Wales' love affair with nation's favourite drink could reshape its hills and valleys
Rows of tea plants could become a more familiar sight on the hills of Wales in the future, researchers believe. Cutting-edge science – including AI – is being harnessed to select optimum growing sites and take advantage of the warming climate.
Not so long ago, Welsh hill farmers would have scoffed at the idea, and most scientists would have agreed with them. But in late 2023, trials of began on a 150-acre beef and sheep farm in Powys and the results could open the doors to domestic tea revolution.
In the hope of boosting farm profits through diversification, Mandy Lloyd planted 140 Camellia sinensis tea bushes on different plots at Cleobury Farm at Heyope, Knighton. The site were selected using 'geospatial analysis', a process which matches the compatibility of crops with micro factors such as climate, light intensity and soil characteristics.
If Mandy succeeds, with support from Welsh Government body Farming Connect, she will become the first UK grower to produce the crop on a hill farm. She sees it as a way of shortening supply chains by reducing leaf imports from Kenya, Sri Lanka and India.
'There is a need for an environmentally and socially responsible food and drink local supply chain,' she suggested
Tea is grown successfully in Britain's lowland areas, notably in the south of England where where several tea plantations have been established. Blazing a trail in Wales was Vale of Glamorgan fruit farmer Lucy George, who established her tea enterprise near Cardiff back in 2013.
She began by importing seeds from all over the world to select ones that would cope with more extreme conditions. It took her years for her tea plants to reach knee height before the laborious picking process could get underway. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
(Image: Farming Connect)
Her Peterston Tea is now being sold by the likes of Llanrwst's Blas ar Fwyd. At £18 for a 12g pouch, it's not cheap, reflecting the effort involved in growing it.
But there is a quality dividend, she believes. 'The climate is quite challenging,' Lucy told the BBC.
'It's very marginal conditions for tea, but to some extent it lends itself to hopefully a better flavour tea, because it grows a lot slower than it would in more equatorial regions.'
To assess the potential for cultivating tea in places likes Wales, Aberystwyth University scientists have been using machine-learning to analyse UK-grown bushes. As well as assisting Mandy in Powys, the research team is assessing six varieties of tea being grown at the Dartmoor Estate Tea plantation in Devon.
By identifying and quantifying metabolites at a molecular level, the team hopes to establish the best microclimates and soils. This emerging field, called metabolomics, aims to better to understand metabolic processes in plants and animals.
Speaking on International Tea Day 2025, senior researcher Dr Amanda J Lloyd said: 'This study is contributing to the growing field of metabolomics by providing a comprehensive chemical profile of tea grown in a non-traditional region.
'Our findings offer new insights into the adaptability of tea plants and their potential for cultivation in emerging regions, contributing to global food security and agricultural diversification.'
Further research is still needed to gain a full understanding of tea chemistry, she said. But the team remains hopeful its findings will help the UK tea growers develop climate-appropriate production strategies.
It raises the prospect of the Welsh hills and their misty valleys one day boasting terraced tea plantations like those in traditional growing countries. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
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