Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina – Charleston Tea Plantation & American Classic Tea

SCIWAY News: September 2008

South Carolina Tea: Steeped in History

After water, tea is the most popular beverage on Earth. People drink it far and wide, on every continent and in every country, and it's often associated with such exotic locales as China, Kenya, India, and Peru.

Thanks to a small farm on Wadmalaw Island, we can now add South Carolina to that list. The Charleston Tea Plantation, owned in part by the renowned R. C. Bigelow & Company, is the only place in North America that produces black tea commercially.


	TEA PLANTATION SIGN		TEA PLANTATION HARVESTER		TEA PLANTATION FIELD

Tea, South Carolina's official state hospitality beverage, has a long and colorful history in our state. In 1799¹, French botanist André Michaux brought the Camellia sinensis plant to his friend Henry Middleton, future governor and heir to Middleton Plantation in Dorchester County. Tea has since become a relative staple in the Lowcountry, where the soil is sandy, the air is humid, and tropical temperatures prevail.

Of course, this doesn't mean growing tea in these parts has always come easily. Farm after farm collapsed before finally – after nearly two centuries of trial – horticulturalist Mack Flemming and his partner William Hall claimed success with their brand, American Classic. Together the two men took over the former Lipton Research Station on Wadmalaw, cultivating cuttings from plants once grown at Pinehurst Tea Gardens in Summerville.

Interestingly, though Pinehurst ceased operations nearly a century ago and the land has long since been carved into neighborhoods, residents still find tea growing wild in their backyards. Because the plants have acclimated to our climate over time, their cuttings are stronger and more likely to survive than those from imported varieties.

Fleming and Hall split their company several years ago, and Hall, a third-generation tea taster trained in England, approached the Bigelow family to help save the land from developers. Ruth Bigelow's daughter flew down from Connecticut to bid on the plantation at auction, and its future was secured. Today Hall and Bigelow manage the plantation jointly. It is open to visitors, who can view the factory, take a trolley tour of the fields, browse the gift shop, and best of all – sample the tea themselves. After all, tea tastes best when it's fresh, which gives a cup "born and brewed" right here in South Carolina a distinct advantage.

[Editor's note: October is a great month to visit the Charleston Tea Plantation. Butterflies abound along the coast this time of year, and the tea plants attract them by the hundreds with their small white blooms.]

Some sources give 1802 as an alternate date.

View Charleston Tea Plantation Photos | Return to September 2008 SCIWAY News

South Carolina Tea Resources

Complete history of South Carolina Tea Farms - 1799 through present
Charleston Tea Plantation - photos, information, links
– American Classic Tea | Order Online
Tea rooms in South Carolina - phone numbers, addresses, and where possible, websites
Tea: South Carolina's Official State Hospitality Beverage
Nation's Only Working Tea Farm Is Small But Growing - article outlining history and future plans of the Charleston Tea Plantation published in The Post & Courier newspaper - May 2009