The Gorreana Tea Factory has been in operation for over 140 years and continues to welcome anyone who wants to discover the uniqueness of Azorean tea.

Gorreana has been a meeting place for many years. Here, where the countless Camellia sinensis plants seem to want to enter the sea, Asia joins hands with Europe, locals cross paths with foreigners, and small, carefully chosen leaves join hot water to create Azorean tea.

The story of how we got here is so familiar to Madalena Mota that she tells it like a story from her own life. This is partly true, as “Gorreana” and “Casa” are synonyms for her. “The door to our house has always been open to everyone,” she says naturally.

She recalls her childhood, spent with her siblings and the local people among the tea leaves. “This is where I learned to be a person,” she says, recalling the hundreds of people who worked at the factory and whom she keeps in her memory as a precious part of her growth.

The factory saw the birth and growth of Madalena, as well as many others before her. We would have to go back several generations to Ermelinda, Madalena’s fifth grandmother, for her to tell us about her first steps. Perhaps uncertainly, since at the end of the 19th century, there were many doubts about whether a plant from Asia could survive in the Azorean climate. Today, Azorean tea is the only tea industry in Europe. The factory gate officially opened in 1883 and has never been closed since.

Despite its current success, over a century of existence has seen moments of crisis, one of which was experienced by Madalena’s great-grandfather, Jaime Hintze. When asked why he continued to invest in something that could bankrupt him, he replied: “We fall in love with everything we create.”

His passion led him to transform Gorreana into a place where the future came first. In the 1920s, when there was still no talk of tourism, it was already a reality for the factory, which welcomed everyone who was curious to see how tea from the Azores was made, then called “visitors.” But Jaime’s greatest legacy is probably the way he found to mechanize the factory.

“Lisbon wasn’t all lit up yet, and Gorreana already had electricity,” says Madalena. “He took advantage of a stream that was here, made a turbine, and brought power to the factory.” She explains that this mechanism is still a more sustainable way of generating energy for Gorreana. “If I didn’t have this energy that Jaime Hintze made in 1926, I’d be closed today,” he says. This is because making tea by hand involves a lot of labor, and for the tea to be sold at an affordable price, it would have to be very cheap, acceptable in other countries and places but not in Gorreana. With Jaime’s solution, not only does the company win, but so does the environment.

Over the years, many people have come from around the world to learn about Fábrica’s history and try to understand the secret of keeping it open and always being in the same family. One of the reasons, Madalena reveals, is that they have never stopped investing and have always tried to go hand in hand with science. The partnership established with the University of the Azores has made it possible to improve processes, perfect the tea, and even generate new flavors that bring added health benefits. This is the case with Azorean pineapple tea, whose bromelain is an anti-inflammatory agent. Another tea, the result of this partnership with the University, was awarded a prize in 2022 and is unique worldwide.

In addition to the science that fascinates her, Madalena is especially charmed by the people. She recalls the many students who work there in the summer and mentions each of their names, confessing the joy she feels at seeing them grow. “That’s what we’re here for, to make a generation better than us. If that doesn’t happen, then we haven’t done our job properly,” he says.

Despite the long history and the continuous commitment to the future, Madalena believes the key to success lies in the present. “The secret to Gorreana’s longevity is to live in its time,” she reveals.

Her great dream now is to build a center where the entire history of the factory will be compiled. He says that all the material already exists to make it happen; all that is needed is the space and time that Gorreana has been able to navigate. “Tea is a memory,” he says. While the dream doesn’t come true, he remains to tell the story to the many who continue to pass through Gorreana’s ever-open gates.

From Made in the Azores, in Açoriano Oriental-Paula Gouveia, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.