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Photo by Tamara Leigh
Victor Vesely
Victor Vesely among the 800 tea plants on the Westholme Tea Farm property in the Cowichan Valley.
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Photo by Tamara Leigh
Tea Leaves
Only the top two leaves and bud are used to create Tree Frog Spring Green.
It takes courage to try something completely different, and passion to craft it into something that can be shared. At Westholme Tea Company, Victor Vesely and Margit Nelleman have used their courage and passion to grow and craft Canada’s first estate-grown tea, pioneering a new tradition in an ancient tea culture.
Located in the Cowichan Valley, the community of Westholme was one of the first agricultural settlements on Vancouver Island. When Victor and Margit first moved from Vancouver in 2003, they transformed the old dairy barn into a studio for Margit’s clay works, and started growing vegetables, herbs and hay.
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Photo by Tamara Leigh
Hand-built tea pots and cups
Margit’s hand-built tea pots and cups paired perfectly with the tradition of tea and tea ware.
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Photo by Tamara Leigh
Tasting room and gallery.
Margit’s hand-built tea pots and cups paired perfectly with the tradition of tea and tea ware. In 2010, the couple cast their lot entirely with tea culture by planting 200 Camellia sinensis seedlings on the south-facing slopes of the farm. They started importing premium teas, and created artisanal tea blends with locally grown herbs. The old barn was transformed again, this time into a teashop and tasting room. Seven years later, Westholme Tea Farm has 800 tea plants, a thriving tea shop and tasting room at the farm, and an online store that offers fine quality teas imported from around the world, artisanal blends, and their line of 100 percent estate-grown Canadian teas.
When they released their Tree Frog Spring Green tea on Canada Day 2016, Westholme Tea Company made history and put Canada on the tea-growing map. News travelled quickly through the tea world, and the first release sold out within weeks.
“It was very exciting and we were somewhat trepidatious. We were pioneering not only in the agricultural field here, but in a very established tea world which is thousands of years old and has its own traditions, trends and modalities. There was no knowing how people would react,” says tea maker Victor Vesely. “We’ve been called disruptors, we’ve been called risk-takers and adventurers, but we are just doing what we love and trying to do something different.”
One plant, many teas
All styles of tea – black, green, white or the spectrum between – are made from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. The biggest difference is what part of the plant is used, and how it is manipulated and processed. As Westholme Tea Farm’s tea maker, Victor takes a very seasonal approach to choosing the kinds of tea he makes with each harvest, or flush, of leaves.
“There are usually three harvests or three flushes – one in spring, summer and autumn. Sometimes there may be a fourth that comes somewhere in between,” Victor explains. “Aside from maple twigs in a couple of the offerings, we do not add to the tea. That’s the key piece for us, similar to estate-grown grapes in the wine industry, our tea is 100% pure and single origin.”
The plants go dormant in the winter, and then flush out with a bud and two leaves in the spring. Harvesting is done by hand, picking only the top two leaves and bud. This flush is used to create Tree Frog Spring Green, and launch the tea season.
“The sensitive subtle leafing inspired us to do more of a very green, ripe, fresh green tea inspired by a Sencha style. The tea is steamed right away, then heavily rolled and manipulated over several hours and finished the same day,” Victor explains, adding that the tea is named for the song of the Pacific tree frog, one of the first sounds of spring on the farm.
After the spring flush, the plants settle until the heat of summer when they experience a resurgence. Last year the second flush inspired an oolong style tea – a more processed and oxidized tea that is closer to a black tea.
“The flavors of the tea benefit from the stress of the heat and the hot sun,” says Victor. “Our goal this year is to create a fully oxidized black tea as well that will be in very limited quantities. Because we don’t use machinery in tea making at this point, it’s harder to get the specific humidity and temperature conditions that black tea needs for 100 percent oxidization.”
Twigs and leaves from pruning in the late fall are used to make a Japanese kukicha-style roasted twig tea called Quail’s Nest, and Quail’s Plume, a hojicha-style roasted green leaf tea.
As much an artist as a tea-maker, Victor looks for inspiration from the land and what grows there to create distinctly Canadian twists on traditional favourites. Big leaf maples on the property provide wood chips and stems that are used to create the a variety of maple-smoked teas. If the black tea is a success, he is playing with the idea of making an all-Canadian version of the classic Earl Grey, using fir tips instead of oil of bergamot.
“We’re looking at what’s on the property, not in the vein of wild foraging, but what inspires us, and what can replicate tradition in our own innovative Canadian way. That’s our design for the tea making,” he says.
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Tree Frog Spring Green Tea
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Photo by Tamara Leigh
Fresh Steamed Leaves
Harsh winter brings challenges and opportunities
Camellia sinensis is a hardy plant once it gets established, and is grown in different topography and climates around the world. Good soil and drainage is important, as is good exposure to the sun. Exposure to wind is another matter.
“Wind can negatively affect the tea plant by draining certain oils on the leafing,” explains Victor. “To be honest, the cold, snow, rain freezing, all of that is challenging, but we’ve discovered that really harsh winds are actually one of the biggest challenges.”
This year the resilience of the plants in Westholme was put to the test by the cold. After seven relatively mild winters, they had 29 straight days of sub-zero temperatures, with no opportunity to cover or protect the plants. Looking across the rows of burnt leaf tips, Victor is philosophical about the possibility of losses.
“There’s a high elevation tea in Taiwan that is exposed to frost and freezing, and it actually has really high value and is a very rare tea because of the change in the flavor profile,” he says. “We’ve only lost one tea plant out of 800 in the last seven years. The loss this year may be significant, but I think will be a better harvest and will continue to be a handmade, artisan product that is highly sought after. That’s kind of the path we’re on.”
This year they will expand their plantings and test a Korean strain of Camellia sinensis known for its resilience to cold. The goal is to get 2,000 plants established and producing. It’s a modest operation in an industry that usually deals in massive volumes, but with a focus on quality and creativity, Westholme Tea Company has established proof of concept for a new crop in Canada, and created a viable market niche.
“It’s a challenge because we have requests from wholesale suppliers in Korea and Japan who want to buy thousands of kilos of tea, and that’s not what we’re doing,” says Victor. “Our focus is producing the highest quality, fresh tea. That’s what we’re about, and we’re attracting more and more people every day. It’s exciting for the growth of the business.”
Visit the teafarm and enjoy a walk through Canada’s only commercial tea growing farm. History meets innovation in this one of a kind 30-45 minute tour experience. Visit www.teafarm.ca and shop for teas sourced from small scale organic tea farms worldwide.
