Nation's only working tea farm doubles in production, visitors

CHARLESTON, S.C. --- What is now black tea, after being oxidized and dried, is sorted through a shaker. During the next step in the automated process, the stems will be separated from the leaves.

"Two leaves and a bud," Bill Hall says as he plucks a sprig from the edge of the green 127-acre expanse that is the Charleston Tea Plantation.

The idyllic farm, the only one of its kind in the U.S., reopened in 2006 after a four-year hiatus.

In 2002, the gift shop doors closed, the visitor tours ceased and American Classic Tea abruptly disappeared from local grocery store shelves.

"We just cut it and left it," Mr. Hall said.

What happened off the fields during that time involved legal filings, a court-ordered sale of the property and the biggest name in specialty teas. But since then, Mr. Hall said, just about everything around here has doubled, from the amount of tea produced to the number of visitors touring the fields.

David Bigelow admits his decision to invest in the Wadmalaw land had little to do with economics.

"The plantation is a real gem and a one of a kind, and we were concerned if we didn't step in that this may become another real estate development and those precious tea bushes would go away," he said by phone from Connecticut. "That's just irreplaceable."

The 127-acre plantation's harvest season runs from May to October.

The Bigelows built a new factory where visitors can watch tea-making from behind a glass wall as Mr. Bigelow and his wife explain the process from three flat-screen TVs overhead. During the May-to-October harvest, 5,000 pounds of green leaf come in every day to be dried, ground and separated from fiber and stems.

Looking at last year's financial report, Mr. Bigelow says he hopes to break even on the venture.

The number of visitors to the plantation has doubled each year since the Bigelows became involved. But just as before, tourists can check out the grounds and the factory for free because, as Mr. Hall explains, nearly every guest feels obligated to buy some tea.