Tea

England’s first tea plantation is expecting its biggest ever yield after an unusually warm winter.  Cornish estate Tregothnan has enjoyed such success this year that the tea-growers could have started picked the leaves three months early.

Bella Percy-Hughes, who works at the plantation near Truro said the climate had been perfect for growing tea. “We had an extremely warm winter so we could have started plucking in January,” she said. The plantation would normally begin plucking tea leaves in April.

Tregothnan, on the banks of the River Fal, began supplying England’s first and only tea in 2005, although other UK growers have since taken root.

“The air is constantly humid and it’s always warm – we never get frosts here,” Ms Percy-Hughes said.

“It’s warm and wet and those are the conditions that tea absolutely loves.”

Tregothnan produces a host of flavours – from strong breakfast teas akin to a Yorkshire brew to herbal varies – which get their different tastes from the drying methods.

The cool “micro-climate” on the banks of the river Fal mimics the conditions on the foothills of the Himalayas, according to the estate’s owners.

The Tregothnan estate, which has been in the Boscawen family since 1334, was the first place to grown ornamental Camellia plants outdoors 200 years ago. Tea plants, Camellia sinensis, now thrive on the estate.