Tea in the highlands? 'mad'growers tends blooming crop

Dalreoch Farm Estate at Amulree in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands. [Photo/Agencies]

Scottish tea growers

In 2015 O'Braan produced 500 kilos of tea from his 14,000 plants and founded the Scottish Tea Growers Association in a bid to be more recognised in a land better known for its whisky.

Ten people have joined him, creating small tea plantations of about 1,000 plants each in places like the Isle of Mull and the Lowlands.

O'Braan hopes that there will be 28 tea growing sites in Scotland by 2017.

"From the same tea plant you can make 300 different types of tea. So there's no reason why my neighbours should look to manufacture the same as I'm doing," O'Braan says.

"In fact we should all diversify and make different types of tea."

"We're not going to replant Scotland. It's always going to be boutique, artisan tea," he says.

Members of the association can use a small tea processing plant that O'Braan is setting up on his farm.

The production of Dalreoch itself is sold out for the next four years, according to O'Braan－meaning there should be plenty of business to go around.