We've gone TEA-TOTAL!

The nation’s favourite drink is now being grown at home – meet the UK’s tea champions

- MIRIAM RODELL

Lucy George, 39, runs the Peterston Tea Estate, near Cardiff, the first tea garden in Wales.

In 2014, I was looking to diversify the family fruit farm, so our income wasn’t quite so seasonal. I googled tea, found it was already being grown in Cornwall, and decided it was the answer.

The weather here can be brutal, and at times we’ve lost a lot of plants, which is hard, financially and mentally. Picking the tea, between late March and late September, is back-breaking work. But we’ve come so far, and we have learned so much.

We launched our first teas last autumn – Welsh Black and Welsh Gold, made on the farm using different processing methods. Leaves pick up their flavour profile from soil, nutrients, climate and processing, so each location results in a tea that’s completely unique. Ours are very smooth with hints of fruit.