The history of tea in Aotearoa New Zealand — a story of ocean journeys, kitchen tables, working lives and the enduring pleasure of putting the kettle on.
Explore the story ↓The story of tea here sits alongside an older relationship with native plants. Māori knowledge of plants such as kawakawa and mānuka belongs to rongoā Māori, a healing tradition with its own cultural and spiritual foundations. It deserves to be understood on those terms. [1]
Tea made from Camellia sinensis arrived through European trade and settlement. Sealers and whalers sometimes received tea as payment; Cook’s crew also brewed mānuka leaves as a substitute. [2]
A useful distinction: black, green and oolong teas come from Camellia sinensis. Native botanical infusions are a different part of the story.
As tea became cheaper, it found a place with wealthy households and working people alike. Temperance supporters welcomed it as an alternative to alcohol. Morning and afternoon tea became familiar pauses in the day. [2]
The Tea Examination Act addressed adulteration — the practice of adding unwanted materials to tea. A daily staple now had a specific safeguard for its quality. [3]
Bell Tea was introduced and its trademark registered in 1898. Its story offers a glimpse of the merchants and blenders who helped make tea a recognisable household product. [4]
Dining cars disappeared from main trunk expresses as a wartime measure. Station refreshment rooms became a much-loved part of the journey: a dash for sandwiches, cakes and tea before the train moved on. [5]
Tea rationing began on 1 June 1942 and ended on 31 May 1948. Even this ordinary comfort was caught up in the pressures of war and its aftermath. [6]
Tea bags arrived in the 1970s. Meanwhile, coffee’s growing appeal gradually changed the country’s drinking habits. The pot faced new competition, though tea retained its place. [2]
Tea accompanied farm work, manual labour and picnic baskets. The working tea break offered a pause; afternoon tea brought its own cups, saucers and baking. Scones, cakes and biscuits became part of the welcome. [3]
Different settings, but a familiar gesture: stop for a moment, pour a cup, spend time together.
Tea also offered respite far from home. First World War soldier Norman Gray described the relief of reaching a YMCA canteen where tea and biscuits waited after exhausting work in the rain. [3]
Such accounts give the everyday cup a different weight. Its value lay in warmth, a break, and a little normality.
New Zealand’s relationship with tea also has a horticultural history — one of research, international knowledge and growers willing to try something different.
Long before Zealong, growers around Motueka were exploring tea as an alternative to tobacco. As the tobacco industry faced pressure, diversification offered a possible new direction for established farms. [7]
This was more than a few experimental bushes. A growers’ co-operative shared harvesting equipment and a processing plant, turning a research idea into a regional crop. [7]
The project centred on Japanese-style green tea and the cultivar Yabukita. A contemporary horticultural article, catalogued by the National Library, records the purchase of Yabukita in 1981 and propagation trials at the Riwaka Research Station. [8]
Japanese advisers were also involved. A 1997 account by horticulturist Peter E. Smale describes their assessments of growers’ land, showing how overseas expertise helped shape the project. [9]
Yet an established tea cultivar could not remove the risks of a different climate. Frost, coastal wind damage and other production difficulties reduced the planted area. The experience remains an important early chapter in commercial tea-growing here. [7]
Correspondence between DSIR scientist Peter Smale and Unilever researcher Nigel J. T. Melican gives this story a firmer chronology. Alongside Smale’s paper, Establishing a New Zealand Green Tea Industry, it records the practical work behind the Nelson venture. [12]
Smale traced local interest back to the 1920s, when Motueka farmers investigated both tobacco and tea. He also described seed-grown trials on the South Island’s West Coast in the 1960s, which struggled to become a commercial industry. [12]
In 1979, DSIR studied the economics of black-tea production in the region. Tea could grow, but New Zealand’s production costs made the proposed crop uneconomic. A Japanese buyer’s interest in green tea changed the commercial outlook. [12]
Two grower representatives visited Japan in 1981 to purchase Yabukita planting material. In May 1983, 800 rooted plants were released from quarantine to Riwaka Research Station. Smale identified the prospective buyer as Sagara Bussan, interested in production from 100 hectares. [12]
DSIR developed ways to multiply the limited stock. By 1985, leaf-bud cuttings helped conserve material and scale up production; growers subsequently took over propagation. Tea planting used adapted tobacco equipment and orchard machinery — an unusually direct link between the old crop and the new. [12]
Smale records planting in spring 1987 and early spring 1988. His paper reports two million cuttings set since 1985, with approximately 60 hectares planted by the time of writing. [12]
In his letter of 6 November 1990, Smale reports 120 hectares planted. All initial production was intended for Japan, with processing lines to be imported from there and some field equipment made locally. [12]
The contemporary paper and letter describe different stages of development. Later accounts give different area figures; planted land and land in production should not be treated as interchangeable.
At Purangi Estate, Robert Evans set out to preserve tea plants threatened with destruction during the South Island project. Having grown up in Hong Kong, he had seen tea gardens lost there too. [13]
New Zealand Geographic reported in 2012 that his collection contained 63 varieties of Camellia sinensis. They formed a living resource for exploring what could grow in the Coromandel. [13]
During the 1990s, Evans visited Asian tea producers and ran local trials. A 1997 report to the Thames Valley Coromandel Business Development Board proposed small black-tea gardens and tea tourism. [13]
Purangi adds a chapter about preserving diversity and investigating possibilities alongside the larger commercial ventures.
This account describes the estate as documented in 2012; it does not establish the collection’s present size or visitor access.
Zealong’s founders, Tzu Chen and his son Vincent, were inspired by camellias flourishing in New Zealand. Their Taiwanese background brought a different growing and tea-making tradition to the story. [10]
In 1996, 1,500 tea cuttings were imported. Only 130 plants remained after quarantine. Through propagation and years of development, those survivors became the foundation of Zealong’s Waikato estate. [11]
The first commercial products launched in December 2009. Taiwanese pickers and a specialist tea-maker contributed skills that took the project from healthy plants to finished oolong tea. [10]
Zealong now describes an estate of 48 certified organic hectares and more than 1.2 million tea plants. Its story gives New Zealand-grown tea an international presence, building a lasting enterprise after earlier efforts in the South Island. [11]
The connections are distinct: Japanese green-tea expertise shaped the Nelson venture; Taiwanese growing and tea-making knowledge shaped Zealong.
Our part in this story began with tea seeds imported from Yunnan, China. Alongside our work as tea merchants, we began a growing project of our own — bringing the living plant into our relationship with tea.
Our small planting comprises around 600 plants across approximately 0.4 hectares. It is a different scale from a large estate, but another part of the developing story of tea grown here.
The preparations began in 2020, with arrangements for post-entry quarantine at ArborGen and an application for an MPI import permit that December. Approval followed in April 2021; the seeds came to New Zealand later that year.
Importing living plant material meant a further period of waiting and care. The seeds entered ArborGen’s Level 3 post-entry quarantine programme, with release following in December 2022.
This chapter connects Yunnan’s tea-growing heritage with a small New Zealand planting. It also brings our journal closer to the practical work behind a cup: establishing plants, watching their development and learning from the place where they grow.
Quarantine arrangements secured in September; MPI import-permit application submitted in December.
Import approval in April, followed by the arrival of the Yunnan seeds later in the year.
The post-entry quarantine period concludes with release in December.
From Nelson’s Japanese green-tea venture to Zealong’s Taiwanese roots, and now our own Yunnan seeds, tea-growing in New Zealand has been shaped by knowledge crossing oceans.
For Noble & Sunday, it is a story we are beginning to take part in — one plant, one season and one cup at a time.
