Chá Gorreana

Today we visited the tea plantation and the museum of Chá Gorreana and tasted tea there. The plantation is open every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. on) and there is no entrance fee.

Gorreana is the oldest surviving tea plantation in Europe and one of only two still operating in the Azores.

Although the Azores were initially famed for growing oranges, blight devastated the orange fields to the point of near-complete destruction by 1864. The farmer José do Canto was the first to import tea, in 1860, as a potential replacement crop. In 1878, the Society for the Promotion of São Miguel Agriculture arranged for two Chinese tea specialists from Macau, Lau-a-Pan and his interpreter Lau-a-Teng, to teach São Miguel the fundamentals of the industry.

Tea was especially cultivated on the northern slopes of the island. Tea harvesting took place between April and September, mostly employing women and children.

Although there were previously multiple tea companies on the island, global economic instability during the world wars, immigration from the Azores, and competition with tea from Mozambique led to a decline in the tea industry, with Gorreana being the sole survivor by the 1980s.

The tea plantation that would become Gorreana was founded in 1883 by Ermelinda Gago da Camara, wife of José Honorato Gago da Camara. Her granddaughter Angelina and her husband Jaime Hintze took over the plantation upon her death in 1913.

Hintze modernized the plantation and rebranded it as Gorreana in 1926 and it is still in the possession of the family.

As of 2021, Gorreana was maintaining its operations much as it had in earlier times, producing between 30 and 40 tons of tea per year. Gorreana produces varieties of both black tea (Moinha, Broken Leaf, Pekoe, Orange Pekoe, Ponta Branca, Oolong) and green tea (Hysson, Encosta de Bruma, Pérola). The relatively dry climate and isolation from parasites has allowed Gorreana tea to be produced without the use of pesticides.Læs mere