Learn more about how tea is grown and taste premium CA GROWN tea varieties at Redwood Tea Estate.

Redwood Tea Estate is just minutes outside of Stockton, but as you leave the city streets and travel into miles of orchards and flourishing farmland, you enter a whole new world. Here, you’ll find a relaxing oasis where guests can experience an educational tea sampling, tour the shady, flower-filled grounds and learn more about how tea is grown in California.

Redwood Tea Estate is California’s largest tea producer – and one of only a handful of commercial tea farms in the entire state. We met with co-founder and head tea maker, Patrick Sunbury, to get the tea (see what we did there?). 

Growing premium tea in California’s Central Valley

Patrick explains that tea requires a very specific terroir to produce a premium product. “People are very selective in where they grow tea in the world, and a big marker of quality in most parts of the world is elevation. Typically in Asia, where teas grow, and they want to go to higher elevation to get a higher quality tea – stress produces the phytochemicals responsible for flavor.” 

The thinner air, increased UV intensity and pronounced diurnal shifts often found at high elevation create the desired stress response in the tea plants. Patrick, however, discovered that although Stockton is situated at sea level, its unique terroir is remarkably well-suited to growing tea. He explains, “Bizarrely enough, we have many of the analogous factors but in a maritime-influenced Mediterranean climate. During our summer months, our growing months, we tend to have a ton of UV exposure. We don’t have lots of rain or clouds. Additionally, since we’re influenced by the Delta, our nighttime temperatures can sink to 60 or 65 degrees Fahrenheit, where our daytime temperatures oftentimes are 95. That big diurnal swing will create analogous stress and a lot of the different flavor profiles.”

Learning the ropes

Patrick planted his first tea field on February 14, 2020, after a neurological eye disease necessitated a career change. “I had to pivot to something that would involve me being outdoors more, away from a computer.” Around that same time period, Patrick’s grandmother passed away, leaving her half-acre Stockton property unoccupied. Patrick joined forces with his father to brainstorm commodities that could be grown on such a small scale and potentially turn a profit. “We had to try to grow something that nobody else grows so we could be first to market,” he recalls.  

Transitioning from a career as a landscape architect to farming involved quite a bit of trial and error. “You have to just treat it as an experiment,” he quips. 

California tea farmers are few and far between. Without a mentor, Patrick garnered much of his information from the internet – and even that had pitfalls, “It’s a little tricky when you’re trying to grow a crop where there’s not much institutional or local wisdom – what works in India doesn’t work here necessarily. For us, a lot of it is experimentation. This is a giant test plot, basically, trying to learn what works and what doesn’t work.”

Working with nature

Today, Patrick farms his original half-acre plot at Redwood Tea Estate, in addition to 3.5 acres in nearby Lodi. Explaining his growing methodology as regenerative and organic, he states, “We try to work with nature and not against it.” 

Encouraging biodiversity

Encouraging biodiversity is an essential part of Patrick’s farming philosophy. His Stockton farm is surrounded by redwood trees and Valley Oaks, a native tree that provides habitat for birds and insects, and native hedgerows planted throughout the tea field to host beneficial insects and native wildlife. 

Promoting soil health 

Tea plants thrive in fluffy, acidic soils rather than the heavy clay soils found throughout much of the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to amending the soil before planting, Patrick regularly adds organic matter to improve soil health continually. He avoids tilling the soil, planting the rows tightly with small mulch-covered rows in between. This eliminates the need for herbicides, helps increase moisture retention and allows beneficial microorganisms that promote long-term soil health to remain undisturbed. Patrick adds, “Overall, the land’s improving more in health and in quality than if we weren’t here at all.”

Managing pests, naturally

Beneficial insects are Patrick’s first line of defense when pest problems arise. Sharing a few examples, Patrick states, “We have some issues with aphids occasionally. We introduce ladybugs to counteract them. We have caterpillars from cabbage looper butterflies, and we have introduced parasitoid wasps to counteract them. There’s this yin-yang balance…we try to use natural means to deal with all these issues.” 

One plant, four delicious teas

Interestingly, only one plant – camellia sinensis – is needed to create white, green, oolong and black tea. Patrick notes, “It’s just the processing that allows us to make the different teas.”

