For Tea Lovers, Locations That Hit the Spot

From area to cup, the world of tea is each pleasant and scrumptious. That is very true whenever you go to areas of the world the place tea is freshly grown, cultivated, and traded. You’ll be able to positively have tons of enjoyable whereas visiting plantations, touring gardens and estates, and sipping your favourite blends at genuine tea homes throughout your travels.

Listed here are just some good locations for these distinctive –and scrumptious — “tea excursions”!

Chengdu is house to a number of delights that embrace pandas, mahjong…and regionally grown tea!
To actually really feel the grime underneath your nails, you’ll have to hit the mountainous areas outdoors of the town. That is the place you’ll discover excursions of locations just like the Mengdingshan Tea Plantation. To take pleasure in a good fancier tea expertise, hit up one of many many tea retailers in Chengdu, which nonetheless cling to their old school traditions regardless of the modernity of the general metropolis. Right here you’ll be able to style every little thing from primary brews like oolong and jasmine to high-end inexperienced teas like zhuyeqing.

With wealthy soil, a temperate local weather, and an altitude of just about 3,500 toes, the grassy inexperienced plateau of Mac Chau is good for rising tea. You’ll have the ability to tour a number of plantations throughout your go to, together with the internationally well-known Moc Chau Tea Plantation. It’s a marvel to even take a look at the tidy, neatly trimmed rows that stretch throughout the fields for miles, however sampling the native fare will likely be even higher. Blends embrace a number of which you can solely discover in Vietnam equivalent to “Shan Tuyet” inexperienced tea!

Do you know that you’ll find Lipton tea midway the world over? Simply go to the Dambatenne Tea Factory, established by Sir Thomas Lipton in 1890. One other attraction for tea lovers is Lipton’s Seat, which gives beautiful panoramic views of the tea fields after an eight-mile hike. You’ll be able to sweat it your self or hop aboard a tuk-tuk for an genuine cultural expertise whereas in Sri Lanka.

The scenic great thing about the Cameron Highlands has lengthy attracted guests for mountaineering, biking, and sightseeing. However tea lovers ought to make word of this beautiful vacation spot as properly. It has two main estates, the Boh Tea Plantation and the Bharat Tea Plantation, the place contemporary leaves are picked day by day. Along with touring the plantations, you may also seize a chew to eat at native tea homes or tour farms and gardens that supply tea-adjacent presents and goodies. A few of these experiences can get fairly luxurious in case you’re seeking to sip in type.

The Azores islands are wealthy with volcanic soil that makes the realm uniquely suited to tea rising. In truth, one of many solely tea plantations in all of Europe is situated in Azores: the Gorreana Tea Factory. You’d assume {that a} continent of tea drinkers can be teeming with plantations, however it’s not. Gorreana is the place to get your caffeine repair, a real once-in-a-lifetime expertise that you just actually can’t get wherever else round in your European journey!

Granada is house to various teterías or tea rooms. In truth, there’s a whole Calle de las Teterías or “Street of Tea Rooms” the place you’ll be able to linger over a cup or two. Most institutions can have an Arabic affect that features darkish teas, hearty snacks, and conventional décor equivalent to Center Jap wall hangings and prayer rugs. You’ll really feel such as you’re in one other world as you sip oriental teas or strive a hookah pipe.

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When you’re a tea connoisseur, you’re most likely already aware of the Darjeeling area. It’s the place Darjeeling tea will get its identify, and as such it’s house to plenty of fascinating tea-related sights. There’s the Glad Valley Tea Property, for instance, the place you’ll be able to pattern the day’s pickings contemporary off the bush. If in case you have time throughout your Indian journey, you may also cease by the Darjeeling Tea Analysis and Growth Centre, which is accessible to tour teams. Final however not least, there are tons of resorts, gardens, and public sale homes the place the good things is on the market.

All Londoners have their favourite teas, however few know in regards to the Tregothnan Estate, a non-public, family-run tea backyard in Cornwall that solely sometimes opens to the general public. You’ll have to make particular preparations if you wish to see it, so hold that in thoughts when you have a London getaway in thoughts.

A better various, after all, could be visiting London’s celebrated tea retailers or climbing on a double-decker bus to take pleasure in a tea and low tour. There are numerous retailers specializing in tea and tea items, together with Fortnum & Mason, purveyors of high-quality reward hampers. They may make nice, fancy souvenirs too!