Although we associate growing tea with warmer places, like Kenya or India, apparently there is a place in Cornwall, a little corner of the Scepter’d Isle, that has  mini-ecosystem that is an anomaly, a fluke, and which is the perfect climate for growing tea.

The estate is the home of the Boscawens, the Viscounts Falmouth. It was sacked during the Civil War (goofy round-heads! what were you thinking!?!) but rebuilt shortly later in 1652. Camellia plants have been cultivating the plants on the Tregothnan estate for more than 200 years, but more recently they began to grow Camellia Sinensis, the tea bush, more seriously, and in the last ten years have built up the plantation as a commercial venture.

They sell a variety of teas, and a larger variety of infusions at http://tregothnan.co.uk/tea-plantation/, for all you tea snobs out there, but I think the shipping is too expensive.
Anyone up for a field-trip?
Allons-y!