Commercial tea cultivation in the Americas was first attempted in 1744 in
Colonial Georgia, when tea seeds were sent to the Trust Garden in
Savannah. The first recorded successful cultivation of the tea plant in the colonies is recorded as growing on
Skidaway Island near Savannah in 1772 In 1863,
The New York Times reported the discovery of tea plants growing natively in Western
Maryland and
Pennsylvania, sparking an interest in cultivating the plants commercially. In 1880, the US Government hired John Jackson, an experienced tea planter in India, to cultivate tea plants planted 30 years earlier in
Liberty County, Georgia. This proved unsuccessful. The
Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America, briefly produced tea in California in the 1870s.
Hawaii Tea was introduced in Hawaii in 1887 and was commercially grown until 1892. While it is not clear why the tea was eventually discontinued, historians believe higher wages compared to other prime tea growing areas in Asia and Africa were among the deciding factors. Lower production costs of tea's main rival,
coffee, also helped prevent it from establishing a foothold. In the 1960s,
Lipton and A&B formed a joint venture to investigate the possibility of growing tea commercially in Hawaii. Both companies decided not to open gardens on the Island but rather to open gardens in
Latin America.
South Carolina Junius Smith succeeded in growing tea commercially in
Greenville, South Carolina, from 1848 until his death in 1853. Dr. Alexis Forster oversaw the next short-lived attempt in
Georgetown, South Carolina, from 1874 until his death in 1879. However, domestic shipping rates made selling his tea to major markets in the US difficult. These "made it cheaper for Chicagoans, for example, to buy tea from China than from Carolina" Lipton operated an experimental tea farm until it was sold in 1987 to Mack Fleming and Bill Hall, who converted the experimental farm into a working tea garden. The
Charleston Tea Plantation utilized a converted
tobacco harvester to mechanically harvest the tea. Losing money and nearly bankrupt, in 2003 the plantation was sold to
Bigelow Tea Company at a court auction for $1.28 million and was temporarily closed for renovation in order to attract tourists and boost its revenues. The garden reopened in January 2006 and gives free tours to the public. ==Alabama==