I killed the first tea patch by trying to transplant the bushes. I had put barberries in as foundation plantings in front of the house and they had become a problem. So, we yanked them out, debated a little and decided to use camellias.

Chuck went to Camellia Forest Nursery to pick out when I was working. He got two ‘Super Sochi’ tea, two ‘Chia Tsao’ tea and two ‘Black Tie’ ornamental camellias.

The ‘Super Sochi’ is particularly cold hardy. The ‘Chia Tsao’ is especially good for oolong (my favorite style). And the ‘Black Tie’ between them is just to be attractive.

After we got them in the ground, I saw that Camellia Forest was going to do a Harvest and Production workshop and signed us up. And took the day off from work. It was GREAT!

We picked a bunch. Then, we sorted everything. pinching out the 2-leaves-and-a-bud for green tea production.

Christine talked to us about tea for a while as everything wilted. And we drank some iced tea she had grown and produced. We rolled a big pile that they had picked the day before.

Rolling is twisting it up in a lint-free cloth and mashing the hell out of it until you have squeezed as much juice out as possible. You turn and mash and turn and mash and, eventually, orange juice starts squeezing out. After you have it as juiced as possible, you let it sit out to oxidize, giving it a little toss every once in a while so that all of it gets exposed to the air. It smells lovely.

For green tea, you do things a little backwards from black. First, you heat it, either with steam or simply pan firing in a dry pan. She uses an electric wok and tongs to keep stirring so the leaves didn’t burn. There is some mashing down with your hand to get everything cooked when you do that, too. So, it’s a little riskier. AFTER it has cooked, you roll it. Green tea doesn’t get oxidized. It just goes into the oven for drying.

We came home with some steamed green, some pan fired green, some black and some raw tea leaves that were part of what we had picked that morning. Chuck dried the 3 prepared teas in our oven and he made a small batch of black the next day with the leaves we had brought home. We have 2 small containers of green tea and about 2 cups of black tea ready to go.

The black tea tastes very much like it smelled as it oxidized. The difference in flavor between the steam and pan fired greens is astonishing. We both think pan firing is the way to go.

It’s going to be a while before we are able to make more than a small pot at the time from our bushes. But, we feel ready. Hands on is always the best way for me to learn.