The 2026 tea season arrived almost a month earlier than last year, with our first pick taking place on Easter Monday. If tea is ready for picking… tea is ready.
We began the season producing green tea while the plants settled into growth, before moving into black tea production a little while afterwards. So far we’re incredibly pleased with the quality — although slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of leaf coming through already. Busy doesn’t quite feel descriptive enough at this point.
A spell of unusually warm weather pushed the plants on quickly through April, but the cooler weeks that followed have thankfully slowed things down a little and brought some balance back to the season.
The fruit trees have had a good spring this year. Thankfully the blossom finished before the few random light late frosts arrived, so fruit set is looking really promising this year. The apricots and peaches are already beginning to develop in huge numbers and it feels like we could be heading into a very productive summer.
Our cover crop plans have have not had quite such a good time. The combination of warmth and strong drying winds meant the ground dried out almost overnight, making it impossible to sow when we had originally planned. They’ll be on their way soon enough though. Nature.
One thing that certainly has appeared in force this year is the ladybirds. After the milder winter we’re seeing huge numbers across the farm already, alongside an even larger number of larvae — each capable of eating somewhere between 20–50 aphids a day (I’m sure you wanted to know that). An impressive little army for any aphids trying their luck amongst the tea.
Alongside the farm work, the past few months have also brought some surreal and special moments for us. Peterston Tea recently featured on BBC’s Just One Thing with Clive Myrie, available now on BBC iPlayer, alongside a couple of other television pieces filmed here on the farm this spring.
Earlier this month we were also invited to take part in the Women in Tea & Coffee Conference in London, joining a panel discussion exploring women’s evolving roles in tea and coffee agribusiness. It was a genuine privilege to be asked, and honestly quite an inspiring day — one that offered small but important glimmers of hope for the future of our industries.
Back on the farm, we’ll finally be releasing the first teas of the 2026 season during the week commencing 18th May. The teas have now had a little time to rest after production and we’ve selected the first batches ready to venture out into the world. Releasing tea always feels strangely vulnerable — like sending a year’s work out for judgement.
Kombucha season is also beginning to shift gears again. Our Elderflower & Mojito Mint kombucha returns to production next week thanks to the first elderflowers finally beginning to appear — something quite a few people have been asking us about recently... the wait is nearly over!!
Alongside the core teas, we’re also quietly experimenting with a couple of limited batch tea releases which are showing a lot of promise so far... we’ll keep those under wraps for now, while we jump up and down with excitement!
We’re really looking forward to welcoming visitors back onto the farm over the coming months too, with tours, tastings and several special events planned in our new event space throughout the summer season.
The farm feels fully awake again now — chaotic, beautiful, exhausting and full of possibility all at once.