Charleston, South Carolina

April 10th  - Thursday - Sunny 77 degrees

Lou and I went through our travel folders that they gave us when we registered here at Charleston Air Force Base and decided that we would visit the Charleston Tea Plantation today.  Little did we know that this was the only tea plantation in the United States.  Neither of us knew exactly how tea really grew, and now we know how it grows, how it is harvested and how it is harvested and packaged and we already knew how it is enjoyed, and we also know why we prefer to drink our with the caffeine in ours.

Our Plantation was located Wadmalaw Island, about 30 miles from our location.  There we observed hundreds of thousands of tea bushes in their fields that are bordered by huge Live Oak trees, in fact they own the second largest Live Oak in the state and host many weddings under the tree.

Fields of tea bushes

They harvest their tea leaves starting in May and ending in October and repeat the harvest every 20 days.  They only harvest the top leaves, using the green monster, the only machine in existence.  Once the leaves are gathered they are loaded into a truck and brought into processing area.  If you want green tea, nothing is done to the leaves, other than cleaning the leaves and drying them and shredding, for Ooling tea, that is Oxidized for five minutes and for black tea, that is oxidized for up to 15 minutes.

All of the leaves are cleaned, dried and debris is removed, prior to packaging.  If flavors are to be added that is done just prior to packaging and the flavor is added to the tea leaves and then left in the barrel for 24 hours  prior to be packaged.
We were taken to their green house where they propagate all of their own seedlings for months prior to planting them all by hand.  They had many that will be planted in October of this year.

Fertilizing the fields

Machine used to harvest the leaves

One of the three irrigation ponds that are used. 

It was a very unique experience, today while we were there the men were in the fields fertilizing.  They do not use any chemicals for insects and all weed control is done by hand.  They have many deer, fox and turkeys on their land; however, the deer to do eat the leaves.

The green house where the new seedlings are started

The gift shoppe was inviting, with samples of all their teas, hot or cold as much as you wanted to drink.  The place was swarming with people, many tour buses; however, each person was made to feel welcomed and invited to partake of the refreshments available.

Lou and I came away saying that we were so glad that we had chosen that as our day’s excursion as it was so interesting.  On our way home we stopped at Red Lobster for dinner, as we had left right after breakfast and had not had lunch.

We do not have internet at our site, so am planning on going to the office to post this.