A few weeks ago I was in Porto, and I joined fellow journalist Treve Ring to visit one of Europe’s first commercial tea plantations. It’s from Nina Gruntkowski and Dirk Niepoort, who have a tea import company called Cha Camelia, specialising in Japanese tea. Now they will be making their own tea from a quinta in the Minho in northern Portugal, near Porto. Treve will be writing an article on it for the World of Fine Wine. Here’s a short film of the visit.
Great to see. Of course the Azores have fairly significant plantings, but it’s not the mainland. Muggy warm damp weather is required. I believe Cornwall also has a small plantation.There were some attempts also in Brittany and Galicia but I did not follow their progress.