Wet weather provides perfect brew for Cornish tea producers Originally Tregothnan had planned to pick the tea between April and December but the conditions have created a "first flush" crop which is too delicious to miss. At this time of year the harvesting is a "pain staking" process. Every day at dawn two leaves and a single bud are plucked from each camellia bush. They then go through a withering process on bamboo before they are rolled to break down the cell walls for maximum flavour, then left to oxidise and dried. Mr Jones said: "But it has to be picked because it is so worth while." During more traditional harvesting months the estate near Truro goes through the same process but with a much more prolific crop. The tea, which costs as much as ten times that of a normal bag at up to 20p a cup, is then shipped to suppliers including Fortnum & Mason. Many people doubted that tea could be grown commercially in Britain but the venture has been so successful that Tregothnan is now exporting tea to China and has had interest from Russia and India. There are also plans to open an English tea shop in Shanghai. The irony of the situation is not lost on Mr Jones. He said: "It is amazing, but I think the Britishness of what we do has really struck a cord with the Chinese drinkers. They invented tea and then the British latched on to it, but we didn't just import it we built our lives around it and created a lot of British rituals around it. They are buying more than just the leaves - they are buying what the British have done to tea. Tregothnan has been owned by the Boscawen family since 1335 and is currently owned by Evelyn Boscawen, the eldest son of the ninth Viscount Falmouth. In spite of doubters for 200 years the estate has been Britain's largest grower of camellias, including Camellia sinensis, from which China tea comes, according to The Times. Mr Jones is proud of this "pioneering" history, adding: "We do have to push boundaries, and that is what Cornwall is very good at." He is now hoping that tea houses can make a comeback and give coffee shops a run for their money. He said "It is the number one drink by "throat share" - it is bigger than coffee and second only to water. But when you go out socially to drink on the high street it is all coffee, and I think that there is a massive opportunity here.