ALONG THE WAY – THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI TEA COMPANY

As we travel the roads of this nation, we discover things and places we just weren’t expecting. The Great American Tea Company was one of those places. While panning our route from Biloxi, Mississippi to Homer, Louisiana I discovered a Harvest Host location which was a real surprise. I just wasn’t expecting a tea plantation in the heart of Mississippi. I didn’t even know tea grows in the U.S. So, we planned our trip to spend the night at the tea farm. It turned out to be a real treat.

Tim and Jason have been at this venture for about eight years. They currently have about seven acres of tea plants. We were permitted to park our RV just a few feet from one of the fields of tea. We were one of three RVs at the farm that night. The afternoon we arrived Tim took us on a tour of the operation and shared the story of the farm and the process from beginning to end.

We began our tour in the nursery where they are raising tea plants from seeds and cuttings. From there we saw mature tea bushes (technically tea plants are not bushes but trees which are pruned to maintain the form of a bush) where Tim explained how they harvest the tea, and how different types of teas come from specific leaves harvested from the plants. Harvesting is on going from April until the end of October. They harvest the tea with a mechanical harvester which is under development. Theirs in one of only five in the world. These guys are on the cutting edge of development. Having seen the growing operation, we moved on to the see how the tea leaves become the various types of tea and is prepared to go to market.

As you can see from the photo this was a beautiful place to spend the night. The Great Mississippi Tea Company is an excellent Harvest Host. To top it all off after a good night’s rest Tim came with tea for us to start our day. We were able to sample three of the different teas they produce. What a great way to start the day as we continued along our journey! The Great Mississippi Tea Company is a great stop along the way.