Mississippi's first tea plantation takes root
Despite the cold winter and excess rainfall, tea bushes in Mississippi's first tea farm are thriving this summer and thousands more are being planted in order to bring back the American tea growing tradition. The Great Mississippi Tea Company, previously known as FiLoLi Tea Farm, currently grows 250 one-gallon plants and 10 three-gallon plants, but is undertaking a bigger propagation program with thousands of additional plants added to the plantation. The company thereby hopes to bring back the glory days of the US tea industry that thrived briefly in late 19th and early 20th centuries. The plantation is also participating in a worldwide study on tea cultivars to identify best-suited growth and cultivation methods for the climate of Mississippi.