Gorreana Tea

“2021 was very good.” Madalena Mota says this about Gorreana teas, whose factory is located in Gorreana, in the parish of Maia, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, on the São Miguel Island, Azores. “2018 was not so good, especially in the second harvest”, she reveals. “It takes a lot of water, humidity and fog.”

Madalena Mota, along with her sister, Sara Mota, represents the fifth generation of the family descended from Hemelinda Pacheco Gago da Câmara, founder of Chá Gorreana, in 1883. A year earlier, she ordered the planting of Camellia sinensis, a scattered oriental plant, currently, for more than three dozen hectares. A veritable sea of ​​leaves, translated into the only tea plantation in Europe, gives rise to black tea and green tea.

Black tea is divided into three categories, corresponding to the three stages of leaf harvesting. Orange Pekoe is the name of the first harvest, carried out between the end of March and the beginning of May, to capture the youngest leaves, to make a more aromatic drink. Pekoe, the name given to the strongest tea, was made from the leaf of the second harvest, which took place from the end of June to the beginning of July. Broken Leaf, the lightest and least exuberant of the teas, is made from the oldest, stiffest leaves, collected between September and the first week of October, used to make blends.

Despite these three moments in the annual calendar, "our employees pick up the leaves for tea every day and return to the beginning every three weeks", explains Madalena Mota. “During the rest of the year, we clean the tea, weed, pick the weeds… And if it doesn't rain at least once a week, it's terrible, despite the dew being enough to 'feed' the tea during the Summer." 

There are 32 men, or if this task were not an activity that required a lot of manpower, not counting the six people who add to the fieldwork carried out between April and October. “In addition to the nine women and six men who work at the factory,” she adds.

Once the leaves have been collected, they are forwarded to a room on the first floor of the factory, where they are placed in boxes equipped with a net to dry. Once dry, the leaves go to the rollers whose rotating movements extract their juices and, later, they are placed in the basement of the same building, to be subjected to the oxidation process. Finally, we wait between six to seven months, until it is ready to enter the market.

Green tea leaves are also collected in three different stages and separated according to the designations given to the former – Orange, Pekoe and Broken Leaf. "The first leaf is the same as the Orange, but a little bigger, and the second leaf goes to the Hysson tea." As for the procedures inside the factory, Madalena Mota explains that, like black tea, this raw material goes to the first floor of the building, but then is transported to a steam engine, “where the leaves are scalded. Then they go to the winders and are put to dry. Those with cellulose are expelled. The others go to the scrutiny”.

To the traditional green teas, Gorreana adds nine varieties, in response to new trends, sought after by the youngest: pineapple, pineapple and Ceylon cinnamon, lime snapper, hibiscus, parsley, anise, pennyroyal and, finally, mint, lemon, stevia and cinnamon.

Gorreana's portfolio complements by semi-fermented teas such as Oolong, Poochong and white tea.

“Most of the teas are exported to Germany because it is common for children to like the same teas as their parents. When my father was asked about the best tea, my father replied that it was my grandmother's. I didn't realize it at the time, but now, with the experience I gained, I understand it: tea is a family drink, it invites you to sit at the table and 'pull' through the conversation, unlike coffee, which is taken outside the home, with friends."

In January 2022, a new variety of teas will be presented, dried at 70°C, a procedure carried out between three to four times and is only harvested between March and April, and in September.

About the history of tea in the Azores, Madalena Mota recalls that the plant that originates this drink was planted in Gorreana during the period of decline in orange production, at the end of the 19th century, financial support, and food for many families. “Our farmers took the stalks home, added a little milk and a lot of sugar, to drink during half a day's work. It was an energy drink. The women, who took care of the children and worked at home, drank, morning and evening, a cup of tea with sugar.”