Charleston Tea Garden

 March 21, 2025

Oak Plantation CG site PP8

Charleston, SC

Dad said our stay in this area has convinced him that he will NEVER live in Charleston.  Way too much traffic and congestion here.  Just departing from the campground is a challenge.  The campground is located on Highway 17, just half a block from the intersection of Main Road....which appears to be a very popular road.  The turn lane for Main Road must cover the whole block as it goes way past the campground.  When we arrived, we had to cross that turn lane as well as two lanes of moving traffic.  That turn lane full of vehicles makes it quite difficult to even see if the other two busy lanes are clear.

Today the group had a private trolley tour of the Tea Garden. 

In order to get to the Tea Garden, we had to turn left on Main Road which meant getting across two lanes of traffic and trying to break into the long line of cars in the turn lane.  Well, I guess you could say we took the longer, safer route and went past the intersection, made a U turn further up the road and returned to the intersection.  On the return trip, we traveled 2.3 miles in 14 minutes just to turn onto Highway 17 so we could make that challenging left turn crossing the backed up turn lane as well as two lanes of traffic.  With loads of patience, we finally found an opportunity to make our way into the campground entrance without incident.  Whew!!  Need you ask why Dad says he would NEVER live here?

The Tea Garden Tour was fantastic.  Momma even enjoyed it although she doesn't drink tea...neither cold nor hot.  What made the event so enjoyable was the tour guide/trolley driver. 

He said he was just 'filling in' today but he obviously had done this before.  He had a wealth of knowledge shared with lots of humor. The trolley

took us to the tea garden areas.  Impressive!  So many plants that are well maintained with weekly watering either by nature or irrigation, weeded by hand before harvesting

and topped with machinery that removes the new growth that becomes the tea product.

It was interesting to find out that the oxidation time determines the color/strength of the tea....from a light orange shade to black.

The guide took us into the state of the art green house where cuttings and seeds are propagated.

Our guide was full of interesting facts.  Tea is the number 2 drink.  Do you know what number one is?  If you said 'water', you would be correct.  Iced tea came to be by accident.  At a fair on a hot day, the tea wasn't selling so they decided to add ice and voila.  Everyone enjoyed the refreshing cold drink ...and ice tea was born.

Here is the record glass of ice tea holding the world record by 60 gallons.

This building not only had a delightful, but pricey gift shop,

it also had a factory tour of the

whole tea making process from cutting to ready to drink.

The weather was delightful today for the tour amongst the old oaks.

Angel Oak was the next stop.  The exact age is unknown, but it is estimated to be between 400 to 500 years old.

 

Everyone with an appetite decided it was time for lunch 

But the day was far from over.  Aunt Pam and I played with froggy 

while the gals played Fast Track.

Yep, I scored lots more dog treats with the arrival of everyone.  A great way to end a delightful day.

I'm Chloe