The Charleston Tea Garden, the only large-scale tea farm in the U.S., is in which state?

The Charleston Tea Garden, the only large-scale tea farm in the U.S., is in South Carolina.

The garden sits on Wadmalaw Island, roughly 20 miles south of Charleston, and grows Camellia sinensis, the plant used for traditional tea. It is associated with American Classic Tea and is owned by the Bigelow Tea Company. The site is notable because commercial tea growing remains a small niche in the United States.

Its modern history began with a Lipton research station. In 1963, surviving tea plants from the former Pinehurst Tea Plantation near Summerville were moved to Wadmalaw Island. Mack Fleming and William Hall later established the working garden in 1987, and Bigelow acquired it after a 2003 auction.

The garden was formerly called Charleston Tea Plantation; the name changed to Charleston Tea Garden in 2020. Its tea is mechanically harvested using equipment adapted from agricultural machinery, and the garden is also a visitor attraction. Smaller tea farms exist elsewhere, including Hawaii and Oregon, so “only large-scale” does not mean it is the only U.S. tea farm of any size.