Tea – a new national drink for Scotland?

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/jun/21/weatherwatch-tea-scotland

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Tea plantations usually conjure up images of steamy hillside estates in India or China, but Scotland now has its own tea farm nestled in the Highland hills of Perth and Kinross. The Wee Tea plantation in Amulree may be thousands of miles from Assam or Darjeeling, but the growing conditions are surprisingly good for tea.

Despite its reputation for growing in a balmy climate, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, can survive temperatures as low as -11C for long periods. And with plenty of rain, good soil and altitude, the Wee Tea plantation is so successful that this year it won the world’s most prestigious tea award, the Salon du Thé in Paris, and has inspired a number of other Scottish growers to start their own plantations.

To be honest, Scotland is different from the usual tea-growing regions of the world. For example, Darjeeling lies in the foothills of the Himalayas at around 2,000 metres (6,500ft) high and basks in a largely mild climate. The annual 3,037mm (120in) of rainfall largely comes during the summer monsoon, it is humid and the annual maximum temperature averages 14.7C.

Dalreoch Farm, at only 750 metres (2,460ft) high, is slightly cooler and has a mere 917mm (36in) of annual rainfall, although the rains tend to fall 147 days each year and there’s also spring water to keep the ground wet. In fact, growing tea in the UK is not a new idea – Winston Churchill wanted homegrown tea plantations as part of the “Dig for Victory” campaign in the second world war, but he was advised it would take too long to grow the plants.