When Montreal-born and bred entrepreneur Victor Vesely was studying politics at McGill University, if anyone mentioned that his destiny would be to cultivate tea in a valley in Canada’s mountainous province of British Columbia, he likely would have questioned their sanity! But that’s exactly what he is doing today, and this has been his life for the better part of a decade.
His is the only tea farm in Canada, and there are many reasons why this is so, not the least of which is the weather. Most of Canada is known for its icy winters and short but hot summers: a climate not known to be conducive to the cultivation of tea.
Indeed, despite emphatic assertions by the Canadian government’s department of Agriculture that tea, being a plant that is known to grow in tropical or sub-tropical regions, cannot possibly be grown in Canada, Vesely has done the impossible: he is cultivating rare Canadian artisanal tea within a climate that sees a yearly mercury spread of some eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a testament to the care he takes of the tea bushes and their environmental resilience that the plants not only survive, but also thrive, producing flavorful brews.
“Winter here is mild compared to other parts of Canada. Still, during our first winter, the temperature went down to minus 15 [Celsius] [5 degrees Fahrenheit], and this summer it got as hot as the high thirties [Celsius] [around 100 plus degrees Fahrenheit],” says Vesely.
Vesely’s path to becoming a tea cultivator was not a straightforward one. After graduating from McGill University in 1988, Vesely traveled to Japan where he discovered and became intrigued by Japanese tea culture. He continued to travel and experience different cultures during his trips around the world.
He moved back to Canada in 1996 and started a venture called Art Farm in Vancouver with his then wife, whose forté was ceramics, hence, the "art" in Art Farm. The farming side, at the time, for which Vesely was the impetus, focused on lavender, flowers, and herbs.
It was only in 2010 that Vesely began to experiment with planting tea. He started that year with 200 seedlings. After a long process involving research, trial, error, and taking advice from other cultivators as well as slow development of the terroir for tea cultivation, they expanded to 800 plants and sold the original name of their company, replacing it with Westholme Tea Company after the name of the valley where their farm is located. All the bushes were planted on the south side of the valley. The learning curve and expansion took six arduous years.
Development of the terroir involved seeking advice from someone in India on procuring certified organic fertilizer, which was combined with fish meal, making the soil more conducive for the cultivation of tea. Mediating the soil, so the pH level could be balanced, was also a key factor in creating the optimal conditions for the tea plants to thrive.
“There were some areas of the farm, which were heavy in clay, so I couldn’t plant there, but otherwise, the soil was already in good shape for growing tea, so there wasn’t a great deal of modification required to develop the terroir,” Vesely asserts. “Then I pruned the bushes properly in around 2015 when I expanded the quantity of bushes,” he adds.
The plants were sourced indirectly through the United States as they were not available for direct import from source countries Japan and China.
It was not an easy process. He states that his most daunting challenge wasn’t climate or developing the terroir—it was the incessant negativity surrounding his project, which so many projected his way. “There were many naysayers,” he says. However, he never considered giving up. He was determined to see his dream of cultivating authentic Canadian tea in Westholme Valley become a reality.
Vesely and his now ex-wife by then already had several years of experience importing and blending teas for sale to the public, which they began in 2008. This was seen as a more viable business by those known to him, but he saw it as a training ground. So, amassing the knowledge in tea cultivation, though a gradual process, was certainly not beyond reach. That said, Vesely is proud that his experience is essentially self-taught. “I mean, I could have gone to Darjeeling to learn how to make Darjeeling tea, but then I would have been making Darjeeling tea in Canada. Really what I wanted to do was to make a uniquely Canadian tea in Canada,” he says.
By 2016, he felt the tea was ready to present to the world. Already, the eyes of the tea industry were on him, having established the northernmost tea farming operation in the world.
As he grew the tea importation and cultivation business, Vesely established a tearoom and shop at which the public could have the opportunity to sample and buy teas that they liked. To this he added an online e-commerce operation. In all, various blends were offered including masala chai – an increasingly popular spicy beverage that was brought to the country by Canada’s large South Asian population long before Starbucks started selling Chai Tea Lattes.
True to Vesely’s early experience with tea in Japan, among the variety of teas that were first imported was Japanese Hōjicha tea, which is a green tea that often appears darker in color depending on how it is roasted. He also imported a variety of flowers and herbs from Sri Lanka and China. Vesely stresses that all the tea sold then and now is loose, containing no synthetic essences or flavorings supplemented to the leaves that are sold.
