- 30 views
North America's only tea plantation is located on rural Wadmalaw Island south of Charleston. Owned and operated by the Bigelow Tea Company, its primary product is the America's Classic Tea brand. The staff in the visitor's center are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and always willing to talk.
You can take a trolley tour through the fields for $10. It is kind of bumpy, but if you love tea, you won't want to miss it!
Be on the lookout for the First Flush Festival that takes place in the Spring. This festival celebrates the first tea production of the year, where the first clippings of the new tea buds are harvested from the growth atop the plants. While you're in this area, you should also check out the Angel Oak Tree.
I've enjoyed each of our trips the Charleston Tea Plantation. It is a quiet and laid back place to visit. The staff are friendly and open to conversation. I really recommend the trolley tour of the tea fields. The driver was funny and accommodating to the group, stopping at one point to let us closely look at a tea plant branch. We were told that the first First Flush Festival was an overwhelming success, as it brought thousands of people to the property.
One of the things I enjoy most about the Charleston Tea Plantation is its pastoral setting in the rural Lowcountry. The tea plantation is set in such a quiet and relaxing environment. Be sure to try a free sample as you sit back in a rocking chair on the front porch of their facility. It may sound cliche, but the drive from the city down to Wadmalaw Island is really like a drive back in time. You will not find any strip malls or traffic congestion along the two-lane Maybank Highway here, only small local businesses, farms, and homes in the rural countryside. Just down the road past the tea plantation, you will find the historic city of Rockville, which has some beautiful old homes.
