Based in Fairfield, Connecticut, the Bigelow Tea Company was founded in 1945 by Ruth Campbell Bigelow and is still owned by her family. Bigelow's most famous tea blend, Constant Comment, also ties into the history and founding of the company - "Ruth Campbell Bigelow had been a designer by trade. In 1945, inspired by an early Colonial recipe and dissatisfied with the commodity tea that was commonplace in the 1940s, Ruth focused her creative energies on formulating a better cup of tea in the kitchen of her New York City brownstone. After weeks of trial and error, blending black tea with orange rind and sweet spices, she emerged with the first cup of specialty tea in the country. Ruth shared her tea with friends and received many comments—in fact, 'constant comments.' Her new brew got its name, and the Bigelow Tea Company was born."
Bigelow also owns the United States' only working tea plantation, the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island, twenty miles south of Charleston, South Carolina. Bigelow's teas are still blended in Fairfield.