When it comes to drinking a cup of tea, Nerada is the freshest tea that you can get. Moreover, it’s family-owned and Queensland’s own brew.
We were privileged to attend a Zoom conference with Tony Poyner, Nerada’s Plantation Director and other members of the Nerada Tea family to learn more about their fabulous tea.
For 50 years, Nerada Tea has been Australia’s largest tea producer. Based in the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland, Nerada is celebrating their milestone by releasing three brand-new, single-origin loose leaf tea blends, using its own 100% Australian grown tea.
The New Blends
The new blends include Director’s Cut Original Black Tea (handcrafted from select parcels of Nerada’s finest grade of tea), Director’s Cut Sunrise Black Tea with Lemon Myrtle (a single-origin floral orange pekoe tea blended with native lemon myrtle), and Director’s Cut Indulge Black Tea with Cocoa (a rich and chocolatey blend of Nerada’s single-origin orange pekoe tea with cocoa husk).
Nerada’s History
Launched in Innisfail in 1971, Nerada was named after the area alongside the local Johnstone River. Pioneering local Dr Allan Maruff cultivated the tea using some of the original cuttings from the lost plantation in Bingil Bay that had been planted by the Cutten Brothers in 1884.
Through cyclones, drought, market challenges and changes of business structure, the Nerada brand has continued to survive and grow. Now exporting to New Zealand, with the UK in its sights, there are high hopes for its future.
Growing Nerada
Australia’s tea industry is blessed that pests common in other tea-growing regions of the world have not entered Australia due to our border controls. Nerada uses pesticide-free farming practices, its Rainforest Alliance Certification attesting to its sustainable practices. They have an organic range of teas as well as a probiotic range (Relax, Detox and Digest), the heat-resistant probiotics activated upon hitting the stomach.
Like wine, tea is influenced by the soil and microclimate of the area where it is grown.
“Far North Queensland is an ideal climate to grow and produce outstanding tea. We’re nestled between Queensland’s highest mountain ranges, and the rich volcanic soils and 750 metre altitude give our tea a distinctive flavour profile,” Tony Poyner says.
Today, Nerada’s North Queensland plantation harvests 6.6 million kilos of fresh green tea leaves, which equates to roughly 750 million cups of tea per year, or 95 percent of the Australian-grown black tea sold in Australia.
Despite these impressive production figures, Australian-grown black tea only accounts for 6 percent of the tea available on our supermarket shelves.
Buy Local, Australian Grown
Isn’t it time we bought and drank Australian made? Nerada Tea is Australia’s freshest brew, pesticide free, the journey from crop to cup taking as little as four weeks.
Family owned and purely Australian, Nerada is worthy of being recognized as our national tea. Let’s drink to that!
NOTE: Nerada’s new blends are available from Nerada Tea’s online store or by visiting the Nerada Tea Room in Malanda, Queensland. Nerada gifted the above teas to Good Food Gold Coast for the blending session.