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Tea is growth industry for family firm
There's nothing quite like a brew of Yorkshire Tea, as those who sip their way through the nine million cups every day will testify.
But real purists will now be able to get a cuppa not quite like anything before, as a tea plantation has been created in the not so tropical climes of Harrogate.
The family tea merchants Taylors of Harrogate yesterday planted the last of the 100 China Jat bushes in the plantation which has been created on small rolling hills reminiscent of the world's best tea estates.
The plantation is in a small courtyard outside the company's tea and coffee factory at Plumpton Park in the spa town, and staff are now looking to create a very special limited edition of Yorkshire Tea from the homegrown leaves.
However, anyone wanting to get a taste of the thoroughbred tea will have to be patient – the first harvest is not expected for another two or three years.
Yorkshire Tea is currently made with a blend of about 30 different types from across the world, although the new brew is expected to be created solely from the leaves taken from the Harrogate plantation.
The head of tea buying at Taylors, Ian Brabbin, said: "Tea is usually named after the region it's grown in. So with a bit of patience and luck, in a few years time we'll have our very own outdoor crop of real Yorkshire Tea.
"A lot more people are looking to buy locally sourced produce these days, and you cannot get much more local with our new tea plantation."
Staff at Taylors have admitted that it will be no mean feat to nurture the bushes, which normally flourish in the tropics and require hours of continuous sunshine each day to fulfil their potential.
However, the United Kingdom's first tea garden on the Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall has already proved a success, and it is hoped it will now be replicated in an even more northerly location.
The bushes which have been planted in Harrogate were brought up from the Cornish plantation after they had been initially imported from China.
The courtyard for the new tea plantation was designed by award-winning landscape designer John Brookes, who has created gardens throughout the world in America, Japan and across Europe.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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