THE restaurant crowned Scotland’s best has backed an innovative new venture – a Scottish tea plantation.

Inver on Loch Fyne – which sits on the shore opposite Old Castle Lachlan on the Cowal peninsula – was named the best restaurant in the country at the 2022 Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards.

The award-winning eatery has now backed a Scottish tea plantation at a nearby farm – one of Scotland’s first – and announced that the plantation’s first blend, The Blackhouse, will be coming soon to Inver’s drinks menu.

Glen Caladh Tea is the brainchild of Argyll locals Duncan and Islay, who moved into a neglected farm on the shores of the Kyles of Bute in 2017.

Both from farming backgrounds, they took a long tea research trip through India and Sri Lanka before coming back to Scotland to start their own tea plantation.

Inver made the announcement on Facebook.

They said: “A Scottish tea plantation! A shoogley dirt-track drive from @inverrestaurant the lovely Islay and Duncan have recently started growing tea, all hand-planted, tended and picked.

“They’re one of 35 tea growing spots in the country, now – it seems camellia sinensis really likes the high humidity, rainfall and variable temperatures here! The Blackhouse is their first blend with @teascotland – malty, slightly smoky, like toasted barley. Delicious. Coming soon to the @inverrestaurant drinks menus."

Carnoustie-born chef Pamela Brunton and her restaurant manager partner Rob Latimer opened Inver in 2015.

While Inver does not have a coveted Michelin Star, it does have a Michelin “green star”, which “recognises sustainable gastronomy and distinguishes restaurants taking responsibility in the conversation of resources and the protection of biodiversity”.