‘Not for all the tea in Scotland’ isn’t quite how the idiom goes, but judging by the headway that Amrulee, a village north of Edinburgh, is making in the tea-making industry, it could very well become so in the future. Kevin Galea finds out more.

“This will make your body active and lusty!”

It was the first time I had filled my mouth with antlers.

Tentatively, but with more curiosity than trepidation, I pushed my lips forward.

“It was grown by a Church of Scotland minister on Mull.”

Our tea-tasting session was taking place in Amrulee , 90 minutes north of Edinburgh.

“It should invigorate your soul,” smiled my Scottish tea-tutor, pouring a cup of Scottish Antlers. It is made by the Rev Liz Gibson on her croft on the isle of Mull, off Scotland’s west coast. It is not made from antlers; it’s just a catchy name to help keep spreading the brews.

Tea is thought to have been discovered by Chinese Emperor Sheng Nung 5000 years ago, when some leaves fell in a cup of water. But the world’s youngest commercial tea plantations are now in Scotland, where tea is being grown from Orkney to Dumfries and Galloway all the way to the Hebrides and a former sheep farm in Perth and Kinross.

My tea-tutor, agricultural chemist Tam O’Brann founded The Wee Tea Company in 20011 in Amrulee. His Dalreoch state (Gaelic for ‘field of Kings’) now has 14,000 tea plants. He also founded the Scottish Tea Growers Association. It has eleven members; O’Brann hopes for thirty.

“Our stated aim has always been to grow an industry. Not something quirky, and not an oddity. But something serious, to be respected. Like Scottish whisky.

“Growing tea in Scotland has the potential of being an industry. We are building the country’s first tea-processing factory. It will be solar powered, but based on the methods I unearthed in a book about the early Sri Lanka tea days.”

It is not made from antlers; it’s just a catchy name to help keep spreading the brews

O’Brann and the tea growers of the Lowlands, Highlands and islands are hoping to bring a new drinks industry to the boil. But is not a new idea. During the Second World War there were plans to plant tea in Scotland. Churchill believed it “fundamental to British morale”.

Adds O’Brien “After the war , rationing of tea stopped and hastily re-started as the UK re-entered global trading on the Tea Exchange and sucked up a quarter of the world’s harvest in 1947. The country had to wait eight years until the rationing allowance of two ounces per head was dropped.”

O’Brann was inspired by the 19th century Scottish botanist, plant hunter and probable spy, Robert Fortune, who brought tea from China to India. Scots planted most of Darjeeling’s tea estates.

The UK’s first plantation was Tregothnan in Cornwall which opened in 1999.

The Wee Tea Company sells 15g tins of Camellia Sinensis for €40. Scottish tea is not a low-grade teabag tea. It has won awards at Paris’s Salon de The and is available at London’s Fortnum & Mason and Dorchester Hotel where Tam has planted a rooftop tea garden.

He claims the Scottish climate is an advantage. Due to slower growth, the leaves develop a better flavour profile and a greater depth of flavour.

He poured me out some artisanal blend Highland Chai. And continued to pour forth. “You don’t need heat to grow tea. The original teas were grown in the Himalayan foothills in temperatures as low as -15˚C. Using an Italian variety we propagate from seed, grown on in an unheated greenhouse, planted out after eighteen months and picked at four years. The harvest starts in February.

My tea-torial continued with was my first First Flush, some of the house white tea. Then came some bee-balm scented, single estate Garracher Grey from Newton Stewart near Dumfries.

This was followed by a recipe for tea loaf and Highland Chai brulée.

The finale was The Wee Tea Co’s signature cuppa, Rosy Black. Affect­ing the anti-oxidant connoisseur with the hypersensitive and educated palette, I discreetly consulted my tasting notes.

They told me to expect deep malty, biscuit flavours with a hint of a floral finish. A complex, yet delicate, tea with layers of surprise.

But I was not surprised to learn that loose tea is benefitting from flagging teabag sales. O’Brann believes location is critical.

“Although our Association members won’t be producing commercial quality tea until 2018, we are capable of producing different tastes from different place. Just like the distilleries.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.