I'm a little (shortbread) teapot!

I saw these little darling in T2 and I just couldn't help myself!

So on the weekend, I decided to put them to good use making shortbread!  The recipe and how-to are here.

I used the middle sized one for most of them and did a couple of larger ones (see three from the top on the left) for my husband.  They are just perfect!

Today's morning cuppa has never looked better!

Tea Revolution - it's brewing

I found this article in the Easter Weekend Sydney Morning Herald this year and I torn it out.  I promptly stashed it somewhere and forgot about it until I was doing a little tidying on the weekend and up it popped!

Tea Revolution - it's brewing
By Sue Bennett


A cup of tea.  In my grandma's day, it was such a simple thing - tea, boiling water, milk and sugar.


Whatever happened?  Today we have tea to pick you up, tea to bring you down, teas with a "bombshell" of health benefits, tea as a digestive and tea to send you to sleep.


There's a Tetley tea especially for soy "milk" drinkers (a zingy high-grown Kenyan little number) and Twinings is bringing out an Australian Blend.


Boutique producer T2 goes one better with teas that recognise state border: Brisbane Breakfast is happy, bright and tropical with a "teeny touch" of sunny mango; Melbourne Breakfast is worthy of a rich infusion; Sydney Breakfast is "lively and vivacious", a blend of orthodox leaf tea (let me read that again... orthodox leaf tea?).  This cheeky little brew "captures the sunny optimism of a Sydney morning".


Tea description are worthy of the finest wines.  Teas can be full-bodied , earthy with a hint of mushroom, aromatic and fragrant with a lingering hint of honey.


Some teas are so rare and expensive, buyers have their names on waiting lists for years and are prepared to pay astronomical prices.  In 2002, 20 grams of Da Hong Pao, or Big Red Robe, from Wuyi in China sold for $23,000.


Yet tea doesn't have any of the cachet of coffee in contemporary life.  There are coffee carts and bars on every corner and an almost indecipherable language to non-drinkers, like double shot, skinny soy latter.


Tea drinkers are reduced to an often paltry selection in restaurants and cafes.  They all do English Breakfast - the adopted term for regular tea - but it can be hit and miss with other blends and flavours.


And let's not talk about tea preparation.


Textbooks are written about barista training.  These masters of the coffee machine traverse the globe with their skills and compete for coveted awards.  A tea maker in an Australian cafe or restaurant simple needs the ability to turn the kettle on.


But take a walk down the supermarket tea aisle to see a vast, and ever expanding, array of brands, flavours and hinted health benefits.


While we leave the house in search of a coffee, tea drinking is all about home.  It's about snuggling down with a good book, giving healthy living a kick or sharing a brew with a friend.  For those completely sucked in, those scenarios require teas to soothe, detox and invigorate.  They are all there.  But the beauty is the preparation.  At home, it's down just how we like it in our own kitchen.


Maybe not for much longer.  New York has discovered the tea salon.  It can't be long before it crosses the Pacific. 




A girl can wish!!

Raspberry Rush

I tried a new tea last weekend.

I have been really into raspberries lately.  They are so tasty and pretty and they have the lovely tart but sweet flavour.  Shame they are so expensive!

I am always on the look out for some on sale so I can snap them up and enjoy them straight from the box as a guilty pleasure.

Anyway, I was sniffing my way around the samples at my local T2 the other week and I came upon their Raspberry Rush tea.

It is a black tea with raspberry and it has such a divine smell!

I was due to visit the new T2 Tea House (see post of 13 July 2011) with one of my best friends so when we headed in, I ordered myself a pot.

The smell was like fresh baked raspberry muffins!  It was strong, like it could permeate your kitchen if left for long enough.

The taste was different however.  It tasted like fresh raspberries.  Like the ones I sneak directly from the punnet.  The taste was subtle.  There was also an apple flavour.  A bit like the apple and raspberry juice you can buy.

I tried it with and without milk and without was definitely better.

It would be fantastic as an iced tea with some fresh mint leaves and lots of ice cubes.  Will have to pick some up when the warmer months roll in.

For now, I'm thinking some raspberry muffins are actually not a bad idea...

T2 Tea House

I discovered something very exciting a couple of months ago.

I recently moved up the north shore of Sydney and discovered that hidden in the outer suburbs at Hornsby Westfield and Macquarie Shopping Centre are two T2 Tea Houses!

Photo courtesy of Iron Chef Shellie

These little gems of quiet bustle and dimmed red lighting are a bastion of avid tea drinkers.  They look like a cross between an opium den and a Victorian parlour.  A mixture of comfy Victorian style chairs and black walls make for the perfect spot to slip away from the madness of the shopping crowds and into a cup of T2's finest.

My husband and I have been making it a regular date to pop in before we battle the grocery shopping for a constitution-hardening brew.

