Tam and Grace O'Braan turned a struggling upland sheep farm into a place of pilgrimage in the billion-dollar world of tea

Eat your heart out, Earl Grey. A tea grown amid the splendour of the Scottish Highlands will today be crowned the finest in the world.

Dalreoch Estate Smoked White tea, grown in Amulree, Perthshire, has won the Gold Award of the Salon du Thé in Paris, an achievement as impressive as it is improbable.

Fending off famous names from China, India and Sri Lanka, the Wee Tea Company triumphed only four years after the plantation put down roots. Its high-end product — available from Fortnum & Mason at £35 for 15g — has been a commercial proposition for only a year.

For Tam O’Braan, 45, founder of the Wee Tea Plantation, it is the vindication of a dream, one he celebrated yesterday with a cup