The tea garden
There is a magical place near Lake Maggiore, the unique territory of Val d'Ossola with parks and natural oasis of rare beauty, scattered with historic villages and rich of culture, ancient traditions and folklore.
It is in Val d'Ossola, in the Premosello plantation, that our project came to life:
to create and distribute a precious all-Italian tea, grown and produced with love.
Everything is born from the partnership between La Via del Tè and La Compagnia del Lago Maggiore, from the union of the expertise of the Carrai family and the Zacchera family, skilled nursery farmers of Azaleas and Camellias who, several years ago, started to successfully reproduce tea camellias as well.
The Compagnia del Lago won the prestigious Bandiera Verde Gold Agricoltura 2022, thanks to the innovative tea cultivation.
The plantation currently grows around 20,000 Camellia Sinensis plants, in various stages of growth, with the idea of expansion in the coming years.
Most of the plants have been reproduced from seeds coming from the tea cultivation area of Rize, in Turkey. Premosello is the second largest plantation in Europe after the Azzorre and the first one in Italy able to guarantee an appreciable and stable tea production. A truely special place, with a peculiar microclimate, bathed by the Toce river and surrounded by the pristine majesty of the Alpine peaks.
A place where the transition of the seasons flows with the rhythms of the land and time seems to expand.
A truly unique tea
We have been faced many challenges to develop the project; many trips and a lot of study have been necessary to understand the growing and processing techniques, in order to offer a truly unique product that fully reflects its terroir.
Making quality tea is not easy, and it is first and foremost the cultivation that is important: at Premosello no chemicals are used, neither to fertilise nor to protect the plants from pests or diseases; weeding is still done by hand and using the straw mulching technique.
From harvesting, traditionally done by hand with selection of only the apical buds and the first two tender leaves underneath, to the still artisanal processing using a few simple machines, every decision in this delicate process of making tea is a new challenge and, as with wine, it takes years to refine the techniques. Once the type of tea to be obtained has been established, and therefore the working process, it is important to bear in mind that every little change, from the time the leaves are rolled, to the withering time, to the drying time, determines a different end product.
It all comes down to skill and sensitivity to produce a completely natural tea with perfectly defined characteristics of body, fragrance, aroma and flavour.
For us at La Via del Tè it is a dream coming true, Italian tea at last, from the tea bush to the cup.
A handcrafted tea, solely picked by hand, selecting buds and leaves one by one. A limited production, a tea like no other. Book it now and make sure you can order it as soon as it becomes available. You will be notified by e-mail as soon as it is in stock and you will get priority purchase.
