Guisachan Tea, Inverness-shire

Donald, Sue & Nigel Fraser

Guisachan lies at the head of a glen 30 miles west of Inverness. Most famous for being the birthplace of the Golden Retriever, the estate has diversified and is host to a holiday business, café, renewable energy development and is increasingly focussed on habitats and biodiversity.

Our foray into tea was impulsive and to say we have learned a lot is an understatement. We have evolved into our current form having adapted to live with our very short growing season and long, often hard winters.

The product is a triumph of hard work, endurance, and perseverance, which are all things we can assure you our tea doesn’t taste of!  

Guisachan’s tea-Captain is Donald Fraser, supported by his wife Sue. None of Donald’s former careers in the Army, agriculture or tourism were of any particular help in preparing for the travails of creating a tea plantation.

He has fought (and triumphed over) early frosts, late frosts, slugs, moles, aphids, nematodes, harsh light, mould, weeds, excessive water and drought.

Having run the gauntlet of growing the tea, Donald has created a tea room and processing system to take the tea through to the final product, and is now able to competently and professionally turn out consistent, quality tea.

Our new problem is what we do with that tea, but Donald has assigned responsibility for this part of the process to his son, Nigel, and his wife Christina, who both similarly have no relevant experience of this sector either, but they will try and emulate Donald and figure it out as they go.