The United States certainly isn’t the first place you’d think of to find good quality tea, but you’d probably be surprised to know that production goes back to 1772, with the first record of tea be- ing grown commercially near Savannah, on Skidaway Island. |
The next record of commercially grown tea was in Greenville, South Carolina in 1848 by Junius Smith, on his plantation, Golden Grove. Smith proved quite successful at growing tea, but unfortunately he was fatally shot five years later in 1853, and his plantation died with him.The next attempt at growing tea commercially was in 1879 in Georgetown, South Carolina where Dr. Alexis Forster planted a new crop on his plantation, Friendfield. Dr. Forster also died prematurely when his buggy flipped while trying to outrun a group of bandits trying to rob him in 1879. A surprising discovery of indigenous tea plants |
the interest of the U.S. Department of Agriculture who planted an experimental tea farm outside Summerville, South Carolina.The program ran for four years, from 1884 to 1888, but a report issued by the Department of Agriculture in 1877, “estimates the minimum cost about eight times as much to pick one pound of tea in South Carolina, as that paid for the same service in Asia.” With the government’s tea farm scraped, the next effort at growing To cover costs for labor, Shepard opened a school, making tea picking part of the curriculum, giv- Pinehurst produced quality teas, including an oolong that won first prize at the St. Louis World’s It’s said the venture failed primarily because of a quarrel In 1963 the Thomas J. Lipton Co., incorporated tea plants from Pine- Called the Charleston Tea Plantation, Fleming and Hall converted a Instant Tea, sold through Sam’s Club, and it was even Bigelow closed the plantation for a short time to renovate, opening again black, green, and oolong teas, and specialty teas.By 2010 several larger Hawaii tea producers showcased their unique, quality teas at the 2010 world buyers. |
There are also new established tea farms in Skagit Valley in Washington state, operated by brothers, Steve and Richard Sakuma, and a tea garden in the mid-stages of preparation near the San Francisco Bay area in California, operated by Ray Fong who also owns a successful retail tea business since 1993 in San Francisco, specializing in high quality Chinese and Taiwanese teas. Enjoy. |