News / Tea

Two tea experts from Portuguese Macau at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta opposite British Hong Kong, started Tea production in the Açores in September 1874.

After only five years of tea production, The New York Times July 27^th 1879 wrote “The first outcome of the tea-growing in the Azores is shown in a sample recently received at the Kew Museum from Senor Jose Do Canto. The sample is of good appearance, the smell is also good; and the flavour of the infusion by no means to be despised.” The tea soon found favour throughout the European Houses of Royalty and heads of state as well as Japanese Royalty.

The growing and production techniques have remained unchanged for over 140 years, after plucking, which occurs between April and September, the fresh leaves are sorted and cleaned. Leaves destined to become green tea are then steamed and then all the leaves undergo a drying stage with the pure Atlantic Ocean air adding a unique fragrance.

The Gorreana Estate was one of the earliest green and black tea producers and has been in continuous production since 1883. These mineral rich Azores Mountains bathed in pure ocean breezes provide the ideal growing conditions for tea production. The unaltered method of growing has meant continuous Organic cultivation before organic even became a ‘thing’.

In 1662, Catherine Braganza of Portugal married King Charles II and brought with her tea to the Royal Court of England, this started a trend, initially taken up by the aristocracy, which has never diminished. The fashion soon spread beyond the elite to the middle classes and was taken up in London Coffee Houses. Although the tea drunk then would be considered undrinkable now, between 1660 and 1689 tea was taxed in liquid form, the whole of the day’s tea would be brewed in the early morning, taxed by a visiting excise officer, and then kept in barrels and reheated as necessary throughout the day. Luckily after 1689 tea was taxed by leaf rather than liquid.

Founded by the Gago da Camara family, Gorreana’s tea estate is the only remaining estate of an original fourteen tea producing estates and has remained family owned and run for five generations, They still use the original ancient techniques passed down generation to generation initiated by the founder of the Promotional Society of Micaelense Agriculture, Jose do Canto, back in 1874. Production of tea in the Azores reached its greatest level in the 1930’s producing well over 700 tons annually, however high costs for labour and electricity saw the eventual diversification into other agricultural products. Luckily in the 1920’s, Gorreana’s Jamie Hintze utilised the stream flowing through the estate to produce electricity, so when electricity prices rocketed throughout Europe, the Gorreana Estate was able to continue by using its very own eco-friendly green energy.

We have selected the Gorreana Orange Pekoe, premium grade black tea, which only uses the first leaf plucking method where only the bud is taken. These hand selected buds have been harvested this way for five generations, a perfect selection for the connoisseur tea drinker who only wants the best. Helen thinks this is a wonderfully delicate, clean tea that is really distinctive, no astringency, pronounced tannins but not even slightly chewy. Helen likes it with milk but I felt it was perfect without. I prepared it with boiling water and steeped for five minutes.

Our other selection is the Encosta de Bruma premium Organic green tea. Encosta de Bruma translates from the Portuguese as ‘Hillside Mist’, and it is these mists that are responsible for the fine growing conditions found on these verdant mountains. Hand plucked these first leaf or more accurately, buds are carefully cleaned and then steamed to stop fermentation. These buds are from the first flush of growth in the spring and are only collected in April or May.

I used hot water at 80^o C and steeped for three and a half minutes. A very tantalising aroma and delicate taste. I could happily drink this as an afternoon tea and I feel this is one of the finest quality green teas we have had for a while.

The Botany of Tea

The plant from which tea comes belongs to the Dicotyledonous class of the Angiosperm, or flowering plants, and is of the flowering plants in the family Theaceae. Two major varieties are grown: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis for Chinese teas, and Camellia sinensis var. assamica for Indian Assam teas.

The name Camellia was named by Carl Linnaeus honoring the Reverend Georg Kamel, a Czech born Jesuit lay brother, pharmacist, and missionary who spent a long time in the Philippines.

Kamel did not discover the tea plant, or indeed any Camellia and Linnaeus didn’t even consider the tea plant a Camellia but actually named it Thea sinensis.

Robert Sweet moved all Thea species into the Camellia genus in 1818, the species name sinensis comes from the Latin for China, the home of the tea plant.

Currently four sub-species of Camellia sinensis are recognised with C. sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica being the two used for tea production. C. sinensis var. pubilimba (from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan) and C. sinensis var. dehungensis (from Yunnan) only occasionally being used locally for making tea.

There are seven main varieties found of Camellia sinensis; Benifuuki, Fushun, Kanayamidori, Meiryoku, Saemidori, Okumidori and Yabukita.

Despite there being a slight downturn in black tea consumption as well as production, India is still the world’s greatest producer of fermented tea. China is still the world’s largest overall producer of tea, green as well as fermented and semi-fermented.

The tea plant was deliberately taken, stolen, from China and after quite a few ‘stumbles’ finally found its feet and took off, enjoying the high altitude and warm but very humid conditions found especially in north-eastern India.

Black tea was the preferred production method by the British population and is usually taken with milk and often sugar. It has been noted that in all the countries the Romans occupied they introduced grapes for producing their national drink and certainly it is true for the British Empire; Kenya tea production ranks world third after India and former Ceylon forth.

Assam is the largest producer and most productive of all the tea growing areas of India followed by Terai, also highly productive per hectare, next comes Kerala still a significantly large growing area. Sikkim and the other North Indian states whilst being slightly more productive than Kerala are only a third in size. Finally Darjeeling, half as big again than all the other North Indian states combined but producing only a quarter the amount per hectare as Sikkim and a fifth of the amount Terai produces. Darjeeling tea gardens rely on high quality production rather than producing quantity.

This has led to a certain amount of adulteration and falsification resulting in worldwide Darjeeling sales exceeding well in excess of 60,000 tonnes compared to the actual production of 18,000 tonnes.