As the only location in North America where tea is grown today, the Charleston Tea Plantation holds a wealth of interest for tea lovers in the United States. And we’ve got some of the answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Q: How much tea is grown at the plantation and when is it harvested?

A: The Charleston Tea Plantation has hundreds of thousands of tea bushes in the fields. They stretch almost as far as the eye can see. The tea grows from May to October. During this time it is picked every 15-18 days on average. In spring we get the “First Flush,” the very first tea leaves of the year. Then by the end of October, the plant goes dormant and rests all winter long.

Q: What varieties of tea are grown at the plantation?

A: We produce “American Classic,” the only tea grown here in the U.S. American Classic is a fresh, smooth black tea picked from the plants that are descendants of those that were brought to America during colonial times.

Q: What Bigelow teas feature American Classic?

A: 2007 marked the introduction of four Loose Tea varieties of American Classic Tea — Charleston Breakfast, Rockville Raspberry, Plantation Peach and Governor Gray. Each is a very special tea, blended personally by our full-time tea taster, Bill Hall, to assure consistent taste and the highest quality. The best news for all tea lovers is that these teas are available throughout the year in the Gift Shoppe.

In upcoming posts, we’ll feature more about Bill Hall and the tradition of tea tasting, so we invite you to return to learn more!

This is the time when we approve major projects for the company.  Every year we look at our current equipment, building, and process to see if there are major items we need to purchase to improve our operation.  Each plant will identify, cost out, and recommend those projects that will help improve the process, reduce cost, or improve safety.  Those projects are reviewed at the plant level and then passed on for review at the corporate level.  The projects will range from; upgrading all the florescent lights from the low efficiency T8s to the new/more efficient T12s, new milling machine for part production, new printer for our cases, to air assisted lifts to reduce the amount of bending people do.  You never really are sure what will be asked for but you do know it has been evaluated and justified.
 
The company/family has always taken a very proactive approach in keeping equipment upgraded and investing money back into the operation as one way to ensure we have a consistently reliable product and safe working conditions.  This year we will spend almost a million dollars, not that we have to because things are broken but because for the long term it just makes sense.  If you take the time to make those little adjustments along the way you never get the system out of balance.
 
Dean

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Park City Magnet school 7th grade class about solar.  Their librarian, Barbara, had contacted me about speaking to a class because she was trying to educate the classes on different environmental activities that are going on around them. 

Not knowing exactly what a 7th grader would want to know on solar I hit the internet and researched information from the sun shining to AC power.  I did find out some interesting facts like; 1 hour of sun energy on the Earth can meet the world’s energy demand for 1 year, it takes 8 minutes for the sun energy to travel from the sun to the Earth, and Germany uses the most solar power.  The amount of solar energy that is available is amazing but the fact we only use about 1% of it is dis-hearting; lots of opportunity for the future.  The classes asked many good questions and one particularly stumped me; how much energy does it take to produce one box of tea?  So I am now working on getting an answer, gee I thought I was just there to give information not do more homework.

The interest shown by the classes in solar and energy savings gave me great satisfaction of being able to share what our company is doing and to see the interest that is out there.  I did happen to carry a few tea bags as well to the class and they seem to disappear fairly quickly.  The Governor of Connecticut has promoted a campaign of “Just One Thing”.  This message being you can make a huge difference over time with little improvements and whether it was talking to a 7th grade class or recycling that plastic soda bottle our small efforts have a positive impact on our environment.

Dean

America’s Heartland, whose crew travels the country in search of stories celebrating our nation’s agriculture, recently featured The Charleston Tea Plantation, the heartland’s only tea plantation. The video tells a story of how the Bigelow family’s investment brought new life to a tea crop that dates back to Colonial times. It tells of the ups and downs of this plantation and portrays the vitality evidenced there today. Whether you are a tea lover or not, you will find this “All American” story heartwarming.

Do you know what HACCP stands for?  Most people would not but if you are in the food industry you would know it stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.  HACCP is a systematic preventative approach to food safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection.  Critical Control Points are identified where potential food safety hazards could occur and procedures are put in place to ensure the product is safe.

HACCP was conceived in the 1960s for NASA for the space flights.  Since then HACCP has been used internationally and in other industries such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.  When we receive an inspection from our 3rd party auditor one of the major reviews that we go through is our HACCP program.  The program shows the entire flow of our product and where those Critical Control Points are.  It also details out our steps for inspections and correction if problems occur.

Overall the HACCP is a very detailed program that helps insure the products that are reaching the consumers are safe for consumption.

