Ever wondered how we make a cup of truly English tea here at Tregothnan? Recently the Cornwall Channel visited the Estate to capture the whole of our unique tea process – from bush to cup in 80 seconds! Our mission is to educate tea drinkers across the UK and beyond; helping to explain the provenance, time and effort which goes into the process of making our teas truly English.
Tregothnan has long been the subject of many tall tea tales, some even doubting that tea can be grown in the UK at all. This video aims to dispel some of the mysteries surrounding our nation’s number one drink. What is a premium loose leaf tea compared to the ‘dust’ that goes into cheap teabags? What does a tea plantation look like? Does tea really grow in Yorkshire? (no, it doesn’t!) Why is Tregothnan successful and why don’t we grow more of it in the UK?
From plucking in the botanic garden (one of Tregothnan’s many tea gardens) to oxidising the leaves in our drying labs, all of our teas are made with tea homegrown on English soil and blended by our superb tea masters. This video shows the process of making our Single Estate tea, before the leaves are blended with the finest leaves from Assam and Darjeeling.
The Process of Tregothnan’s Truly English Tea
- PLUCK: The flush is plucked by hand by moving along the rows of tea bushes and taking the top two leaves and a bud from each shoot.
- WITHER: Left in a warm, dry area the leaves will become softer and pliable.
- ROLL: A crucial stage of the process, the tea is traditionally rolled by hand in a circular movement. The tea will start to break down and curls into balls.
- OXIDISE: Oxidisation involves spreading the rolled leaves on a flat surface and made sure that they are kept at a controlled temperature. As the natural liquids in the cells interact, the colour will change from green to brown.
- DRY: The final stage is to dry the leaves. The moisture should evaporate to around 5%.
The ‘bush to cup’ process takes 36 hours. In fact, it’s the only tea company from which you can drink a cup of tea just three days after the leaves were growing in the bushes. All processes are entirely chemical free and have been sustainable for over 4,000 years.
To celebrate this ‘Bush to Cup’ video, we are giving away brand new gift box prizes to TWO lucky winners. Each box will contain three loose tea caddies of your choice. Our aim is to send the video around the social media community and educate those who are interested in Tregothnan’s homegrown teas. The competition winners will need to like and share the Facebook video. A winner will be picked at random by our Apprentice Gardener and star of the video, Gemma Boothroyd on the 2nd July 2019.
To watch the ‘Bush to Cup’ video click here -
// to enter the Facebook competition click here to find the competition post. https://www.facebook.com/tregothnan/
