The Best Destinations in the World for Tea Lovers
Oolong, Chai, Boba, Matcha and More…
If you’re like most people in the world, you love tea. And that’s a good thing! With so many teas to choose from, tea drinkers have a much better variety than coffee drinkers, plus many teas offer great health benefits, like anti-inflammatory teas, teas that reduce stress, teas that help with heart health, gut health and many more. Many teas also provide a great source of antioxidants, which we know are great for helping our bodies fight free radicals, which can cause age-related issues from dementia to wrinkles.
Tea lovers, this is the slideshow for you. Hand-picked like the teas we know you love, these destinations offer great opportunities to explore rich tea cultures around the world, from Asia to South America. From excursions to historic tea houses and gardens where trees have been producing some of the world’s best brews for centuries, these destinations are the roots of what is a very global tea industry and culture and offer great experiences that will help you cherish your afternoon cup of tea even more than you do already.
Read on to learn about some of the world’s biggest tea-growing destinations and how you can experience their tea cultures for yourself.
Shizuoka and Kagoshima Prefectures, Japan
These two prefectures in Japan are known for growing the best green teas in the world, including matcha, genmaicha, sencha, houjicha and more.
Shizuoka Prefecture is located between Tokyo and Osaka, making it an easy place to stop in between on a tour of Japan. It’s most notable for being the home of Mt. Fuji, but it’s tea culture is definitely high on the list of tourist attractions. The Makinohara Tea Estate is the largest tea garden in Asia and accounts for about 30 percent of all tea production in the prefecture. It hosts factory tours and tea picking excursions from April to October for travelers to learn about the growing process.
Kagoshima Prefecture is located at the southern tip of Japan and offers the Chiran Tea Plantation, though travelers to Kagoshima City can enjoy a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and can purchase locally grown teas from shops in the city, too.
Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou Provinces, China
China’s southern provinces have been recognized for their incredible tea production for literally thousands of years! Yunnan Province, in particular, was part of a historic tea trade route. Yunnan is known for producing black teas, as well as the unique Pu-er black tea. Travelers to Yunnan Province wanting to learn more about the importance of tea can visit the city of Pu-er, which offers the scenic Ancient Tea and Horse Road, as well as the China Pu-er Tea Museum.
Travelers to Sichuan can not only find adorable pandas at the panda sanctuary and try eating some of the spiciest foods known to man, but they can also explore the province’s tea culture, which produces jasmine and green teas. Chengdu offers the largest number of teahouses in China and makes for a great city to explore the region’s teas. Guizhou Province is home to green tea plantations, too. In Zunyi, travelers can enjoy the Guizhou Tea Culture Ecological Museum.
Hong Kong, China
While Hong Kong doesn’t produce teas, it does consume a lot, and in a variety of fun ways. Hong Kong is where milk tea most likely originated from, during its time as a British colony. The island’s residents and travelers consume a wide variety of teas to this day, from traditional greens and blacks to more innovative milk teas and boba teas. A trip through a food market or to one (or several, I don’t judge), tea houses can bring travelers within close proximity to the region’s tea culture, which continues to evolve.
Jeju Island, South Korea
Jeju Island is considered to be a same kind of destination for South Koreans as Hawaii is for North Americans. A lush volcanic island home to incredible history, natural wonders and beautiful beaches, it remains an ideal destination for romantic getaways. It’s also home to some of the most exclusive South Korean teas. The O’Sulloc Tea Museum and the nearby Seogwang Tea Plantation are perfect places to discover the island’s tea. O’Sulloc is the largest Korean tea producer, with three of its plantations on the island of Jeju, specializing in green teas. The museum focuses on Korean tea culture and even offers a cafe that serves tea-flavored foods and drinks, like green tea ice cream.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of the world’s biggest tea producers and exporters. Chances are, you’ve already drank a cup of tea grown and produced on the island, which was once called Ceylon. Today, it continues to produce fine black tea of the same name (as well as a variety of other types, of course)! Travelers can experience the best of Sri Lanka’s tea culture and plantations when they travel into the island’s interior, where hills are covered in bright green foliage that will one day become your next cup of Ceylon tea. The Nurawa Eliya area offers a few different tea producers that offer educational tours, like Pedro Tea Factory and Mackwoods Labukeliya Factory, while tea plantations like the Handunugoda Tea Estate offers tea tours around the plantation by horseback, luxury car or on foot.