Dean

We were recently contacted by the city of Fairfield to participate in their town’s Earth Day Celebration.  The town is trying to build the event so more people are exposed to what each and everyone can do to help make the environment better.  Recently we passed around the book “Stirring It Up” which talked about several companies and what they have been doing to make their companies environmentally friendly.  Being able to see what other companies are doing has helped us set higher and higher expectations and look for ways we can make more of an impact. 

As we have taken many steps in the company to be as “green” as possible some of the side benefits have been in our “away from work lives.”  For example, the company had an outside firm come in and offer compact florescent light bulbs for sale at a discount.  Most employees took the opportunity to at least buy one.  The other day one employee told me they were so impressed that they went out and replaced all their old light bulbs with the compact florescent bulbs.  Now they are seeing their electric bills being $30 per month lower, needless to say they are very happy.  The Earth Day celebration is another opportunity to expose people to practices and actions we have taken as a company and as individuals.  One by one people are making a positive impact on the environment and are raising the bar for all to follow.

Dean

When it comes to tea, history is being made in United States. Tomislav Podreka at Planet Tea says that “We are … at the beginning of the establishment of an American tea ritual.” 

Think about it. Throughout its history, tea has been intimately tied to ritual. Consider the expression, “steeped in tradition.” In Asian culture tea is integral to ceremonies and meditation practices as it has been for thousands of years. In England, what began as a duchess’s stomach murmurs in the 1800s evolved into tea time as a compulsory daily break for the masses.

It’s now time for America. As “[ritualization of tea] has occurred in every other culture … there will be no difference here,” Podereka says. He credits herbals – which originated early in American history as simple remedies for minor afflictions – for boosting “America’s tea culture to another level” and notes that “these infusions have made great inroads as a common staple of American life.” More recently, stringent scientific study has given additional credibility to centuries of health claims, priming tea for ritualization based on its health benefits. 

What tea rituals will America develop? According to the author, a great deal depends on what influences our choices. Fortified by the latest research, will Americans drink primarily for health? For relaxation? Or something else? In the end, only time will tell, but it’s great to be part of tea history in the making.

Find out how to make the perfect cup of tea. Did you know that green tea and black tea should be made differently? Learn more only on our Tea-V channel.

The painful process of discontinuing a tea….not fun but unfortunately a necessity.  Each year we have the wonderful opportunity to create new and exciting flavors for our tea consumers.  The receptivity to our new flavors over the years has been outstanding, whether it was with our Pumpkin Spice, Green Tea with Pomegranate or one of our newest AriZona teas that has the powerful antioxidant Acai in it.   Our tea consumers have come to know that when we put our name on a tea, it is the most flavorful, freshest tea possible. 

However, with all the fun work in creating and introducing new teas, we have to occasionally let go of our slower moving/slower selling teas because when a tea flavor reaches a certain point of sales, it becomes almost impossible to run a very limited quantity of teabags on our equipment.  Then comes the hardest part of all…we have to share news with our wonderful consumers that a tea will not be produced any longer.  Of course, with that decision, we make lots of really lovely people very unhappy.  The letters, the phone calls, the emails come flooding in pleading with us to reconsider.  We try very hard to take care of our faithful consumers and provide some of the discontinued tea through the website but eventually we get to a point where the tea is not longer available. 

The reality is, we cannot make those passionate fans happy and that is not fun…We have over 80 beautiful teas and with that our warehouses would explode and our machines would revolt if we did not eventually let some of our slower moving teas retire to the Bigelow Tea “pasture.”

So for all you amazing fans that we cannot satisfy 100% by taking away one of your favorite teas…we are very sorry.  Please know if we could, we would love to supply you with every tea you ever wanted from us, but that is not truly possible.

Thank you for loving those teas and I can only hope that you might find a wonderful substitute somewhere in our array of teas that makes you just (or at least close to “just”) as happy.

At least I can dream…

Cindi Bigelow

Each year we go through our manufacturing policies, procedures and training guidelines to make sure they are the latest and greatest.  Usually there are some simple things that need to be changed based upon improvements like adding conveyors or adjusting how rework is done.  This year we are focused on improving how we track and maintain all the different training we do for our employees.  Some training is required like; Lock out Tag out (for electrical safety) Forklift and Ladder Safety, Good Manufacturing Procedures (which goes into more detail on how we operate and maintain our facilities), but others are focused on specific jobs to make sure everyone is doing them in the same manner.  Each year the Operators, Mechanics, and QA go through refresher training and then are tested on their abilities just to make sure we are following the right procedures.  The system we are introducing allows us to view each employee to determine when their last training occurred, what training is needed for that position, and also shows the training information that is being followed. It may seem like a lot of work that is not related to making a tea bag but it is one more way we make sure we are always making the best possible product.

Dean