We are 2 out of 3 French people who regularly drink tea. It mainly comes from abroad, but a local from the Loire decided to start growing this plant three years ago.
Delicately, Julien David picks the first leaves of his tea plants. This master blender of teas planted his first shrubs three years ago in Pouilly-les-Nonains in the Loire, a first in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
An experimental plot with 1250 tea trees
Julien David found that there were not enough tea producers in France. Between the Monts du Lyonnais and the Monts de la Madeleine, he therefore decided to plant 1250 tea trees.
“This idea came from an observation, he explains. Being an artisanal tea blender, ultimately, we have a carbon footprint that is quite catastrophic by importing teas from the other side of the planet. And this period made us think. The port of Shanghai closed for several months, a risk of conflict between China and Taiwan. We said to ourselves that in the long term, 10 years from now, we don’t know if we can continue to import tea like that.“For now, the few leaves harvested will go to the dryer. Julien is in the testing phase and there is still a long way to go.
Tea plants adapted to our climate?
A decade is the time it will take for Julien to experiment with the growth of his Camélias sinensis, a variety of tea plant adapted to the Loire climate. “We test the growth of these camellias to see if they support the summers, the winters and if they have sufficient shoots to be able to harvest the young leaves in the spring or in the fall of each year.“The business leader is confident even if he concedes it,”the idea is completely insane.“
Julien David would initially like to have one hectare of tea plants, or about 7,000 shrubs. Eventually, if the experiment works, he is aiming for a Camellia sinensis plantation of 10 hectares.
The art of blending tea and infusions
Before being a tea grower, David is above all a blender of flavors. It is defined as a “tea sommelier“. He created the Fabrikathé in 2016, finding the teas marketed too industrial. He combines tea with rather original flavors such as chocolate, almond or even pear. The combinations seem endless “There is a way to work with mirabelle plums, pastille de Vichy, candied chestnuts. We are going to work on this like a cooking recipe. We are going to work on the taste aspect, the aromatic aspect with flowers, fruits and spices.“David even thinks about the food and tea pairing”as one can do in gastronomy with wine“.
2023-07-09 13:41:07
#promising #tea #harvest #Loire
