Vincent Chen spied a camellia bush growing profusely in his Hamilton neighbour’s garden one day in 1996 and thought ‘if that can grow, so can tea’. Senior writer Mary Anne Gill visited Zealong Tea Estate in Gordonton to find out more.
Zealong chief executive Gigi Crawford and general manager Sen Kong inside the Camellia Restaurant at Zeelong Tea Estate in Gordonton. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
New Zealand’s only organic tea producer north of Hamilton is to feature in a BBC documentary airing this month in New Zealand.
Zealong Tea Estate in Gordonton will be on BBC Earth’s ‘One Cup, a Thousand Stories’ six part series which started on November 1 and will play around the world on BBC and several other platforms.
Chief executive Gigi Crawford and general manager Sen Kong are already showing the video to selected guests at the 48ha property which produces 20 tonnes of award-winning tea for export every year.
The BBC Earth film crew at Zealong Tea Estate in Gordonton.
Millions of people will see the nine minute long video filmed three years ago during a Covid lockdown and featuring local staff.
The tea estate, which was once a dairy farm, has won countless awards since its establishment in 1996 but the greatest honour came less than a year ago when it won The Leafies Lifetime Achievement Award having already picked up a gold medal for its Aromatic Oolong.
The Zealong brand is a combination of “New Zealand” and “Oolong” the first tea ever perfected on the estate.
Oolong, a traditional semi-oxidised tea is characterised by the top three leaves that are tightly rolled into balls that unfurl after infusion.
The BBC Earth film crew film general manager Sen Kong at Zealong Tea Estate in Gordonton.
Zealong is the largest organic tea plantation in the world and employs 45 full time staff and up to 80 part timers during harvesting which starts this month.
While it has won major tea awards in the US, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, Crawford feels New Zealand often overlooks its success.
She is reluctant to call it tall poppy and instead concentrates on making visitors’ experience something worth remembering.
The day The News visited, a bus load of Indonesian stockbrokers had dined in the Camellia Restaurant where French-born executive chef Jean-Baptiste Pilou, who worked in Restaurant Guy Savoy – a three star Michelin restaurant in Paris – cooked for them using local produce including asparagus from Cambridge.
High Tea at Zealong Tea Estate. Photo: Hamilton and Waikato Tourism.
But it is the tea the BBC film crew highlighted and the New Zealand company’s organic spray-free farming approach to cultivating tea.
The video opens with drone shots showing green Gordonton countryside looking west towards Raglan and Mt Karioi with the 1.2 million tea plants at the centre.
“On the other side of the globe pioneering tea makers have left ancient methods behind. They’re embracing technology and science to create a new range of teas,” the announcer says.
He goes on to describe the tea plant as an “alien in New Zealand” – a “sub-tropical interloper.”
Zealong was founded in 1996 by Vincent Chen – then in his early 20s – who saw how well camellia grew in his neighbour’s Rototuna back garden and thought tea could grow just as well.
He brought 1500 tea cuttings into New Zealand – only 130 survived the strict quarantine regulations and today form the basis for the estate.
Zealong chief executive Gigi Crawford and general manager Sen Kong inside the Camellia Restaurant at Zeelong Tea Estate in Gordonton. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
French chef Jean-Baptiste Pilou pours Hollandaise sauce in the Camellia Restaurant for Zealong Tea general manager and director Sen Kong. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
