Effects of production locations and plucking intervals on clonal tea fatty acids levels in the Kenya higlands

Abstract

Tea leaves contain unsaturated fatty acids which are precursors of aroma compounds. Despite uniform plucking practices in Kenya, plain black tea quality varies with locations. Variations in tea aroma and/or precursors with production area have not been established in a single cultivar under same agronomic input at different locations. Trials were conducted in five locations using clone BBK 35, harvested at varying intervals. The fatty acids varied (P ≤ 0.05) with locations and increased (P ≤ 0.05) with long plucking intervals, demonstrating leaf of same standard plucked at varying intervals contains different levels of fatty acids even in one location. The different increase rates in various locations might be in part the reason of the differences in aroma of black tea from different locations even when agronomic inputs are similar. Results demonstrate that harvesting at shorter intervals and developing region-specific plucking policies may improve tea quality.