Tea In The Azores

Gratuitous tea plantation selfie

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Chá Gorreana Tea Plantation

 While vacationing on São Miguel Island in the Azores this Summer, I had a chance to visit one of the two organic tea plantations on the island. There are only two tea plantations in all of Europe, and it just so happens that both of them are on São Miguel Island. We visited the Chá Gorreana Tea Plantation as part of our full-day tour of the island with our awesome local Tour Guide Flavio, who was very knowledgeable. At first, I didn't think visiting a tea plantation would be that interesting, but having worked since I was 18 in many different industrial facilities, I became fascinated first with the Marshall factory equipment from the 1840s, and later by the story of tea on the island. I was really excited to see line shaft and belt drive used with the machinery as was used in older paper mills that I worked in that are no more.

The History

​The art of tea cultivation was introduced in the Azores by two Chinese tea experts in September of 1874. The Chá Gorreana Tea Plantation has been in the family for five generations, producing black and green tea since 1883. Family owned and operated since Ermelinda Gago da Câmara and her son José Honorato opened the factory selling the first production of teas under the Gorreana name. As a plantation, factory, and museum it is the ideal place to savour a cup of tea while enjoying the original Marshall machines still in operation at the factory. The scent of fresh tea and surrounding flowers coupled with the breathtaking ocean view and the rich green of the mountains is an authentic paradise as unique as the tea from the plantation.

One View From The Plantation

1840's Marshall's tea machinery

​The Chá Gorreana Tea Plantation is the oldest of only two tea factories remaining in Europe. The other tea factory, which is also in the Northern part of São Miguel Island, is the Porto Formoso Tea Factory. Grown hundreds of miles away from industrial pollution in the lush emerald green hills of the Gorreana estate in the Atlantic island of São Miguel (Azores), both tea factories are 100% organic: totally free from chemicals such as herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and preservatives, because natural tea plagues do not survive on the island's climate. 

Originally from China, and introduced to the West by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, green and black tea were introduced on the island in 1750, brought by ships returning from the Eastern world. Tea production on São Miguel Island reached 62 producers and 16 factories at its peak in the nineteenth century, with only two remaining today.

How It's Made

Tea is made from the dried leaves of the plant “Camellia Sinensis”, a small tree of the Theaceae family. All tea comes from this plant and its hybrids. The difference in teas is based on leaf selection and processing. At Chá Gorreana only the top three leaves of the plant are used in tea production. The machinery grades the tea leaves as they are processed. The top leaf is used to make Orange Pekoe, the second leaf for Pekoe, and the third leaf for Broken Leaf tea. I am an Orange Pekoe tea drinker but did not know that it was made from only the top leaves of the plant.

Interestingly, black and green tea are both from the same plant. The difference is that black tea leaves are exposed to air and thus fermented. Our tour guide explained it this way, think of peeling a banana and leaving it exposed to the air, it blackens. Green tea is not left to ferment and is processed differently than the black tea.

I would recommend a trip to this tea plantation on your list of things to do on São Miguel Island.

Tea was planted in bushes and the top 3 leaves picked by hand before it was planted in rows and harvested with machines. (photo from wall of factory)

Great video below with aerial footage showing the size of the plantation.