The Charleston Tea Garden is located about twenty miles south of
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
on
Wadmalaw Island
Wadmalaw Island is an island located in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is one of the Sea Islands, a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean.
Geography
Wadmalaw Island is located generally to the southwest o ...
. Owned by the
Bigelow Tea Company
The Bigelow Tea Company (formerly R.C. Bigelow, Inc.) is an American manufacturer of dried teas based in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by Ruth C. Bigelow in 1945, based on a recipe she marketed as "Constant Comment" tea. The company mar ...
, it grows the tea sold under the brand name American Classic Tea and Charleston Tea Garden from the
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
plant. Every year they used to host the First Flush Festival celebrating the beginning of the harvest season.
History
In the late 1700s, French botanist,
André Michaux
André Michaux, also styled Andrew Michaud, (8 March 174611 October 1802) was a French botanist and explorer. He is most noted for his study of North American flora. In addition Michaux collected specimens in England, Spain, France, and even Per ...
, brought the ''
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
'' plant to the United States and gave it to
Henry Middleton
Henry Middleton (1717 – June 13, 1784) was a planter, public official from South Carolina. A member of the colonial legislature, during the American Revolution he attended the First Continental Congress and served as that body's president for ...
. They planted the tea at Middleton’s plantation. The tea seemed to thrive in areas like
Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
and
Georgetown. It took many attempts by multiple companies and individuals to successfully establish a tea company without an early failure. These failures included plantations in
Georgetown,
Greenville, and
Summerville, the longest of which lasted less than twenty years. The Thomas J
Lipton
Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
Company, fearing an inability to import tea due to unrest in tea producing countries and the inability to import Chinese tea, decided to create a research and development center on Wadmalaw Island.
In 1960, they bought the former Pinehurst Tea Plantation in
Summerville and in 1963 they moved out to
Wadmalaw Island
Wadmalaw Island is an island located in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is one of the Sea Islands, a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean.
Geography
Wadmalaw Island is located generally to the southwest o ...
and operated a research station for about twenty-five years.
The Charleston Tea Garden, as it is known today, was established in 1987 when Mack Fleming and William (Bill) Barclay Hall bought the land and the research station from the
Lipton
Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
Company.
Mack Fleming—a horticultural professor at
Trident Technical College
Trident Technical College (TTC) is a public community college with its main campus in Charleston, South Carolina and other campuses throughout Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties. It is part of the South Carolina Technical College System ...
—had been running the garden for the
Lipton
Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
Company and Bill Hall was a third generation tea tester from
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Along with establishing the garden, they created the
American Classic Tea brand. This tea is still grown at the garden as of 2012 and the brand continued even though the Fleming-Hall partnership did not last past 2003.
They had some differences in opinion on how to run the garden and ran into trouble when profit margins began to drop.
The garden was put up for auction at this point, where the R.C.
Bigelow Company in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
bought it for $1.28 million.
Bill Hall joined Bigelow at the garden and keeps it running and growing the tea to sell across the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
The Charleston Tea Garden was opened to locals and tourists to visit and tour the grounds and the factory.
Tea
![CHA-4173](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/CHA-4173.jpg)
The garden uses the
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
plant to produce the black tea. It is a bush that the workers have to keep manicured and in straight rows in order to harvest properly. These bushes grow from clones, not seeds to ensure that every plant grown at the garden is exactly the same to keep the flavor of the tea consistent from season to season.
Mack Fleming, while working for
Lipton
Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
, invented the
Green Giant
Green Giant and Le Sueur (spelled Le Sieur in Canada) are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by B&G Foods. The company's mascot is the Jolly Green Giant.
Company and brand history
The Minnesota Valley Canning Company was founded in ...
—a cross between a
cotton picker
A cotton picker is either a machine that harvests cotton, or a person who picks ripe cotton fibre from the plants. The machine is also referred to as a cotton harvester.
History
In many societies, like America, slave and serf labor was utiliz ...
and
tobacco harvester—which is still used today to harvest the tea leaves.
This machine cuts off the top layer of leaves from the bushes, collects them, and then they are taken to the factory for the rest of the production process. The main point of production is to dry the leaves. The leaves go through a series of drying processes where first they are laid out for twelve to eighteen hours to wither, then the
oxidation
Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...
process for a little under an hour, and finally they are baked to remove the rest of the moisture. The excess sticks and fibers are removed and the tea is packaged. The tea is harvested from May to October.
The garden packages American Classic Tea and Charleston Tea Garden tea. It sells nine different flavors in tea bags or the loose tea form and 5 flavors in ready to drink bottle teas. These flavors include the regular American Classic Tea, Charleston Breakfast, Governor Grey, Plantation Peach, Rockville Raspberry, Carolina Mint, Cinnamon Spice, Island Green Tea, Island Green Tea with Mint.
Wal-Mart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
formerly sold the tea under its
American Choice label,
which has helped the local farm get word out to more consumers. As a small farm, they needed a way to spread their name and make sure the people in the United States knew about their locally grown tea and they hoped consumers would jump on the bandwagon of buying local products.
It helped when the White House discovered the locally grown tea and since 1987, the American Classic Tea brand of the Charleston Tea Garden has been the official tea of the White House.
The Garden
The Charleston Tea Garden is located on
Wadmalaw Island
Wadmalaw Island is an island located in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is one of the Sea Islands, a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean.
Geography
Wadmalaw Island is located generally to the southwest o ...
, outside of
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
and is open to visitors every day of the week. Admission is free and they offer tours, tea tastings, and other amenities.
The factory tour takes visitors inside the factory and covers history, harvesting, and production. The Trolley Tour covers the grounds and the growing of the ''
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
'' plant to produce the tea. The garden also offers a tour guided by Bill Hall, called the Bill Hall Exclusive, which covers every aspect of the garden in more detail. Group tours and school field trips frequent the garden and private events are often held on the grounds. There are multiple spaces for weddings, receptions, and corporate events offered by the garden.
![Charlestontea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Charlestontea.jpg)
Since
Bigelow bought the Charleston Tea Garden, they have been working on updating the machinery, the process, and expanding the grounds as well as production. They planned to have an increase
Camellia sinensis
''Camellia sinensis'' is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves and leaf buds are used to produce the popular beverage, tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (not to ...
plants to help increase production. Drawing on his many years in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
Bill Hall brought in more modern tea manufacturing equipment to update the factory. Another improvement made after Bigelow bought the farm was to upgrade the old irrigation system and install a newer, more-efficient system to help cover all of the 127 acres of tea plants. One of Bigelow’s main goals is to increase production through expansion and efficiency while retaining the charming atmosphere that so many people love to visit.
First Flush Festival
The First Flush Tea Festival was an annual festival hosted by the Charleston Tea Garden marking the start of the tea harvesting season. The name, First Flush, means the new leaves that are beginning to grow on the tea plant bushes that are ready to be harvested for production. The garden served the visitors the first tea produced in the new season for free by allowing them the chance to taste it in hopes of pulling in new customers. The garden also brought in local food vendors to set up booths and local musicians to entertain the crowds. There was always an area for kids as well, including a playground or jump castle. The festival began in 2006 and ended after the ninth annual First Flush Festival.
References
External links
* http://www.charlestonteagarden.com/
{{coord, 32.61972, N, 80.1856, W, display=title
American tea
Tea estates
Agriculture in South Carolina
Plantations in South Carolina
Agriculture in the United States