Taiwan
Taiwan is another island historic for its teas. It’s one of the world’s largest producers of oolong tea, but also produces a variety of other teas. Its markets and big cities are also where world-famous boba tea first originated. Plenty of flavors, toppings and add-ins, including the traditional tapioca pearls, make it a fun milk tea drink with a personalized twist and unique textures that are unlike any other type of tea (or drink!) out there. What better way for a tea lover to explore the rich history of tea than by visiting Taiwan and experiencing both the traditional techniques that have been celebrated for centuries right alongside the fun and innovative ways of making tea.
Assam and Darjeeling, India
The second largest tea producer and one of the biggest tea consumers in the world is India; it has a long history of tea production, although India’s global tea production rose in global importance after the British began the British East India Company. Today, India is home to the delicious spiced milk tea we call chai tea, though the word chai just means tea in Hindi.
The regions of Assam and Darjeeling produce the most tea in India, and are famous for the black teas that come from these regions and share their name. Travelers can visit these incredible tea-producing regions to see the beautiful tea plantations for themselves, many of which in Assam are grown at high altitudes. Travelers can visit tea plantations across India, as well as enjoy easily finding a variety of teas, including chai, in outdoor tea stalls and cafes throughout the country.
Argentina
While South America is known for its coffee production, there’s one country that continues rooted in its tea culture. That country is Argentina, which consumes and produces it at a higher rate than other South American countries, though others do enjoy the drink, too. It’s been drunk since pre-Columbian times and was recorded in the first journals of the Spaniards who arrived on the continent.
Yerba mate is high in caffeine and traditionally steeped in a gourd without a tea bag or infuser, it’s drunk with a special straw that acts like a sieve to ensure drinkers don’t drink the tea with the yerba leaves and is considered a way to foster closer connections with friends and family.
Argentina is the greatest drinker of mate, with each person drinking about 22 gallons of the tea each year! Travelers who go anywhere in Argentina can enjoy the drink and even purchase a traditional drinking gourd, straw and mate leaves to bring home, while travelers can follow the Yerba Mate Route in the Corrientes and Misiones regions of the country, which includes museums, plantations, incredible scenery and more.
South Africa
South Africa might be more famous for its Big Five animals and stunning natural landscapes, but did you know it’s also known for growing two of some of the most popular herbal teas? Rooibos and honeybush teas have been grown in South Africa for about three hundred years, and continue to be enjoyed by locals today. Rooibos is endemic to South Africa, and cannot be grown anywhere else in the world, which means if you’re traveling there anytime soon and you love tea, you have to pick some up or try a cup of the smooth, caffeine-free red tea.
The area near the Cederberg mountain region is where travelers can find the rooibos plantations and other fun tea-centric activities along the Rooibos Route. The town of Clanwilliam offers the Rooibos Tea House, which offers more than 100 different types and flavors of rooibos to try! Travelers can take a plantation tour at Skimmelberg before staying at a nearby lodge, like the luxurious Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat.
Kenya
Kenya is one of the leading exporters of tea in the world, growing a wide variety of teas including black, green, white and even purple teas! Travelers taking an African safari in Kenya can enjoy sipping on locally produced brews morning and night, while travelers wanting to learn more about this important export can visit the Kiambethu Farm, just a short drive away from Nairobi. Five generations of the same family have grown and harvested tea in the region since 1910! Tours are guided by the family and include in-depth discussions on tea production and include lunch with a cup of tea.
London, England
Lastly, but certainly not least, is London. While it doesn’t produce any tea, it is noted here because it’s the capital of the British Empire, which we recognize for making tea a truly globalized affair, and it colonized many of the countries on this list because of it. Travelers to London can enjoy taking an afternoon tea at many of the city’s best attractions, like the British Museum, Buckingham Palace or even on a boat along the Thames! The oldest tea shop in London, Twinings – The Strand, which has been a London name for over 300 years, is a perfect place to buy a souvenir, while tea lovers wanting to learn more about the British history of tea should visit Bramah’s Museum of Tea and Coffee.