As a native of Pennsylvania writing for tea merchants headquartered in the same state, I’d like to say it’s a hotbed of tea production—but it isn’t, and likely never has been.
However, I came across an interesting historical account suggesting that wild tea plants may once have been found growing in Pennsylvania and in neighboring Maryland.
The story dates back to 1863 and was reportedly published in the New York Times. According to the account, The American Tea Company—an organization chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature—commissioned Dr. Spencer Bonsall to examine what was believed to be an “American tea plant.”
Bonsall’s conclusions were surprising. He claimed that indigenous tea plants were growing in abundance in Pennsylvania and western Maryland and that they closely resembled tea varieties cultivated in Assam, India. He even suggested that “tea equal to any that is brought from China could be made from this plant.”
Such claims naturally raise questions about the accuracy of his findings. While it’s an intriguing possibility, there is no widely accepted evidence that true tea plants were ever found growing wild in North America.
A search of New York Times archives does not readily confirm the original article, but the relevant excerpts do appear in
this archived 1864 newspaper reproduction preserving the reported Pennsylvania and Maryland tea plant account
,
published in a New Zealand paper the following year.
To read the full passage, scroll down about three-quarters of the way through the page.
While tea is still not commercially grown in Pennsylvania or Maryland, it has taken root elsewhere in the United States.
For example, as discussed in
this overview of the United States League of Tea Growers and modern American tea cultivation
,
tea is now being cultivated in states such as Virginia and several others across the country.
The article highlights the development of a small but active domestic tea industry and offers insight into its current scope.
See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles
on the tea blog author archive page
.
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