Scheme brews up £49,500

A PLANTATION at St Martin’s Abbey, Balbeggie, was the setting for the launch of the Artisan Tea Gardens Ltd i nitiative, which has landed £49,500 of funding.

In a Scottish first, a ninestrong collaboration of tea farmers in Angus, Fife and Perthshire will use the cash to help meet the challenge of farming the crop in the local climate.

The Leader rural development funding scheme cash will help the project tap into advice from tea consultants and buy equipment. The group also aims to develop a tea trail around the sites, allowing enthusiasts to see the gardens and compare teas. The project has two Angus growers, five in Perth and Kinross and two from Fife.

Angus Leader coordinator Dave Tollick said: “The potential is for the gardens involved to provide groundbreaking new tea products and develop training courses for growers, and hopefully a tea trail around the gardens for tea fans.”

Some producers have already bagged spots at tea tables in top Scottish hotels, with their brews sometimes commanding up to £10 a pot. Among the intriguingly-named varieties are Ecclefechan Oolong, Isle of Mull Matcha and Garrocher Garden Berry Black.

To qualify as tea, the blend has to contain leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant, which is more at home in the humid climes of India, China and Taiwan.

However, Scottish growers have found mature plants can thrive in cool climate like ours.