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...

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!

High Tea at the Plaza

I recently came back from a trip to New York with my husband.  I have always heard stories and seen movies depicting the high teas of New York and I immediately booked in for high tea in the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel.

The hotel is absolutely palatial!  It feels like stepping back in time to the era when women were women and men were men.  When tea was a national sport!

The Palm Court itself was a open large area just behind the lobby with an enormous stained glass skylight featuring rose motifs covering the entire ceiling.  The back wall of the space was set with windows inlaid with mirrored panels that made the grandeaur of the space even more apparent.

We were seated at a lovely little table complete with white linen and silver accessories.

We both chose the New Yorker High Tea which featured the usual little sandwiches, scones with a divine peach jam and an array of New York themed mini desserts, including cannoli, chocolate cupcakes and New York cheesecakes.

We both ordered the signature Afternoon Tea blend.  It was a black tea, not unlike English Breakfast.  Whilst I was keen to record the wonders of its flavour and smell, I was a little overwhelmed by the event and instead chose to merely bask in the sights, sounds and flavours of the experience as a whole.

For all its magic there were a few flaws: the maitre d' was not the friendliest of sorts (mind you we were there on the Labor Day holiday and I expect she would have much preferred to be home) and they provided sugar sticks on the tables rather than sugar cubes which rather irked me for some reason.  I suppose I had expected the high tea at such a revered institution to maintain as much tradition as possible in the setting and accessories.

Overall, it was a delightful experience.  I think next time I travel to the Big Apple I'm going to try the high tea at the Waldorf-Astoria as I've heard it's also quite magic.

Darjeeling Maikaibari

Recently I had the time to make a visit to one of my favourite tea places, The Tea Centre in Sydney's Glasshouse.

I decided on the devonshire tea which features a tea of your choice from their huge range of teas plus a divine fresh scone (a very large fresh scone too!), strawberry jam and double cream...YUM!

I chose to try their Darjeeling Makaibari FTGFOP (Organic).  Makaibari is a tea plantation in the hills of India and it makes some delicious teas.  The letters in the name of the tea indicate the grade; in this case Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe!  There's a mouthful.  This is the finest grade of tea and I am reliably informed by wikipedia that it also stands for "Far Too Good  For Ordinary People".  I can't say I agree.

Anyway, before diving into my delicious scone I took a deep whiff of the liquid gold.  It smelled smoky.  It also smelled strongly of cooked tomatos with a hint of fresh bread.  Perfect for a cool winters day!

I took a quick slurp to increase the flavour and it exploded in delicious savoury tomato and pepper flavours. 

I am always partial to tea with milk and sugar so I added a little of both.  The tomato flavour remained but now it had a soft sweetness.  The peppery flavours were dampened by the milk becoming a smooth woody taste.

It was like the taste of a lounge fireplace, with a beautiful roaring wood fire, a good book and a mohair blanket.  I daydreamed awhile before remembering my scone was getting cold.

Mmm....now to get lost in the creamy, crumbly scone...

Oooooo-long!

I have only recently been treated to my first cup of oolong tea.

I have to admit, I wasn't even sure what oolong tea was but I now regret the many years I spent bypassing it in favour of other teas.

Oolong is not a mix of green and black tea or something else altogether.  It is in fact somewhere between green and black tea.  Confused?

What makes the difference between green, black and oolong teas is purely oxidisation.  Green tea is only oxidised very slightly whereas black tea is left to oxidise for a long time, hence it ends up black.  So all tea starts off green and then it is how long it oxidises that determines its type.  Oolong tea is oxidised longer than green tea but not as long as black tea.

So that's the science bit, now for the taste and smell.

I tried the Formosa Dung Ti Oolong from The Tea Centre.  It smelled smokey and chocolatey, rich and deep.

The taste was very different to the smell.  It was soft and tasted subtly of fruit and grass.

The smell was reminiscent of black tea but the taste more like green tea.  It was perfectly balanced and deliciously different.

The look of the tea was also different.  Each tiny tea leaf was carefully rolled up so that it unfurled in the hot water.  Not just a delicious taste, but also a relaxing sight to watch as it brews.

In future I won't wait s-oolong to try out new teas!

Formosa Dung Ti:

Stockholm Syndrome

Ok, so I know that Stockholm Syndrome traditionally relates to a person becoming enamoured of their captor due to lengthy captivity but I don't see why the same thing doesn't relate to the fantastic Stockholm Blend at The Tea Centre.

It was Friday afternoon and after a heavy week, my boss had allowed the team to head off home at 3pm.  My problem:  I had left my keys at home so I had to wait until my fiance arrived home to let me in.

Anyway, I decided to spend the afternoon at The Tea Centre with a pot of Stockholm Blend.  It is a blend of black tea, orange peel, safflower, calendula blossom, rose petals, vanilla pieces and apricot.  It smells spicy and strongly of vanilla and apricots.

It tastes smooth, without a hint of bitterness despite the orange peel.  It is fruity, the same way you might describe in a red wine.

Yes, I did fall for my captor, if you count a divine black tea blend.  Well, it was rather captivating!