point. I had to go through some
tough experience. I will talk about it in my next tea post "Tea in
Zimbabwe".

Sorry for the long post. I hope you will enjoy it.

Have a wonderful tea day.

Ripon
Mozambique