The other week I went with my husband and met up with a girlfriend for the high tea.

It isn't in the league of The Tea Room or The Victoria Room but at half the price that is to be expected.

The scones and jam are delicious.  The sandwiches a little dry and rather average but there is a good selection of cakes, including pear tart and little square of Turkish delight.

A cup of tea comes with the high tea and you can choose from almost anything on their vast menu.

All in all it was an enormously enjoyable experience!

I truly believe that one day tea salons will outstrip coffee houses in Sydney.  There is a change in the air and Sydney siders, who pride themselves on being connoisseurs of almost everything are sure to hop into the latest trend.

Now, dear T2, you really need to open one of these in the CBD near my work!

Melbourne Breakfast

The geniuses at T2 have very smartly designed a range of blended teas for several of the Australia State capitals!

Since I am off to Melbourne next weekend, I thought to get into the spirit, that I would try the Melbourne Breakfast tea.

The bag describes it as full-bodied with a touch of vanilla. I do love vanilla in tea.

I decided to brew it nice and long and add milk. Vanilla tea with milk is almost as good as dessert. Actually…sometimes it’s better.

The aroma is milky and nutty. It is like rice pudding with vanilla. Smooth and tasty and reminds me of being a kid. My Mum used to make rice pudding for dessert sometimes.

It tastes delicious. Very vanilla-ery, full-bodied and comforting. It was not as sweet as some of the vanilla teas you get, which made me like it even more. The finish was almost a little spicy although I couldn’t put my finger on the taste. Maybe a little like nutmeg.

It was make a perfect after dinner tea in place of dessert or on a cloudy morning as a comfort. Or even when you are feeling down and just want to hug a teddy bear. I think I feel like this because the tea really reminded me of the taste of childhood.

I can’t say I think it tasted like Melbourne but I suppose since I went to boarding school in Melbourne maybe it is a bit reminiscent of my childhood in that way. Regardless, it was absolutely delicious and I’m looking forward to regressing back there with my next cup!

Comfy Chai

Last week was its usual mad rush leading up to Christmas.  It just doesn't seem possible that everything will get done before disappearing off for the break.

To help get me through I love the smells and taste of Christmas such as cinnamon, mixed citrus peel, cloves and mixed spices.  So, on Friday I did something I haven’t done for a long time. I bought a chai latte.

Now, as much as I occasionally begrudgingly accept the sugary confection that forms most chai lattes today (which incidentally don’t actually have any tea in them – just sugar and flavours), I infinitely prefer something that has some basis in tea. This one was made with chai tea from T2.

I have, in the distant past, when I was a huge fan of chai, attempted on many occasions (working through about two boxes of chai) to make a good tasty chai latte. Unfortunately this skill continues to evade me to this day. It is always too strong (and bitter) or too weak or too watery or too milky. I just can’t get the right balance. So I decided some things are best left to the professionals.

Downstairs at my local work café I noticed they had the T2 chai available as a latte. I felt like a comforting blast from the past.

It was perfect. Sweet but not sickly like many of today’s chai lattes. Spicy but not too spicy like may of the leaf-based chais. It had the perfect amount of milk so that it was flavoursome but still milky. Yum!

So bravo to anyone out there that has perfected the elusive chai latte! But if, like me, you haven’t, when you can find somewhere that does a good leaf-based chai, don’t let them get away!

Spring Ching Classic

I had the pleasure of attending a girlfriend's bridal shower recently.  Being a fellow tea lover, she included in her game prizes little tins of T2 teas.

I managed to score myself a tin of Lung Ching Classic!  I was quite stoked as it was a tea I was yet to sample.

The next day, I was at work and decided to indulge in a much needed break and try my new tea.  I filled a glass teapot with an infuser with boiling water and waited until it had cooled to about 80 degrees celcius.  I plopped in a teaspoon of the spear-shaped green leaves and watched them unfurl and dance for about 2 minutes before removing the infuser to prevent the tea over-brewing.

The smell was subtle, but strong.  You could barely catch a whiff of it but when you managed to inhale a few molecules the actual smell was divine.  The tea leaves barely coloured the water.

I decided to jump straight in and taste it.  The flavours were deceptively strong for such a light green tea.  It was an interesting mix of citrus-y lime and woodsmoke.  Both fresh and old.  Strange, but true!  It didn't taste astringent in flavour but it did leave a dryness in my mouth.

It tasted just like the weather that day.  It was raining but you could see pockets of sunshine between the rain clouds creating a strange dichotomy, just like the flavours in the tea.  I imagine in being a great summer/spring tea.  Both cooling and warming all at once.

Ah, what a beautiful break.  Now back to work!

Grass of a Different Kind

I had the flu a few weeks ago (not the swine flu, thank goodness) and I decided that I wanted a tea that would be healing.  Meet T2's Lemongrass and Ginger Tea.

