New Zealand is known for many things but being included on my tea-growing-countries world map is not one of them... until recently. New Zealand is home to the world’s only spring tea harvest that takes place in November – and it all takes place at the Zealong Tea Estate.
Zealong Tea, the southern-most operating tea estate in the world, produces New Zealand grown and processed tea. They produce all variations of tea – including green, black and oolong teas – all harvested and processed outside of Hamilton, New Zealand, which is a little more than an hour and a half south of Auckland. But how did this anomaly come about? To find out more, World Tea News spoke with Sen Kong, the marketing maker of the Zealong Tea Estate.
“The journey of our company started in 1996, when tea was brought into the country and began being cultivated,” said Kong. In 1996, Vincent Chen moved to New Zealand from Taiwan and noticed that a Camellia sinensis bush, the tea plant, was flourishing In his neighbors back yard. After coming to this realization, Vincent then spent 13 years growing, cultivating and refining the production of tea. When they were ready to launch in 2009, they were not only ready – they jumped out of the flood-gates to take the world by storm.
Since the launch, they now have approximately 1.2 million tea plants across around 118 acres of land. And regarding being able to grow so much tea in New Zealand, the country has a perfect climate for it. According to Kong, having warm days and cool nights make a very similar growing condition to Taiwan. It was a no-brainer that this climate was perfect for growing tea.
Spreading the Knowledge of Tea Variations
Despite facing challenges of growing tea in a new place, there was another issue Zealong Tea Estate encountered when exploring the idea of tea in their social climate. According to Kong, New Zealand’s tea culture is based on the English-style drinking of tea. After all, New Zealand is constitutionally ruled by the British Monarch as a sovereign nation. And in the culture, it’s common to refer to a breakfast style of tea as black tea. With this in mind, introducing the idea of oolong tea was challenging because the general public was still uninformed about tea outside of black or green tea.
After overcoming the challenge of spreading the knowledge of other variations of tea, Zealong Tea Estate has been doing very well as a name-brand in the New Zealand local community. Pop star Billie Eilish even found her way to the estate back in 2018, and she posted about drinking tea at the estate on her Instagram Story. Also, back in 2015, Prince Charles was served Zealong Tea from Tūheitia Paki, the King of the Māori – the New Zealand Native Peoples.
Having this strong unity and connection to the New Zealand public was also one of the main aspects to saving the Zealong Tea Estate from going under during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While many tea companies experienced tea production and international shipping issues due to the pandemic, Zealong Tea managed to power through and stay afloat. According to Kong, one of the main pillars of their business that was hit hard was the hospitality sector.
Due to the pandemic, global tourism to the tea plantation was halted overnight. However, the hospitality industry helped support Zealong Tea Estate, and they managed to overcome those challenges by moving with change.
“We’ve had to be flexible to what our customers need,” Kong said. He later explained that due to the events of the past several years, they’ve done their best to be resilient to overnight changes.
With Zealong’s ability to quickly hop on their feet and act fluidly with new strength, they discovered how resilient they could be.
“The resilience comes from our staff,” said Kong. “If a problem comes up, we just get on with it. We look for the best solutions, and nothing is going to stop us. We’ll just look for different ways of being creative to find the answers to these issues.”
Sharing Their Passion for Tea with a Larger Global Audience
Moving into the future, Zealong Tea aims to continue to grow its business and maintain a resilient spirit – regardless of what steps in their way. Their mission is to continue sharing their passion for tea with a larger global audience. The people who run this estate, as well as the New Zealand natives and locals, are more than proud to show the majestic beauty of their country and aim to share the beauty of New Zealand through their tea.
Before ending my conversation with Kong, I had to ask about the logistics of how they’re the first-spring harvest in all of tea. They harvest their Spring harvest in November, their summer harvest in January, and their fall harvest in March. At the time of talking to Kong (end of September 2021), the Sakura trees were getting ready to bloom their Cherry Blossoms.
According to The National Geographic, the tilt of the Earth’s access changes throughout the year. Since the axis tilts, countries below the Earth’s equator experience their summer solstice, or the longest day of the year, towards the end of December.
Overall, the journey of Zealong Tea Estate is rather extraordinary – from a moment of chance/luck to noticing a single-tree plant flourishing in a neighbor's back yard, to now having over a million tea trees awaiting their next harvest. This journey of resilience, creativeness and starting brand-new has garnered the love and support of a local community, and now Zealong Tea Estate is a new hallmark to the New Zealand society and culture. With everything accomplished in just only 25 years, it’s very evident that Zealong is only just getting started.
World Tea News contributor Cody Wade, also known by his blog name "The Oolong Drunk," has been tea blogger and tea educator for more than five years. His passion for tea started with oolongs, but he has grown to appreciate every aspect of the tea industry. He's also given lectures at the Houston Tea Festival and the Mid-West Tea Festival, and he notes that he's enthusiastic with his passion for tea education and bringing people together to make the community stronger.
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