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; es Virginia, there is tea growing in Europe. A thousand miles off the coast of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean is Sao Miguel, the largest of nine volcanic islands that form an archipelago called the Azores. I visited this fabled lost city of Atlantis in April—I flew into Ponta Delgada, was wel- comed by a rush of crisp, startlingly fresh air, and then piloted my rental car there. Though Sao Miguel is a relatively small island (293 square miles), lush plant life abounds, with bursts of manicured color at every turn. The landscape is blanketed by flowers—namely hydrangea, azalea and Camellia japonica in white, red, pink and mixed hues. Driving around, one sees salty shipping ports with tall-mast vessels and wooden din- ghies moored side-by-side. There are thermal springs in the Furnas district, where enormous ferns and sulfur pits cre- ate a prehistoric-like environment. You'll also pass waterfalls, craggy cliffs, pineapple farms, cows, quaint villages, churches, cows, corn, more cows and water, water everywhere. But, most importantly, you will also find tea. The Azores 5 CANARY ISLANDS ao Miguel is 39 miles long and 10 miles wide (at its widest point). Its population is approximately 138,000, but it can often feel to a visitor as if you alone exist in many corners of this magnificent paradise. Its history, like the that of the rest of the archipelago, is shaped by trade and travel: Discovered in the 1400s by Gonçalo Velho Cabral, the Azores became a rest stop for ships returning from India spice runs on their way to Brazil, then from Brazil on their way back to mainland Portugal. The Azores is now an autonomous region of Portugal. During my recent visit, I met Hermano Mota, who owns Gorreana Tea Estate with his wife, Mathilde Hintze-Mota. Established in the 1880s, Gorreana has been continuously owned and operated by one family for five generations. After a leisurely tour of the factory and a stroll through the garden, I asked Mota, "Why tea?" He said, "Yes, 'Why tea?' is a good ques- tion. The answer is, 'Oranges.'" Due to fertile soil and a temperate climate (winter temperature averages fall to just 52 degrees Fahrenheit, while the summer aver- age is 77), agriculture has long thrived on the archipelago. Mota explained that the Azores was an orange-exporting giant in the 17th century, with most of the crop going to Great Britain. After an orange blight destroyed the lucrative industry in the 1860s, the Ministry of Agriculture sought replacements. Tea (Camellia sinensis) was one option—but it wasn't a new arrival for the area. Portugal, it turns out, has a tea history stretching back to 1560, 500 km 311 mi MADEIRA when a Portuguese Jesuit named Father Jasper de Cruz became perhaps the first European to experience and write about cha. It's interesting to note that the Portuguese (and many Eastern Europeans) use the Cantonese word cha as opposed to the Fukien word te, which was adopted by most Europeans. This is likely due to the location of a key Portuguese trading post, which was created in 1577 during the Ming Dynasty on the island of Macau, directly off the coast of Canton (now Guangzhou). In the early 1600s, the Portuguese became "brokers" between the Chinese and the Dutch East Indies Company, which brought tea and other goods to parts of Europe. In 1622, Duchess Catherine of Braganza married King Charles II, and she is credited with bringing the tea-drink- ing custom—which was quite popular among the Portuguese elite— to England. In the early 1800s, tea MOROCCO ALGERIA MAURETANIA plants were given as a gift by the Emperor of China to the Portuguese King Joao VI, who was then residing in Brazil. The plants flourished in Rio de Janeiro gardens. After the orange blight, tea seeds were brought from Brazil to Sao Miguel and planted throughout the northern coastal region of Ribeira Grande. Camellia sinensis was already growing as an ornamental plant on the island. The new crop, however, was intended for cultivation, manufacture and exportation to Europe. Two Chinese natives, a tea expert and an interpreter from Macau were brought in to assist the project in 1878, and the tea plants prospered in 14 gardens. 1 f those first 14 tea gardens in Sao Miguel, two remain: Gorreana Tea Estate and Porto Formoso. Gorreana produces about 90,000 pounds per year, and its output is shipped beyond Portugal, which means it's the only commercial tea grown in Europe. Seventy percent of the estate's production is black tea (orange pekoe, pekoe and broken leaf grades), and the rest is green. The garden is 79 acres in size, and the highest-elevation bushes on the property sit at 2,000 feet. Harvest time runs from March through August/September, depending on the weather continued on page 58 freshcup.com September 2012 57 PORTUGAL SPAIN WESTERN SAHARA