Like many of you out there, I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to make my lifestyle more sustainable, especially by trying to buy local when I can. From May to October, we have a farmer's market within walking distance that makes the produce part easy. We can even buy local dairy and buffalo meat. But, local tea has been out of reach. While I can find local sources of herbal infusions, my camellia sinesis habit has to be fed by China, India, Japan, and other places on the other side of the world. I do seek out organic and fair trade as much as possible, but it's still a huge carbon footprint to bring it across all that water.
Bigelow has bragged of having the "only American tea garden," in Charleston. This is a place I would definitely like to visit, since I have never been to a tea garden, but I'm not so much a fan of the tea itself. Now this may be because the American Classic is only offered in bagged form, and so I can't taste the full flavor that a whole leaf would offer, and I would encourage Bigelow to work on offering a whole leaf variety, either loose or as part of their Novus whole leaf tea bag line.
The big push for "going green" may have an impact on the tea industry beyond just organic and fair trade teas. According to World Tea News, there are also tea gardens in Hawaii, Washington state, Oregon, and Alabama. Hopefully over the next several years, we can look for more locally grown teas.
