Guest Blog Post: A visit to The Great Mississippi Tea Company

“Excuse me? They grow tea in Mississippi?”

When I first heard of this tea, my response was the same. I can’t help but picture the high mountain teas of China, India, or Taiwan. But altitude is not the fundamental requirement. 

On this tea farm in southern Mississippi there is loess soil, a soil high in minerals, specifically iron, which makes for a particularly sweet tea. We are not speaking of “sweet tea” as in the iced version, with added sugar, popular in the region, but of camellia sinensis grown in a soil that produces a sweet, mellow brew. 

I found out about The Great Mississippi Tea Company from a tea shop from which I often order. The Montreal based Camellia Sinensis Teahouse spotlighted this farm in Mississippi. Going to their website, I found they offer hands-on tours. What a great way to experience more about tea.

And so, I found myself driving south through Mississippi on Interstate 55 on the last day of September with my daughter. It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky. The lush trees grew high along the highway. We had missed the summer heat and chosen a perfect weekend to visit the tea farm.

Although the name may suggest otherwise, The Great Mississippi Tea Company is a somewhat small farm. We saw the seeds, the nursery where the plants are started, and the 40,000 tea plants. They were beautiful.

At this point, the processing area is housed in a small building. They have imported most of the machinery- a tumbler, a roller, drying ovens, and a huge wok for pan frying, among others. 

We opted for the day and a half tour, during which we were able to pluck and process green, black, and oolong teas. Timmy, one of the owners, guided us through the whole process. We had all sorts of questions- which were welcomed. We were soaking in numbers, percentages and science. (I was glad to have my daughter along as she is not only a tea lover, but a scientist as well). 

The time we spent plucking was educational. I now appreciate, even more, those people, mainly women, around the world who deftly pluck the right number of leaves and do it so efficiently. We picked the standard 2 leaves and a bud (except for our oolong when we picked 3 or 4 leaves). I would not use the adjective “deft” to describe our initial efforts.

The leaves were weighed and left to condition (in the case of green) and wither (for the black and oolong). They were re-weighed to assure that the desired amount of moisture loss had been reached. The oolong was left under lights for 16-20 hours for its withering process. 

We tumbled the oolong. We pan fried both the green and the oolong in a huge wok. We rolled all three for different amounts of time. The hand rolling took time and strength. The cell walls and the lysosome were broken down in the black tea and then left to finish its oxidation in a proofer. All three were “set” in the drying oven to finish off the oxidation process. 

I was pleased by all we learned. I am trying to understand more and more about the tea I drink.

One can only read so much. To actually experience the process goes a long way toward understanding. Maybe one day I’ll get to some famous tea farms in China, India or Taiwan, but, meanwhile The Great Mississippi Tea Company was an excellent experience. Plus, I didn’t even need a passport.