Wonder what @teacraft and @filoli.farms would make of this.Nigel, did you hear about them already?
Here’s a country I wouldn’t have “suspected” of planning to grow tea on its lands: Northern Ireland. “Suki Tea” a company out of Belfast, is expecting 2000 tea plants to arrive from Tanzania in May. Planting would begin in 18 months’ time. But will it really only take 5 years until they can start producing their blend? The team is planning to go to Tanzania to learn more about the necessary skills. Nigel I’m sure you would know very well how to go about this.
Jackie – thanks for keeping me up to date! No, I had not seen this news item though I have in the past spoken with Oscar of Suki Tea. And yes, I agree they might need some help. While Northern Ireland has a somewhat sheltered clime it is no way like hot ‘n humid Tanzania – I always import tough-guy teas for cold wet places – I would be putting in plants from Georgia or Turkey or Korea, where the bushes are used to winters with snow and ice and lack of sunshine. With skill it can be done in the time – but most back yard tea enterprises fail because of basic mistakes. Even Ray Fong in San Francisco who knows a thing or three about tea growing killed all but a handful of his nursery plants a year back by assuming that California tap water is the same as Chinese tap water.
Update: I just realized that Suki Tea is on twitter. Saw that they’d followed our Leafbox Tea account. Anyway here’s a link to their website, looks pretty cool.
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