Reading of things to go see in Charleston, we found that the only tea plantation in America was nearby. Had to check that out. The Bigelow Tea Company recently bought this farm from an "old hippie" who had been trying to make it profitable. Bigelow has built a new building housing the processing plant with a self-guided tour, viewing windows and a visitor center. We took a tour through the fields and learned some fascinating facts:
The tea bush is a camellia.Some tea plants in Asia are 600 years old.
Tea plants are essentially a series of hedges about a foot apart. It doesn't grow well unless the temperatures are above 100! Loves high temps, high humidity, and moderate rain.
This plantation was originally set up as a research facility in the late 1800's.
Tea is harvested here by a custom-built tractor/mower that runs between the rows and cuts off the top 5" of a hedge row of these plants. In other countries, this is done manually. We were told that the tractor used here replaces about 500 individuals.
This plantation has 21 fields. Each field is cut 8-10 times in the growing season. (That top 5" of the hedge regrows that fast.) This keeps the tractor and the factory processing continually from about April to the end of October.
5000 lbs of clippings become 1000 lbs of tea.
The difference between black, oolong, and green tea is the amount of time spent fermenting (black: 50 minutes, oolong: 15 minutes, green: none).
This farm produces a black tea called " American Classic".
Don't expect to see more tea produced in America -- importing the tea is cheaper, in spite of that tractor replacing 500 workers. The Bigelow folks bought this plantation partly to have at least one American growing/processing facility, and to be able to demonstrate to Americans how it's done.
90% of the tea consumed in SC is iced. And they do drink a lot of it.
Charleston also had a "Boston Tea Party" protest on British taxes, except they kept the tea and used it to raise funds for their Revolutionary War effort.
