TREGOTHNAN – Truro, Cornwall, England
The Heritage: The historic Tregothnan estate has been home to the Boscawen family since 1334, but its modern legacy began in 1999 when Head Gardener Jonathon Jones planted the very first commercial tea bushes in British history. Sheltered by a deep-sea creek on the River Fal, the estate boasts a unique microclimate that’s free from damaging salt winds and deep frosts but which closely mimics the high foothill conditions of the Himalayas.
The Verdict: Tregothnan quite literally puts the "English" into English tea. While other tea merchants import all their leaves from overseas to blend in the UK, Tregothnan grows, hand-plucks and then dries their own home-grown tea on Cornish soil. Their scale is deliberately small, yielding a delicate, muscatel-rich leaf that is heavily sought after. It’s an extraordinary agricultural achievement and a true piece of living history.
Core Products: The signature Classic Tea, Single Estate Black Loose Leaf and an Earl Grey that nods to the estate's ancestral connection to the original Earl Grey himself (the owners of the Tregothnan estate are direct descendants of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, the 19th-century British Prime Minister who originally gave his name to the famous tea blend).
