Camellia Tea

A story with a happy ending. It began as a dream. An idea, perhaps. Later, a desire. It didn’t take long for it to be put into practice. Nina Gruntkowski and Dirk Niepoort, together, in love and work, created Chá Camélia on the coast of Portugal, in Vila do Conde, a place where tea is treated as art.

Each plant needs five years to grow and produce its first harvest

But it all began 10 years ago, when the couple planted their first species of camellia in one of the pots in their house in Oporto. It was then that they realised their dream would come true. And so, over the course of five years, with the help of a plant producer, they increased the plantation on the land which belonged to Dirk’s family and which today has 12,000 plants. A field full of camellia flowers. So yellow and elegant. A small flower. But beautiful. On our visit to the property we felt the purity of this plant. Its smell. Its beauty. And the incredible flavours. From the seeds to the cuttings, we learnt all about the production process of the teas. The work runs to a biodynamic agenda here – the Camellia Tea is organically certified -, «in the sense that no heavy machinery is used on the land, everything is cleaned by hand», the project’s mentor reveals.
This is a project that needs a lot of patience, dedication and passion. Each plant needs five years to grow and produce its first harvest. And the compost itself is produced on the land, the straw and the leaves form the organic manure, which after a year is applied organically to the plants.
We took a walk through the plantation and got to know the oldest and the youngest trees. An intrinsic beauty. And an incredible smell. But the most irresistible experience comes when we sit down to taste the teas and realise that from the leaves of the plant you can prepare teas with colours: white, yellow and green. This is where you understand that tea production is far more complex than we might imagine. And this is why Nina sought help, in the beginning, and partnered up with Haruyo and Shigeru Morimoti, a couple from Miyazaki in southern Japan, «they helped us with the growing and then we learned about the production». Meanwhile, at Nina and Dirk’s house the plants in the garden were changed to 200 camellias. Just a few! When they saw that there was no more space to plant, they moved to a land in Vila do Conde, where the dream took off and today is the core of this project.

One of Nina’s goals is to open a pottery studio on site, make her own pottery and do workshops with professionals

It was in 2019 when the first harvest took place. «Tea leaves in the spring, the harvest began at the end of March, the moment when we picked the bud, the first two very fine and tender leaves», Nina recounts. And from those leaves they produced green tea, inspired by Japan. «We work with Japanese production techniques, but more artisanal than in most productions in Japan, because there it’s more mechanised, here it’s more by hand», she concludes.  But the inspiration is from there.
The following month, in May, there is a halt. «If it rains in May, which it usually does, we have a second harvest in June, the so-called summer harvest.» The spring harvest gives rise to the Nosso Chá (Our Tea), the summer one to Luso Chá (Luso Tea), a tribute to the Portuguese, who were the first to bring tea from Asia to Europe, and the autumn harvest, to the Colheita do Outono (Autumn Harvest), which we found out about at the time of our visit to the site [November 2021]. «We pick those flowers by hand and dry them, then this produces a tisane, a hubert tea. Everything that is true green, white or black tea, «originates from the leaf of the Camellia Sinensis – the tea plant. Everything that comes from flowers and herbs, which don’t contain caffeine, like the flower of the Camellia Sinensis, are considered tisanes.»
The more inquisitive note that, in terms of quantities, Chá Cámelia produces around 12 kilos of dried flowers, which is a lot if you consider that we’re talking about leaves, light ones at that. When it comes to teas, they have been increasing the quantity as the plants themselves are also growing and bearing more fruit. «In 2020, COVID-19 year, we had the harvest in the first week of the lockdown, which was wonderful to clear the head, and we got almost 50 kg of tea and this year 2021 we got almost 85 kg.»   

They export to the United States, Macau, Hong Kong

As we walked in between the branches, Nina explained to us that the aim is to create a tea with a unique profile, of very good quality. And indeed when it comes to healthy and natural farming, and respecting nature, the product turns out to be extraordinary. «The teas we make have a little touch of the sea to them, a sweetness different from other teas, and a freshness of the green.» It is this philosophy that Nina has based it all on. And she obviously hopes for an increase in quantity, perhaps one day reaching, in the best case scenario, «200 kg».
Of course harvests can change from year to year and depending on the weather. And do you know how these harvests are done? For the leaf harvest they don’t accept volunteers (which usually happens with the other harvests), because it is a more demanding work, and because you need to know how to do it, otherwise you may damage the plant. Only people from the ‘house’ know how to do it. At the same time, Erika Kobayashi from Brazil has been working with Nina since 2019, assisting in harvesting and doing tea workshops. Using social media, newsletter and email, Nina communicates the dates and volunteers can sign up for the harvests, which usually happen in October and November, on Fridays, between 10 am and 12 pm, always with a tea flower tasting at the end, along with a small gift to take home.

Over 50 varieties of teas are available on the website

How does the whole process work? Simple: first the flowers are picked, then they are spread out on trays, for them to dry in the open air, and finally they go for four hours into the dehydrator. Then they are dry. Besides the flower and the leaf, the seeds are also used. They put the seeds in pots and create their own plants, for example, which they then sell, either on the website or directly on site. In addition to this, you can also find online crockery (teapot and cups) with a suitable design for serving and enjoying tea.
But the most beautiful thing about this fresh, yet dried flower is when you put it in hot water and it opens up. It is so yellow. Beautiful. And an aroma hangs in the air. Quite wonderful.