Wenzhuo Liu
Mylène Dupuy Althabegoïthy planted 4000 tea trees in the North Basque region of France, and 10 tea gardens have been developed throughout the Basque region in recent years. The Tea farmers came together to exchange experiences and organize activities. In August 2025, they organized an open day for tea gardens, attracting many visitors and seemingly aiming to develop a local small-scale industry. In 2025, Mylène participated in the international tea processing training organized by the China Tea Science Society, marveling at the richness of Chinese culture and the modernization of the tea industry.
Mylène’s tea plantation Mendikotea is located on high mountains in the Basque Country on the border of France and Spain, with 4000 tea trees. In 2025, Mylène made her first attempt to pick fresh leaves from 2000 tea trees and processed 6 kilograms of black tea. Many years ago, Mylène and her husband, who was a Basque, went to live in the high mountains of the North Basque region in France, Mylène has switched from being physics teacher to starting her own company. They rented out their mountains to local livestock owners for grazing for a long time. During her family’s Christmas vacation in Japan in 2019, inspired by local mountain tea gardens, Mylène began to try planting 500 tea trees in her own mountains. The Basque region is rich in agricultural products, and Mylène’s own mountains are close to rivers with heavy fog, abundant rainfall and sunshine, and suitable temperatures throughout the year. She found that the local climate is also very suitable for the growth of tea trees. Located in southern Europe, there is no need for extra protection measures such as covering during winter, and the picking season is relatively long each year, from early April to late September. A common problem may be abnormal coldness after spring comes.
There are currently 10 tea gardens in the Basque Country, and Mylène later discovered that there are other like-minded people nearby planting tea trees. The nearest one can be reached by car in two hours. The local tea gardens have a scale of 500 to 10000 tea trees, of which 5 are used for commercial production and sales, mainly producing green tea and black tea, as well as a small amount of white tea. Mylène thinks the quality of Basque black tea is quite good, similar to her own production, but overall the tea making skills still need to be improved. For example, one of the tea gardens is a professional flower garden that previously focused on cultivating and selling flowers. After planting 2000 tea trees, they have now developed a new business, selling tea trees and producing tea for sale. They are also planting lemon trees and other fruits to produce fruit tea in the future.
The Basque region has a strong cultural atmosphere and a long coastline, attracting European tourists to visit and vacation every year. On August 23, 2025, Basque tea farmers organized an open tea garden day. Despite Mylène’s tea garden being located in the deep mountains, more than 50 people drove around the winding mountain road to visit her tea garden. Generally, few people come up to the mountains. Mylène mainly sells her own tea products in her online store and supplies a small amount to a tea shop by the seaside for sale. Although French people don’t drink much loose tea, special tea shops in France sell a few types of Chinese tea, such as jasmine tea and Longjing green tea, which are popular among French tea customers. Matcha is now popular in major cities in France, as high-end restaurants promote non-alcoholic beverages and sommeliers begin to recommend tea drinks. Mylène read in the newspaper that Michelin starred restaurants are also developing non-alcoholic beverages.
Although Basque Country, like many other regions in Europe, is a traditional coffee consumption area, Europeans are concerned about health and many people pay attention to the antioxidant properties of green tea. European customers also value organic products, and Mylène’s tea plantation will obtain European organic certification in April 2026. Moreover, in recent years, Europeans have tended to purchase high-quality agricultural and sideline products produced locally in Europe, which has also given some confidence to emerging tea growers in Europe. Mylène introduced that most French people do not know how to make tea. They usually put a tea bag in a mug and add hot water. Most people choose strongly flavored tea to drink, such as blended broken tea and herbal tea.
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Mylène mentioned that due to the lack of knowledge and experience in tea plantation management and tea processing among local farmers, although some knowledge can be learned online, there are still some people who choose to study in Asian tea producing countries, such as Japan and China. Mylène has studied tea making in Japanese tea factories twice before. In 2025, Mylène and her son went to Hangzhou, China to participate in a one week tea processing training organized by the Chinese Tea Science Society and a three-day tea tour. Mylène described this event as a surprise journey, with teachers in both theoretical and practical classes being very professional and friendly, carefully explaining and answering questions. The courses design are very good. While learning technical knowledge, practical and cultural knowledge is also gained through tea ceremony and tea drinks preparation courses. Visiting tea culture attractions and processing and machinery factories in Hangzhou, Jingshan, Changxing, Xinchang and other places, she sighed at the long history of China’s tea culture and the modernization and scale of Zhejiang’s tea industry. She hopes to have the opportunity to visit China again in the future and learn more deeply.
