With the magnificent hills of the city of Ascona on its northwestern shoreline, Lake Maggiore — or Lago Maggiore to use the lingua franca of Switzerland’s Italian speaking region of Ticino — is a rather unique waterbody. Not only is it the largest lake in southern Switzerland Lake Maggiore also holds within its placid waters a little secret — tea.
Yes, around one hundred tea plants can be found on the Isola Grande, the larger of the lake’s two islands, close to the Ascona shoreline. But these have been planted as mere sample crops: Ascona’s true claim to fame as home to mainland Europe’s first and only tea plantation, however, lies a little farther up a hill. It was on Monte Verità or ‘Mountain of Truth’, perched precariously above Ascona, where revolutionists, artists and philosophers once experimented with new ways of life, all thanks to one man.
Botanic miracle
In 1964, Baron Eduard von der Heydt bequeathed the Monte Verità complex to the Swiss Republic and Canton of Ticino with the request that “Monte Verità be used for international artistic and cultural activities at the highest level”. So, in the mid-90s, taking this request seriously, Peter Oppliger, an expert in medicinal plants and self-confessed ‘tea philosopher’, started experimenting with cultivating tea plant saplings brought in from India, China, Sri Lanka and Japan.
However, it was only in the autumn of 2005 that this botanic miracle of cultivating tea in Europe became a reality, thanks both to Oppliger’s efforts and to Ascona’s unique microclimate. It was then that the first harvest of the Camellia sinensis variety of tea could successfully be made into a small amount of green tea. Today, in-keeping with the Monte Verità philosophy and with Oppliger’s aim of non-commercial cultivation, the modest-sized plantation is open for free to all those interested in understanding tea cultivation and production. Set up to resemble a bucolic Japanese tea garden, replete with gurgling streams, a zen garden and a gazebo, volunteers take guests on a tea quest of sorts.
To the T
“Il sentiero del tè” or “The Tea Way” is a course built according to Japanese philosophy. Along this path, tea enthusiasts get to experience every aspect of the culture of tea from around the world. With everything from our very own desi chai deconstructed, to the modern-day trend of cold brewing explained to the, well… T!
However, it is at the last station, where the most intense of all tea experiences takes place. In a purpose-built Japanese style log cabin called a chashitsu, guests are taken through a ritual chanoyu Japanese tea ceremony.
But it’s not all about tea atop Monte Verità. For architectural style enthusiasts like myself, the Monte Verità Hotel next to the tea plantation with its large communal balconies and wide corridors presented itself as a perfect specimen of the languid, rather fluid lines of the Bauhaus architectural movement of the mid-20th century. A style that itself was born out of the post-WWII need for austerity by embracing utilitarianism and community, while vehemently condemning ornamentation of any kind and thus a continuation of Baron Eduard von der Heydt’s ideology of fostering artistic and communal expression.
The Mumbai-based writer and restaurant reviewer is passionate about food, travel and luxury, not necessarily in that order.
