Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491371
58 STiR tea & coffee industry international our tea trees are taken on a regular ba- sis. Many would rightly say that the ideal time is just after leaf fall or just before bud-burst in spring." The new plants are propagated indoors until strong enough to go out into the ground. Making Scottish tea Once the new leaves and shoots have been harvested, they are hand processed at the farm to become black, white, or green tea. The black is withered in a humidifier, cut or rolled by hand inside muslin cloths, and oxidized and dried inside a machine that looks like a large microwave but is actually an oven which can also be used for steaming. The green tea is de-enzymed and dried, Chinese style, in a hot dry pan. The white tea is dried very slowly inside dehydrating machines that sit in sunlight on the window ledge of the processing room. Some of the white tea is smoked over beech wood chippings in a little wooden smoke-house that sits in the corner of the tea garden. Whereas 2013 and 2014 have been about agronomy, the work now is to experiment with manufactur- ing techniques that will develop and maintain distinct flavor profiles for each of the teas. Meanwhile some of the tea is being blended with other imported teas to create Wee Tea Company special blends and flavored teas. A new Tea Growers Association for Scotland With the obvious success of tea cultivation at Dalreoch, O'Braan wanted to spread the word about the possibilities of tea growing in Scotland. "We knew that if we didn't share what had been achieved we'd be limiting the capability this offers and did not want to be that selfish. It's an industry, not just one farm." So now he also fulfills a second role as founder and chairman of the Tea Growers Association, which, when first set up, attracted very little interest and a good deal of doubt. Initial members were O'Braan himself, a Research Project in Kent, and the Royal Horticultural So- ciety (RHS) based in London. O'Braan realized that "Healthy skepticism was keeping others back from jumping in and maybe looking foolish In fact locally my name was changed to Typhoo Tam in conversations. Many were waiting for me to fail and walk away." However, since an interview with O'Braan in the Out of Doors program on BBC Radio Scotland in early 2014, en- quiries have been rolling in, mainly from Scottish herb growers and market gar- deners, and even from the Royal Estates. And highland schools have also joined in order to create learning forums for chil- dren from the farming community and to open young minds to new ideas. Lochgil- phead Joint Campus (a secondary school next to Lock Fyne in Angus) has already planted tea in a quiet section of the school's large grounds. The association is registered as a not-for-profit organization with the aim of providing planting stock, Dalreoch Plantation, 2014, with plants in the ground, some of which are enclosed inside light-restricting plastic tubes that enhance leaf growth high in the plant. Knee-high young plants prior to harvest Clearing the land in 2011 ready for planting. Dalreoch Hill is in the background. The Gaelic word Daleoch means "Field of the King." a reference to Robert the Bruce. Photo credit: Jane Pettigrew Photo credit: Jane Pettigrew Photo credit: Jane Pettigrew