We are now stocking local tea – yes, that’s tea actually grown in Cornwall! Tregothnan put the ‘English’ into English tea for the first time in history when they planted the first ever tea in the UK in 1999.
Tea – Camellia sinensis – thrives at Tregothnan by the deep-sea creek of the Fal in Cornwall. We stock a wide range of Tregothnan teas – Classic, Earl Grey, Green, Peppermint, Chamomile, Red Berry, Lemon Verbena and Nettle – all deliciously refreshing.
Home to the Boscawen family, the private Tregothnan estate can lay claim to pioneering botanical firsts since 1334. Inspired by a tradition stretching back generations, they began supplying England’s first and only tea in 2005.
Tregothnan reckons to have one of the very best tea regions in the world. The equable climate is moderated by the vast Atlantic Ocean before it hits the ten-mile ridge of Cornwall. The humid air loses its damaging saltiness and perfectly mimics the high foothills of the Himalayas. Tregothnan itself is on the banks of the deep-sea creek that is the river Fal – truly a micro-climate that has supported many extraordinary species of fruit trees and an enormous range of rare plants for centuries.
Tregothnan was the first place to grow ornamental Camellia outdoors 200 years ago and it is this expertise, along with the unique Cornish environment, that helps the tea bushes, Camellia sinensis, to thrive here today. Grown in the perfect conditions on the ancient Cornish estate, the world’s first true English tea has been heralded as the ‘new Darjeeling.’
Hidden behind the iconic kitchen garden door, which dates back to Plantagenet times making it the oldest remaining part of the estate, you’ll find the Camellia sinensis from which they made their first tentative tea experiments back in 2000.
The flora at Tregothnan has been managed intensively for many centuries. From the 1840s it became a global hotspot for new innovations, and “the most introduced plants anywhere in the world now flourish in Cornwall” according to horticulturalist Philip McMillan Browse.
Today, tea can be found growing in small pockets all over the home estate while larger plantations are located on Tregothnan land throughout south Cornwall.