What New Zealand Tea Can Be

There is something slightly surreal about looking down from a helicopter and seeing rows of tea stretching across the Waikato. We spend a great deal of our time thinking about tea gardens thousands of kilometres away — in Japan, Sri Lanka, India, China and beyond — places where tea has been cultivated for generations and where the landscape, people and culture have grown around it. But every so often, it is worth remembering that tea is growing here too.

Recently we returned to Zealong Tea Estate, just outside Hamilton, for their second Open Day. Having been along to the first one as well, we were particularly keen to head back, see what had changed, catch up with the team and spend some time amongst what is a rather remarkable part of New Zealand's tea story. This time we decided the journey should be part of the adventure, so naturally, we arrived by helicopter.

From above, the estate takes on a completely different perspective. Long, beautifully ordered lines of Camellia sinensis sit amongst the familiar greens of the Waikato countryside. Tea isn't something you generally expect to see when flying over this part of New Zealand, which makes the sight of it all the more interesting. Once firmly back on the ground, our transport became considerably less glamorous — but arguably more enjoyable — aboard Zealong's bright red tractor. From there we slowed things down properly, wandering through the fields, looking at the plants and spending time talking tea with the lovely Zealong team.

A Tea Garden in the Waikato

Walking between rows of tea is something we never seem to tire of. Wherever tea is grown, the garden tells you a great deal about the place. Soil, climate, pruning, rainfall, temperature and the decisions made by the people looking after the plants all eventually find their way into the cup.

At Zealong, that environment is distinctly New Zealand. Their tea-growing story began in the 1990s, ultimately establishing what is now New Zealand's only commercial tea estate. That alone is an impressive undertaking, particularly when you consider there was no long-established New Zealand tea industry to follow. There were no generations of local tea makers handing down exactly when to pick, how the plants would respond to Waikato winters, or precisely how tea leaf grown here should be processed. Much of that knowledge had to be developed here, and that is perhaps one of the things we appreciate most about Zealong. They haven't simply grown tea in New Zealand; they have had to work out what New Zealand tea actually is.

The Oolongs

For us, some of Zealong's most compelling teas are their oolongs. Oolong occupies a fascinating space in tea making. It is often described as sitting somewhere between green and black tea, but that explanation barely does it justice. The degree of oxidation, bruising, resting, rolling, roasting and drying gives the tea maker an enormous palette to work with, and relatively small changes during processing can create remarkably different results from essentially the same fresh leaf.

Zealong has become very good at this. Their oolongs are aromatic, layered and structured, and they continue to change beautifully across repeated infusions. More importantly, they feel distinctly Zealong. Rather than constantly comparing them with oolong from Taiwan or China, it is more interesting to think about them as an expression of this particular place. They are grown in Waikato soil, under New Zealand weather, and processed by a team that has spent years learning how their own leaf behaves.

That sense of identity is what makes them exciting. Great tea does not always need to imitate something that already exists elsewhere. Sometimes the most interesting result comes from allowing a place and a team to gradually develop their own style.

A New Zealand Green Tea Powder

One of the most interesting conversations during this visit was around something considerably newer: Zealong's green tea powder.

With the enormous global growth of matcha, it would be very easy to mill green tea into a fine powder and market it using the language and imagery associated with Japanese matcha. What we liked was how clearly the Zealong team made the distinction. This is not something they are trying to present as Japanese matcha. It is their own powdered tea, made from tea grown here in New Zealand, and that makes it much more interesting in its own right.

Matcha belongs to a particular Japanese tea tradition, with its own history, cultivation and processing methods. Zealong's powder comes from a completely different place and a different tea-making story. Once you stop asking whether it is trying to be matcha, you can appreciate it for what it is: a finely powdered New Zealand-grown tea with its own flavour, texture and identity.

It is also a really interesting addition to the Tea Room. There are familiar aspects to drinking powdered green tea — body, intensity and texture from consuming the whole leaf — but the flavour belongs to the material and processing at Zealong. It can be served in a very different way from traditional loose-leaf tea, opening another door into the world of tea for people who might not normally sit down for multiple infusions of oolong.

For us, that is where this sort of experimentation becomes exciting. Tradition is hugely important in tea, and so is understanding and respecting where particular tea styles come from. But tea also needs producers prepared to experiment and ask what their own environment might allow them to create. A New Zealand producer does not need to pretend to be Japanese, Chinese, Indian or Sri Lankan. The more interesting question is what tea can become when it is grown here.

Zealong's oolongs are one answer to that question. Their green tea powder is another.

Learning by Growing

One thing travelling through tea-producing countries continually teaches us is that making good tea is never simply a matter of planting a tea bush. Growing the leaf is only the beginning. Picking standards, withering, oxidation, rolling, roasting, drying and countless small adjustments during production can turn the same fresh leaf into entirely different teas.

Standing in the fields and talking with the Zealong team gives you a much better appreciation for that. There is machinery, agricultural science and careful production, certainly, but there are also people making decisions at every stage. Tea is ultimately a very human product, and those conversations are invariably our favourite part of visiting any tea garden. You can read books about tea for years, but there is always something new to learn from someone who spends their days amongst the plants.

Why New Zealand Tea Matters

New Zealand is unlikely to become one of the world's great tea-producing nations by volume, and nor does it need to. What makes Zealong interesting is precisely the opposite. It is tea grown somewhere unexpected, and tea with a genuine sense of place.

As tea merchants, we think that matters. Some of the most interesting things happening in tea come from growers asking what a particular landscape might contribute to the finished cup. Importantly, that does not mean trying to reproduce exactly what somebody else has already perfected.

New Zealand does not need to make Japanese matcha or Taiwanese oolong. It needs to discover what happens when Camellia sinensis is grown in New Zealand soil, exposed to our seasons and then placed in the hands of people prepared to spend decades understanding it. That is a much more interesting pursuit.

Looking at Tea Differently

Perhaps the nicest thing about an Open Day is seeing people who do not work in tea walking through a tea field for the first time. For most of us, tea arrives in a packet. We boil the kettle, add water and rarely think about what happened before those leaves reached us.

Standing amongst living tea bushes changes that relationship slightly. You begin to understand that tea is agriculture before it is a beverage. There are seasons, weather, insects, soil, pruning, harvesting windows and people making hundreds of decisions before anyone gets anywhere near putting the kettle on.

For us, the day brought together many of the things we love most about this industry: a helicopter over the Waikato, a slightly more agricultural ride behind a red tractor, long walks between rows of tea, some seriously good oolong, a fascinating new take on powdered tea, and plenty of conversation with the people responsible for growing it.

We've been fortunate to walk through tea gardens in some extraordinary parts of the world. It is rather nice to know that every now and again, we can do it here at home too.