Steeped in Tradition: Finding Calm at the Gorreana Tea Plantation in the Azores
After a challenging month, we were looking for a place to go to rest and rejuvenate. A non-stop flight was essential. A place where we could decompress with no responsibilities. We chose the Azores. Not knowing more about these islands other than everyone we had ever met from there were genuine people
An easy flight, quick check in, and I headed to the Tea Plantation. There are so many other extraordinary places but for me to visit where tea grows – I was all in.
The Gorreana Tea Plantation, located on São Miguel Island in the Azores, holds the distinction of being the oldest, and now the only, remaining tea plantation in all of Europe. To walk the hills where the plant grows was where I wanted to start my exploration of the Azores
Tea cultivation began here in the mid-19th century, when the Azorean economy, once dependent on oranges, suffered from crop disease. In 1874, entrepreneurs turned to tea as an alternative, bringing in a Chinese tea master from Macau to teach local farmers how to cultivate, process, and refine Camellia sinensis.
Set amid misty green hills overlooking the Atlantic, Gorreana stands as a living legacy, a reminder that even on a remote Atlantic island, the art of tea found a permanent European home.
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