Treasures in the North Atlantic Ocean

The Azores are composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1300km west of continental Portugal. Before travelling to Sao Miguel, I basically only new about the Azores from the weather forecast.(anti-cyclone over the Azores). Fact is, the weather is highly changeable there, but nevertheless, the climate is mild and the volcanic islands are magnificent.

Azores

This is review of a trip to the Azores back in 2012.Probably unknown to most of us, the Azores harbor the two only European tea plantations for industrial purposes. One of them is Porto Formoso, the second one is Cha Gorreana. At both tea plantations you can do tours, visit the machines and learn about the processes in a very familiar atmosphere.  Beside learning about the history and production of tea, you can stroll through the plantation and of course taste the delicious tea.

When people think about tea, most probably, they refer to the big players like China, India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Kenya. On the Azores only a small amount is produced, though of very high quality to be able to be competitive. Travelling always gives us insights about traditions, cultures and a completely new and fresh view about a country. I still have some tea left that I bought back then. Whenever I pour a cup of this tea into my cup, it reminds me of the small volcanic islands.

Azores

I would like to thank Lucile for inspiring me for this post, telling a bit about tea from the Azores and posting some pictures. The topic came up during Justine’s Tea Time Event. If you like tea, coffee or cookies, you should also join!

You might also like my previous post about the Azores: Abandoned

Category : On the road
Tags : , , , , , , ,