Ironically, one early lesson that Vesely learned is that, rather than being a hindrance, a winter’s snowfall can sometimes shield the crop, depending on the volume and density of the snow. “The first year, I covered half of the plants and then there was a big snowfall that came and it crushed the ones that were covered,” Vesely says. “The ones that weren’t covered were insulated by the snow, similar to how the tea grows in Korea.” The same can be said of the higher elevations of Darjeeling, and the Scottish Highlands, both of which experience light snow during winter.
According to Dr. Biswajit Bera, retired Chief Scientist of the Tea Board of India, the resilience of the Camelia sinensis plant that Vesely planted in Canada is such that the more stress it undergoes from environmental factors, the higher quality is the yield. In other words, whatever doesn’t kill it, makes it stronger and sweeter!
This is a characteristic that Vesely is counting on, having purchased a neighboring plot with plans to expand the tea farm there. He also hopes the added land will enable him to build cottages for tourists, who wish to enhance their tea tourism experience by staying at the farm itself.
Even among cultivated teas, customers have a variety from which to choose. Vesely harvests a spring Japanese green tea that is of both Sencha and Hōjicha. The Hōjicha is called Quail’s Plume, which is a wonderful roasted green tea, offering a gentle hint of sweetly toasted warm tobacco. This tea grows in sweetness as it sits in the cup. On second and third steeps, the taste is reminiscent of fresh-cut autumn firewood. When made into an iced tea with the cold steep method, a refreshing smoked apricot with an understated dryness is discernible on the palate.
Their spring green tea called Tree Frog is produced in small quantities, and hence, rare. It is a soft and smooth green tea with subtle citrus and sweet, grassy vegetal notes, growing in unique terroir earthiness. Astringency develops with longer steepings.
Vesely cultivates a white tea called White Mist, which has a delicate floral nose but rich flavor; the deep complexity of honeysuckle with hints of citrus and fresh leaves are also present with a liqueur that, though light, Vesely feels truly captures the deep essence of the Westholme terroir.
A popular black tea produced by Westholme is called Heron’s Wake. It is cultivated in broken orange pekoe grade, which maintains rich notes of toasted hazelnut and hints of ground cacao combining to form a satisfying fullness in the mouth. It is woody with an almost spiced aroma that combines with the deep essence of earthy leaves and steeps to a beautiful red-gold color.
Westholme also produces a custom Canadian Maple Smoked Tea, sold fresh, which is a green tea with a woodsy, roasted quality that finishes with a sweet, smoky maple linger on the palate.
Vesely’s Summer Solstice Black and White Tea Maker’s Reserve blend is quite sought after. This premium blend produces a dark and toasty hazelnut malt coming from the black leaf brew, which is balanced by a lush and mildly sweet broken leaf white tea that encapsulates the essence of the West Coast terroir.
In addition, Veseley produces a pan-fried green tea, which he sells to a distillery that uses it as a botanical in their products.
With a limited number of plants, and all processing done by hand, Vesely produces a relatively small quantity of finished dry leaf, which amounts to around 18-20 kgs. The teas are sold in small packages of 10g, 25g, and 50g sizes, and constitute a highly premium product.
Like Darjeeling, Vesely’s tea is harvested in flushes. They have a spring flush that is harvested in late May, followed by a summer flush that is ready around mid-July. Also, depending on the stressing of the plant and whether they begin to flower, they can also produce an autumnal flush. As Canada has no monsoon season, there is obviously no monsoon flush. However, the harvests that are produced for black tea do have Darjeeling-like characteristics, being the same plant, and harvested in flushes in very much the same way as is done in Darjeeling.
The Westholme Tea Experience Tea tour takes around 90 minutes and permits tourists to explore the entire terroir and immerse themselves in the experience of how tea is made from plucking to withering and drying, to sorting and rolling. The tour has become increasingly popular, which is why Vesely plans on establishing accommodations on the site.
Westholme continues to sell imported teas, ceramics, and teaware as well.
Ultimately, Vesely’s success in tea stems from his love of the plant and his connection to the Westholme valley, which he has made his home. For him, tea represents how people are connected to the landscape and to each other. “For centuries,” he writes, "tea has been as ceremonial and ritual as it is personal. This drink has a unique power to heal, transform and soothe. Our teas enhance these experiences by creating space to breathe and find balance in busyness. Whether you’re creating that space for peace in solitude or community, tea is a celebration of the moment.”
Vesely and his small team continue to cultivate not only tea but also these moments, which they savor and hope will flourish from year-to-year.
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