2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, is a native plant to China with more than 3,000 years of cultivation. Although it has been grown here in the continental US, for some reasons, perhaps the cost of processing, the cost of cultivation, and the cost of labor, it has never become a large-scale cash crop. With growing interest in craft teas and innovations in breeding and harvesting technologies at hand, it is the time for Americans to start supplying their cups of tea from local tea farms. Tea is one of the great horticultural crops for its double duty in the beverage/food and beauty industries. Currently, more than 4,000 tea cultivars have been documented for beverage tea production around the world. But there are only about 140 cultivars of tea in the continental US and the majority of them are planted as ornamentals, except for the Charleston Tea Plantation. The wholesale value of tea in US grew from $1.84 billion in 1990 to $11.5 billion in 2015. Of that, 99% of the ea was imported. The most popular tea types are green, red, white, yellow, brick, and oolong tea. Both tea cultivar and tea processing determines the tea type and quality. Some specialty tea types could be sold for thousands of dollars per lb. Compared with a regular cup of coffee, caffeine content may be its half (red tea) or one-third (green tea). However, tea provides much more essential elements for better health. American South shares the similar climate and soil conditions with tea production centers of the southeastern Asia and it is time to develop tea as our new cash crop.