SC man operates nation's only working tea farm

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SC man operates nation's only working tea farm
June 12, 2009
By ALLYSON BIRD
TheSunNews.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- What is now black tea, after being oxidized and dried, is sorted through a shaker. During the next step in the automated process, the stems will be separated from the leaves. Teamaker Stephen Fernandez oversees the operation.

"Two leaves and a bud," says Bill Hall, no doubt for the umpteenth time, as he plucks a sprig from the edge of the green 127-acre expanse that is the Charleston Tea Plantation.

The idyllic farm, the only one of its kind in the U.S., reopened in 2006 after a four-year hiatus. In 2002, the gift shop doors closed, the visitor tours ceased and American Classic Tea abruptly disappeared from local grocery store shelves.

"We just cut it and left it," Hall remembers.

What happened off the fields during that time involved legal filings, a court-ordered sale of the property and the biggest name in specialty teas. But since then, Hall says, just about everything around here has doubled, from the amount of tea produced to the number of visitors touring the fields.

Asked how this place measures up to other operations around the world, Hall pinches his thumb and forefinger together.

"We're small potatoes," he says. "But we make an excellent tea."

David Bigelow says he sees this place as "a show-and-tell, if you will."

He admits his decision to invest in the Wadmalaw land had little to do with economics.

"The plantation is a real gem and a one of a kind, and we were concerned if we didn't step in that this may become another real estate development, and those precious tea bushes would go away," he said by phone from Connecticut. "That's just irreplaceable."

The 127-acre plantation's harvest season runs from May to October.

The Bigelows built a new factory where visitors can watch tea-making from behind a glass wall as Bigelow and his wife explain the process from three flat-screen televisions overhead. During the May to October harvest, 5,000 pounds of green leaf come in every day to be dried, ground and separated from fiber and stems.

Looking at last year's financial report Bigelow says he hopes, eventually, to break even on the Wadmalaw venture.

The number of visitors to the plantation has doubled each year since the Bigelows became involved. But just as before, tourists can check out the grounds and the factory for free because, as Hall explains, nearly every guest feels obligated to buy some tea.

Though American Classic returned to local grocery store shelves, the flavored varieties, such as Rockville Raspberry and Plantation Peach, only sell in the gift shop and a few other specialty stores within the Carolinas.

The plantation does charge for trolley rides at $10 per guest. Hall found one of his two-vehicle fleet on eBay and bought the second from a Kentucky attraction.

"It says 'Man of War Horse Park,' " he says with a chuckle.

The trolley matches his attitude about the tourism side of the operation.

"Although we're interested in visitors, we don't want to be considered a Middleton, a Drayton," Hall says, referring to two of the storied plantation attractions along S.C. Highway 61. "We're strictly about tea, and we want to show you about tea."

And they want to grow this place at a safe pace. Another 20 to 30 acres remain open for new plants before the farm would have to seek more land elsewhere.

"We have to be aware of how much tea we make," Hall says. Then, without waiting for the question, he adds: "I can't tell you how much. Or I'd have to kill you."