I don't think that you can visit the Sao Miguel island of the Azores without stopping to see the Gorreana Tea Factory and plantation. This is a must see location on the island, without a doubt. The Factory is open seven days a week until 6:00pm and you can make your visit as long or as short as you like, so there's really no excuse either. Just visit it, it will be worth it!
Goreana is located in the North Central part of the island near the city of Porto Formoso. It was a 20 minute drive from the town of Furnas where we were coming from that day and only about 40 minutes from the Capital, Ponta Delgada.
Fun fact, the Gorreana Tea Factory was founded in 1883 and is actually the oldest Tea factory that is still in operation in all of Europe.
The plantation is approximately 32 hectares in size and produces around 40 tons of tea each year. Inside the factory they provide free samples of their "broken leaf" tea for you to try. We learned that broken leaf tea is basically the third cutting of the season.
It was very watered down and essentially had no taste at all. It was free so we weren't complaining or anything but it didn't make us want to purchase any tea to bring home.
At their restaurant/canteen I ordered a coffee that day and it actually ended up being the best coffee that I had on the island for the entire trip. It felt a little wrong ordering coffee at a tea factory, but I don't regret the decision at all. I was chasing that high everyday thereafter.
The plantation produces all natural and organic tea without the use of pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.
The volcanic and acidic soil, as well as the islands humid conditions, make it the perfect location to grow both Green and Black teas.
I couldn't tell what type of tea we were seeing when walking through the plantation. We could tell that the bushes were freshly cut though.
You're allowed to wander freely through the property (being respectful of course) and that was a very neat experience and highly recommended.
It was actually better than walking through a vineyard because the bushes were shorter than grape vines so you could stand in between them and still see overtop them. They were packed together tightly as well which created a neat looking terraced landscape.
There was a circular hiking path that cut through and around the property that took us about 30 minutes to complete.
We stopped for many photoshoots along the way.
The skies were dark and a little overcast, so not the greatest for pictures, but it was quite warm out and still very picturesque so we enjoyed the mini hike quite a bit.
At the top of the hill there was a great view of the ocean which in itself was worth the walk up there.
This was my favorite spot for photos, as you can see. I got my wife to pose for a while, while I snapped some pictures.
After the hike we drove back to Ponta Delgada to check into our hotel. The plantation is located right off a main road of the island and we passed by it a few time on our trip while driving to other destinations. You don't need an appointment to visit which is convenient and there is parking there, though it was somewhat limited with the amount of visitors. Nonetheless Ill say it again, I would highly recommend checking it out if you visit the islands. It was well worth it in my opinion.