How to Make a Cup of Carmen Pampa Tea

About a month after the tea plants have been cut back by machete the new buds will sprout. This is the time to pick the tea leaves.

Snap off only the top three tender leaves.

Spread the leaves in the air for an hour then crush and tear them.

Squeeze them until the juice drips out

and pack them into balls.


Allow them to ferment

and turn dark overnight.

Then lay them in

the full sun to dry.

Salude!

Local coffee growers make another type of tea called “sultana” from the husks of the coffee bean. After the red shells have been stripped off and the coffee beans sold, the pickers use the dried shells with a little cinnamon and clove to brew their tea.