Bigelow Tea

If those of us who enjoy tea in the morning tried to buy “locally-grown,” we’d be sorely disappointed. That is, unless we happened to live in the Charleston, South Carolina. That’s where you’ll find the heartland’s only tea plantation.

It’s the only place in America where you’ll see this kind of farming: A harvester cutting leaves that will be made into tea—American Classic Tea. It’s the only cash crop from the Charleston Tea Plantation on rural Wadmalaw Island

Eunice and David Bigelow, owners of the R.C. Bigelow Tea Company, bought this plantation in 2003 from tea expert Bill Hall.  Hall was struggling to keep the financially-troubled farm going and the new investment brought new life to a crop here that dates back to colonial days. The first tea plants were brought from Asia and planted on this land in 1799. But these tea shrubs were used for ornamental landscaping as well as providing tea leaves for the tables of the early settlers.

In 1888 the plantation became a leading producer of black tea. Changing times and economics closed the plantation in 1915, but it reopened in 1960 when the Lipton Tea Company decided to begin farming again. By that time it was the only commercial tea plantation in the country. When Hall and a business partner bought it in 1987 they created the American Classic Tea brand.  After selling to the Bigelows, Hall stayed on to run the day to day operation

Bill Hall looks across the fields and points out hundreds of thousands of plant, about 5200 to an acre.  Only the tender top growth of the plants is harvested by mechanical pickers instead of the hand-picking that you find in Asian tea plantations.

Once the leaves are harvested, they’re immediately brought to the factory to be dried, ground and sorted. The leaves are laid out on an oxidation bed where a natural chemical reaction creates the color, body and flavor that is known as black tea. The Tea Association of the USA reports that tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water.

Bill Hall says that tea experts look for a nice black leaf.  That creates the color of the tea and the flavor, “The actual color of the tea should be a nice bright orangey color. And the taste should be brisk and full.

The farm is now open to public tours and there’s a gift shop where you can buy all things, as you might expect, tea related.     

Tea Facts:
Its soil and climate make South Carolina one of the only places to grow tea in America. Americans consume an estimated 50 billion cups of tea a year.  Most of it is iced tea rather then hot. “Earl Grey” is one of the more popular varieties. It’s named after an actual person. Earl Grey served as the prime minister of England under King William the Fourth.