Premium teas are made exclusively with the youngest, finest leaves. Because this process is so selective, most teas are hand-harvested.

Walking to a tea bush and plucking the two youngest leaves and a bud, Patrick explains, “They’re very soft and supple. They can be manipulated to make the different teas. Younger leaves are easily rolled or bruised where the older leaves will just tear.” Patrick also notes the flavor difference, stating, “The younger leaves tend to have more delicate, nuanced flavors.” 

All of Patrick’s teas are estate-grown, harvested and processed in small batches. He shakes his head and states, “You see this giant plant, but if you look at it, we can only use two leaves and a bud.” He pauses, letting that sink in, and then continues, “If I ran through this entire tea field and plucked tea, we might only have anywhere from four to ten finished pounds.”

What types of tea are offered at Redwood Tea Estate?

Once the leaves are harvested, the way they are processed varies depending on which type of tea Patrick chooses to produce. “We harness the power of oxidation to create something that’s either fully oxidized, which is black tea, something that has zero oxidation, which is green tea, or something in between, which is going to be white or oolong teas”, Patrick explains. 

Green tea 

To make green tea, the tea leaves are harvested and then carefully stirred in a wok until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Patrick notes, “You kill all living enzymes inside the tea and preserve it into that bright green beverage we all know and love.”

White tea

Creating white tea is also relatively straightforward. Patrick says, “We’ll take the two leaves and a bud, and we simply dry it.” The leaves are left in the open air for a few hours, then finished in the oven to ensure the tea is evenly dried. 

Oolong tea

To create oolong tea, the leaves are allowed to wither for two to four hours before they are lightly distressed. Patrick explains, “You bounce it around in bamboo baskets – just gentle bruising.”

Black tea

Black tea is fully oxidized and endures the most handling. Detailing the process, Patrick states, “Black tea, you’ll let it wither, and then you will knead it like bread for 45 minutes. Then you put it in a bread proofer for four hours, then you put it in the oven,” Patrick states. “The bread proofer speeds up the oxidation for the most potent flavor.” 

Once the tea-making process is complete, the leaves are sealed into one-ounce, compostable packages and stored to minimize exposure to temperature changes that can affect the quality of the tea. 

How to make the perfect cup of tea

1. Add the tea leaves to the teapot or infuser.
2. Pour the hot water into the teapot. Temperature matters. Water should be about 175 degrees for green and white teas, 195 for oolong, and 205 for black tea.
3. Brew the tea for 2-3 minutes. 

Fun fact: Save the leaves! Unlike tea bags, loose leaf teas can be used for three to five steepings. 

Educational tours + tastings

Patrick hopes that every visit to Redwood Tea Estate is both relaxing and educational. He says, “When people come here, we want them to have a more intimate connection with where tea comes from, so they can have a greater appreciation for what they make as part of their daily ritual.”

Patrick explains that while many of his guests enjoy tea regularly, they often have no connection to the grower or knowledge of how it’s grown. “It’s a beautiful experience for people to actually see the tea plants. Touch them, learn about them, and really get in touch with where their daily ritual comes from,” he raves. While walking tour guests through the tea fields, Patrick explains how tea plants are grown and harvested, the importance of sustainability and then ends the tour with a visit to the botanical gardens. “They house a lot of biodiversity,” Patrick notes. “It’s a really interesting gallery of edible plants you can grow in California, so you can see what’s possible here.” 

Every visit ends with a guided tasting of California-Grown tea, which Patrick refers to as an “educational sampling”. “We try to educate people in terms of how to use premium loose leaf teas – the dose, the amount of water you combine with the leaf, the steep time, the different temperatures and the different colors or flavors of it,” he explains. “We want to show people how to actually brew tea properly so they can get the most out of it.”

Visit Redwood Tea Estate

Redwood Tea Estate is open to the public by appointment only. Visit their website to book your tour!

Redwood Tea Estate premium loose-leaf teas can be purchased online. Are you a true enthusiast? Join the California Tea Reserve Tea Club. California Tea Reserve Members enjoy early access and exclusive offerings of Redwood Tea Estate’s high-quality tea. 

Article and photography by Hilary Rance.