I attended “Wine and Travel Week” in Porto, Portugal in February. The takeaway was that wine is only a gateway into tourism. Yes wine and wineries are a great attraction for many but broaden that experience to include, gastronomy and local cultural sights and you have “wine tourism”. This is the reason so many wineries have their own restaurants where wine and food are the stars. And after some press trips to Italy and Portugal some of these winery restaurants are spectacular.
So I have strayed into food tourism outside the realm of a restaurant and brought back to Canada some tea, jams, honey, canned tuna, cheese and sardines. Gastronomic products perhaps!
Green tea in Portugal? No not green tea from outside Portugal but Portuguese green tea! In this case it is from Gorreana in S. Miguel in the Portuguese Azores. Gorreana is the only tea plantation in Europe. It produces 40 tons of tea annually.
Aroma: Green apple, bitter Azorean orange marmalade, apricots and asparagus.
Palate: Pear, mango, apricot are smoothly and delicately intertwined for a perfect mid weight afternoon tea. Long but a gentle finish with low tannins.
Personality: I am a Portuguese tea grown in the verdant Azores rather out there in the Atlantic Ocean. I am a serious green tea grown without pesticides, preservatives fungicides or herbicides. Gorreana has been growing me since 1883.
Food Match: Zucchini bread.
RKS 2023 Tea Meister Rating: 89/100.
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