Charleston Tea Plantation

Discover everything you ever wanted to know about tea at the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea garden in the United States. The Charleston Tea Plantation grows and produces American Classic Tea, which has the distinction of being America’s only home-grown and produced tea. The idyllic plantation features 127 acres of tea plants and is located in the South Carolina Lowcountry on Wadmalaw Island, approximately 20 miles south of Charleston. A popular destination receiving up to 30,000 visitors per year, the Charleston Tea Plantation is owned by the Bigelow Tea Company.

Touring the Grounds

Visitors to the Charleston Tea Plantation can take a trolley ride around the sprawling fields of tea plants, while the tour guide provides an explanation of the tea-growing process and the history of tea-growing in Charleston. While touring the plantation grounds, you are likely to see the large tea harvester drive by. Specially designed for the Charleston tea plantation, this unique machine plucks the top two leaves from the tea plant for processing in the factory. A tour of the factory reveals the process of tea-making from the harvesting of the leaves to the final product. At the end of the tour, visitors are invited to enjoy a glass of fresh peach tea.

American Classic Tea

As the only tea grown, produced and packaged in the United States, American Classic Tea has been a Southern favourite for many years. Visitors to the Charleston Tea Factory can browse through several varieties of this popular tea (including Governor Gray and Plantation Peach) at the Plantation Gift Shop.

The Bigelow Tea Company

The Charleston Tea Plantation is owned by Bigelow Tea, the leading specialty tea company in the United States. This family-owned company began in Ruth Bigelow’s family kitchen in the 1940s. When the tea connoisseur first mixed her special colonial concoction of orange peel and spices to create the now famous blend called “Constant Comment”, little did she know she would eventually create a company that would sell billions of cups of tea every year in over 50 different flavours.

Visiting the Charleston Tea Plantation

Open year-round, the Charleston Tea Plantation is located on Wadmalaw Island, 20 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina on the Maybank Highway. For more information call 843-559-0383 or email at cvalentine@rcbigelow.com.

For directions and to learn more about the Charleston Tea Plantation and Bigelow Tea visit Charleston Tea Plantation official website