Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Charleston Tea Plantation



We visited the Charleston tea plantation yesterday, I was very keen to see how tea is grown and it's Americas only tea plantation. South Carolina has a good climate warm, humid with rainfall and the plantation has been growing tea for a number of years in fact the owner is a fourth generation tea tester.



It has been hard to make profit though as harvesting and processing is costly and it closed for a number of years it is now in partnership with bigelo tea, who help with processing and saw it as a great tourist attraction and education opportunity.

We were amazed to learn that a tea plant can live and produce tea for over 600 years! It takes 5-7 years from planting till harvesting.

It's well worth the visit if your in the charleston area you can take an enjoyable trolly tour around the plantation, learning the history and sampling tea.

Some of the plants are over a hundred years old and were brought over from China. As a Brit and avid tea drinker I enjoyed the hot blended black tea but the iced are their number one sellers in the south. The plantation is very creative with their tea once making an iced tea vodka, hand creams with tea and soon shampoo.

6617 Maybank Highway
Wadmalaw Island, SC 29487-7006


20 comments:

  1. How did you make that photo with the rainbows going through your face? I've never seen anything like it before :) Must've been a really sunny day!

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  2. What a sunny day :) I love Charleston. I always wanted to find Tara in Charleston :)

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  3. What great photos! I like the idea of rainbows through my face.

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  4. Sounded like a fun excursion; Love your photos and what an interesting post. I am a tea lover and you have taught me so much i had no idea. Thank you Rebecca.
    Rita

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  5. Haha-so proper British of you to stop at the tea plantation!
    Lovely records of your travels, much enjoyed. Looking to seeing you here in Florida!
    -Doc

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  6. Who knew there was 1 tea plantation? I would think visiting would be really interesting. I love all types of tea, now tea vodka...only in America.

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  7. Will have to put on my must-visit list. Always enjoy reading and seeing how great foods are grown-

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  8. What a fun trip! Had no idea there was only 1 tea plantation!

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  9. Fabulous, Rebecca. I adore Charleston. Such elegance and the plantations are amazing to visit. Their house tours in the spring are an absolute delight. I took 30 women there a couple years ago for that event and we stayed in historic
    Charleston, scattered among their wonderful B &B's. The shopping is super too, as are their wonderful restaurants. I have an old friend who just opened a restaurant there...it's called Carolina's.

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  10. I never know the USA had a tea plantation - now that's an interesting tidbit. Makes sense that it's in the south. Love the photo of the autumn light caressing you!

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  11. So fun...and I love the pictures Rebecca :-)
    Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

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  12. Hi Rebecca. WOW...what a beautiful day and a fun adventure. I LOVE places like that!!! Hope you have a wonderful week. Happy Halloween.

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  13. Looks like you had a wonderful time in the plantation. Nice and sunny there. You looks gorgeous.

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  14. I didn't realize there was a tea plantation in the U.S.! How interesting that must have been to visit. I love tea in the afternoon!

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  15. Wow. I had no idea. 600 years of giving "birth"? Poor tea plants.

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  16. Sounds like a fun excursion especially for a tea lover! Love that picture of you...very cool!

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  17. i never knew that there is only one tea plantation over here. thanks for sharing that or else i would have thought that they are everywhere haha.
    happy halloween!
    malou

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  18. thanks for visiting with me everyone hugs Rebecca

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  19. i love visiting tea plantations too. been to munnar, kerala. its a must visit. looks like you went on a lovely sunny day !

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  20. What a lovely place & interesting post! Heard about this before. I hope to visit someday soon. Thanks for sharing, Rebecca!

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