DAINTREE TEA FARM VISIT
Travelling is part of our life goals and we’re fortunate to do it often. When we’re in a new place, we love to search out tea, in local cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and especially on the land. When we found ourselves up in Cape Tribulation recently (a few hours north of Cairns), we dropped in to the Daintree Tea Farm.
Established in 1978, the family owned plantation produces black, unblended, pure tea that’s grown in the wet tropical rainforest of North Queensland.
While there wasn’t a visitors centre or any other public facilities to speak of, we found something else that was particularly charming. As we turned off the main road that divides the planation in two, we headed towards an old open sided shed that sat alongside some vintage tea processing machinery. Inside, there was information and photos of the farm and tea processing, and to our surprise, a rusty metal trunk, filled with tea. “This wouldn’t last long in Newtown,” we joked. We deposited our coins into the Honesty Box and took out a couple of packets of black loose leaf tea.
We walked up close to the tea plants and it was interesting to see the difference between these and the ones from North East Victoria. The Daintree plants were dense and mature, with bunched, twisted branches and huge lower leaves, a result of almost 40 years of cultivation. The Victorian plantations are much younger in age, having been planted in 2001, and they also neatly display the manicured precision of Japanese led farming practices.
How does Daintree grown tea taste? Absolutely beautiful. We were delighted but not really surprised to find it was excellent black tea – medium strength, balanced, clean, fresh and full of flavour – just how we like our tea.
