Scotland’s tea culture is just as undeniably unique as the country itself. Our distinct geography and terroir, with acidic soil and long hours of daytime in summer, means there are fantastic Scottish-grown teas. Here, we take a look at six Scottish black teas.
Scotland’s history with tea is just as complicated and colonial as the rest of the island’s relationship – whether working for colonial British interests such as 17th-century tea planter James Taylor who introduced industrial tea farming to Sri Lanka or 19th-century Botanist Robert Fortune who was banned from China for stealing camellia sinensis plants – not once, but twice – and introducing them to Britain’s tea gardens in India.
Or working against as Scotland wasn’t always harmonious with their southern neighbours and to evade hefty British taxes on Sri Lankan and Indian tea in the 18th century, crafty merchants began smuggling high-quality Chinese congou or ‘Gothenburg Teas’ with the Swedish East India Company.
These teas did so well in Scotland that they were cutting into Britain’s bottom line, so in 1784 Prime Minister William Pitt dramatically cut the tax on tea and made the smuggling of tea far less profitable.
In 1871, Stuart Cranston knew that good tea was something to value and opened a retail shop in Glasgow to educate and introduce fine tea to the general public before launching a tearoom to support his loose tea sales.
Years later, with her brother’s support, Catherine Cranston would recraft non-alcoholic social spaces in the city and even commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh to design her immensely popular teahouse. Today that teahouse has become the Willow Tea Rooms.
While we continue to import from tea-growing giants like China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya, Scotland now has its own tea producers – small but exceptional gardens producing high quality Scottish-grown teas.
The Angels Share, Scottish Tea House
The Angels’ Share is a single-estate tea grown in the Scottish Tea House’s own garden in rural South Lanarkshire using agroforestry methods that support biodiversity and work alongside nature. Handpicked and carefully crafted at their tea house, the tea reflects the character of the Scottish landscape with a smooth, butterscotch, delicate flavour and subtle sweetness.
Scottish Tea Garden is designed to offer visitors peace, tranquillity and a connection to nature while showcasing that tea can be successfully grown in Scotland.
Tasting notes: Hints of wood, sweet honey and roasted chestnut
Garden location: Lanarkshire, Scotland
Price: £25 for 15g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: At their teahouse in Lanarkshire or online.
Kinnettles Gold, Kinnettles Tea Garden
Susie Walker-Munro plucking tea leaves for Kinnettles Gold
Kinnettles Tea Garden in Angus on the North East Coast pioneered tea growing in Scotland back in 2007. Their first commercially available black tea, Kinnettles Gold, was launched by tea merchants Pekoe Tea in Edinburgh in 2015 and is sold exclusively through them.
Having proved a concept a group was formed in 2016 with eight other gardens called Tea Gardens of Scotland. This group of nine combined their leaf for their black tea called Nine Ladies Dancing, supplied to Fortnum & Mason’s Rare Tea Counter since 2020. They, along with four other tea gardens, also produced Five Gold Rings
Tasting notes: Sweet notes of apple with a hint of cinnamon spice. A lingering silky smooth mouthfeel
Garden location: Angus, Scotland
Price: £20 for 5g/ £50 for 20g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: Exclusively at Pekoe Tea in Edinburgh or on their website.
Tì Òrach, Guisachan Estate
Guisachan Estate (pronounced yoush a gan), meaning land of the pines, sits 30 miles west of Inverness. Here Donald Fraser tends to around 300 thriving tea plants in the sanctuary of a polytunnel.
Working in partnership with Donna of Inverness-based Unravel Tea, the leaf is hand picked and processed on site. Each tea bears a Gaelic name, honouring the land the leaves belong to. Tì Òrach (tee-oraa) means golden tea. This is their signature black tea. Summer batches offer smooth malty notes, often with biscuit and plum lingering around the edge. Small scale single origin from an estate only just getting started.
Tasting notes: Malty and biscuity with hints of stone fruit
Garden location: Tomich, Scottish Highlands
Price: £20 for 20g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: Exclusively at Unravel Tea shop in Innerness or on their website.
Single Estate Black Tea 2025, Glen Caladh Tea
Glen Caladh Tea is a single estate loose leaf black tea with a unique flavour profile. Their tea begins in a polytunnel nursery before being moved to the main plantation outside. Glen Caladh believes that growing their tea outside to survive the full brunt of the Scottish climate gives the tea a more authentic and characterful flavour with soil acidity, rainfall and climate that mimics conditions of traditional high grown tea regions, famed for producing the worlds best teas.
Glen Caladh Tea promises exceptional flavours and characteristics influenced by the terroir and orthodox processing method.
Tasting notes: Smooth tea with a buttery mouthfeel, baked spices on the nose, malt and fruit notes and a lingering floral finish with low astringency and delicate sweetness.
Garden location: Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Price: £30 for 15g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: Exclusively on their website.
Garden Collaborations:
The Gathering, Glen Afton, Buittle Tea & Glen Caladh Tea Gardens
Tasting notes: The 2025 Season tasting notes for The Gathering are apricot & honey with a floral finish
Garden location: Argyll, Galloway & Ayrshire
Price: £25 for 15g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: Exclusively on their website.
Five Gold Rings, Kinnettles, Kinnordy, Logie, Rankeilour & Rickarton Tea Gardens
The five tea garden owners inspecting the plants for Five Gold Rings; taken in Kinnettles’ walled garden.
In 2023 five tea gardens located nearest to the coast (Kinnettles and Kinnordy in Angus, Logie and Rankeilour in Fife, and Rickarton in Kincardineshire), all members of the Tea Gardens of Scotland group collaborated to produce a different black tea called Five Gold Rings. This is processed at Kinnettles Tea Garden and only a very small amount is made each year – 5Kg.
Tasting notes: A golden hue with top notes of strawberry and a fruity caramel base with a lingering smooth mouthfeel
Garden location: Angus, Scotland
Price: £50 for 20g
Format: Loose leaf
Where to buy: Exclusively at Pekoe Tea in Edinburgh or on their website.
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