How Pan Fired Pine Needle Tea is Made in Mississippi Have you ever experienced a cup of Green tea that is buttery and sweet? Well meet Pine Needle Tea. Does Pine Needle Tea Have Real Pine Needles. No, there are not actual Pine Needles in this tea. The Pine Needle refers to the way the tea leaf is carefully rolled into a shale like a Pine Needle. What makes Pine Needle Tea different? This green tea is hand picked in the field. Then we pan fire it to stop the oxidation process. In the final step, the leaves are placed into the carding machine where it is heated until the leaves roll perfectly into a thin needle shape. The flavor...
This particular tea plant came to us as a donation from a kind tea lover in Hattiesburg. But its roots go even deeper into history. The plant is believed to have originated from Lipton Tea’s experiments here in the United States during the 1950s.
Drought has hit our Mississippi tea farm. The hot and dry weather has been relentless. We have had 11 days above 100F and not had measurable rain since July 1st. We have had 63 days above 90F this summer. In other words, it has been hot and dry and now to the point of brutal and dangerous. Tea grows between 50F and 100F. It is also a poor conductor of water through the bush. We are currently running the irrigation over 7.5 acres of land on a daily basis. We pumped 655,200 gallons of water onto the crop last week. We are also watering at night to help evaporation stay to a minimum but with night time temps in the...