Of course it is strictly at tisane rather than a tea but it still has the same warming and healing feeling you get from a good cup of tea.  Rather like your Mum popping round with chicken soup and butter menthols.

It smells fresh and warm.  The taste is surprisingly mild.  Not bitey like some ginger teas.  The lemongrass doesn't actually taste like lemon or grass.  More a very mild hint of lemon but in no way bitter or acidic.  Like a lemon soother rather than an actual lemon.  It tastes refreshing and healing.  Like it could almost stop the flu in its tracks and send it packing.

Plus, those lovely pyramid tea bags that are common nowadays, mean that you have the pleasure of watching each tiny dried cuts of lemongrass swell up in the warm water and swirl around.  Watching this just adds to the relaxing feeling brought on by drinking the tea itself.  Like watching a goldfish meander around a bowl.

Whilst I am feeling much better now, I can still feel a warm glow of safety just thinking about a cup of Lemongrass and Ginger Tea.  I rather feel like chicken soup now too, come to think of it.

Es-sencha-lly Green and Grassy

There is something healthy and ever so self-righteous about tucking into a cup of green tea.  I decided to take it one step further and be frankly pretentious.  Rather than just trying green tea, I decided to try Sencha from T2.

Sencha is a japanese green tea.  It is lighter in colour and in taste (apparently) than usual green tea.

I have to admit I was disappointed with Sencha.  I sometimes find green tea a bit too astringent and strong and was hoping this would be all the things I loved about green tea without that.  It was not to be.

It smells like grass and tastes like grass.  Lovely healthy tasty grass, but still grass.  It was mildly astringent but not as much as a straight green tea.  It was also a quite strong taste which I wasn't expecting.

I have held onto the tea bag as I am hopeful that the second brewing will be a bit more mellow and enjoyable.  They do say with tea that the first is the worst, the second is the best and the third is the second best. 

Ok, so that last bit doesn't rhyme but saying the third is the bird wouldn't have made sense to anyone.

So sorry if you are a sencha lover but I found it only slightly more enjoyable than popping down the park and making like a cow.

The French

I went to a tea talk on the weekend and discovered that despite tea being a traditionally English drink, the French were into tea before the English.  I suppose now the French are more for coffee but I expect with cuppas like French Earl Grey there would still be a lot of tea drinkers in France.

T2's French Earl Grey is like the more elegant cousin of the traditional Earl Grey.  Early Grey is a blended black tea flavoured with bergamot oil to give it that subtle, almost lavender-like flavour.

French Earl Grey takes it one step further with the addition of cornflowers.  Tiny blue flowers that change the traditional taste of Earl Grey into something even more refined but also more playful.

French Earl Grey smells stongly of apricots.  Like an apricot tart hot from the oven.  The bergamot is much more subtle but I'm not sure whether this is the highlight the cornflowers or merely that T2's traditional Earl Grey only has a subtle bergamot taste and the French version has been built on that base.

Having it with milk takes the edge off the taste and makes it smoothy and creamy still with that divine apricot taste and smell.  Like dessert in a cup.

Mmm...can't wait til apricots are in season.  But until then the French Earl Grey will hit the spot!

Pretty blue cornflower - tastes so good!

The Joy of Jasmine

Chatting to the barista at my in-house cafe, I discovered they actually stock a reasonable amount of T2 teas.  Rather than having my usual light soy chai latte, I decided that in honour of spring, I would try out something more fitting to the season.

Enter China Jasmine.

I love jasmine.  There is a large jasmine hedge near my apartment and every day when I walk past on my way to work, the sweet and subtle smell of the tiny white jasmine flowers follows me along the block.  It is delightful!

China Jasmine captures this experience, with the same beautiful smell eminating from my cup.  I have it without milk or sugar.  It tastes sweet and rich with a little kick in the aftertaste.  It reminds me of walking through the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour.  It's being in the middle of a bustling city, but at peace.

Excellent tea for escaping the day for a few moments.  As I come to the end of the cup, the taste lingers for a little and then is gone.

Back to work...

Tea for Spring

It is 17 days into spring and it is 30 degrees celcius!

Chatting with the barista at my in-house cafe, we got to talking about hot beverages and warmer weather.  I mentioned that hot drinks in summer are a fantastic way to keep cool.  She looked incredulous.

The logic is that everything you drink regardless of the temperature eventually has to be matched to your body temperature, so the closer the temperature of your drink to your body temperature, the less energy your body has to use to heat or cool it and therefore your body generates less heat.

But if you don't believe me, you are welcome to drink your tea iced.

My tea picks for spring:

• T2 - Gorgeous Geisha - Green tea with strawberries;
• Madame Flavour - White Tea and Rose
• The Tea Centre - Honeybush Country Berry - Honeybush, strawberry leaves, raspberry and elder blossoms (also great iced).