Nerada Tea Visitor Centre - Malanda

One of the reasons we headed to Malanda during our trip around Queensland was to visit the Narada Tea Plantation. I have used Narada tea for many years as it is an Australian Grown product. The Plantation is about nine kilometres out of Malanda and I was keen to visit and see how tea is grown.  I was surprised to discover that tea is actually a plant from the Camellia family which is trimmed to hedge height. The young growth is cut for the tea and you can join a tour of the factory when they are processing - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Unfortunately I missed the tour but a visit to the Visitors Centre was enough to find out about how tea is grown and processed. We enjoyed homemade scones, jam and fresh cream with a pot of Nerada Tea – this was well worth the trip alone (it has been a long time since I have had such fresh cream - Yum).

There are about a 1,000 acres of tea planted and Nerada is the largest supplier of Australian grown tea - the range has expanded to also include herbal infusions, green and flavoured teas. You can purchase the whole range of Nerada products form the gift shop as well as all sorts of tea making products - teapots, cups, strainers etc.  I particularly liked the gift bag containing a sample tea bags of each flavour produced by Nerada - guess what my children got from our holiday.

There are a number of Lumholtz Tree Kangaroos that live around the Narada Plantation and the staff at the Visitor Centre were happy to walk us around the gardens trying to spot one of these rare creatrues. We enjoyed our visit to Narada and I would highly recommend that you leave room for a devonshire tea when you head out that way.