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!!

Madame Flavour does Pear

Green tea now comes in so many flavours it can be a minefield to work out what you like.

One I tried some time ago now is the Green, Jasmine and Pear from that divine teahouse, Madame Flavour.

I first got into Madame Flavour teas about a year ago.  I was wandering along George Street near Martin Place in Sydney when I had thrust into my hands by some marketing people three tiny boxes.  Each contained a beautifully presented cornsilk teabag with each of English Breakfast, Sultry Chai and Green,  Jasmine and Pear.  I headed back to work and immediately tried out the tea.  It was lovely!  The taste aided by the beautiful presentation: each in a tiny cardboard box with a silver lining and containing a little note explaining how to enjoy the tea.  It was so beautiful, I immediately hunted down Madame Flavour online (http://www.madameflavour.com.au/) and ordered a box of the English Breakfast.  A few days later it arrived with a handwritten note from Madame Flavour herself thanking me for my kind words and including a huge box of all different types of individually boxed teas!!!

The combination of the quality of the tea, the presentation and the generousity of the owner mean that I simply cannot say how much a love Madame Flavour!

Anyway, she does a mean Green, Jasmine and Pear.

It smells fruity and very strongly of jasmine.

The taste is of a traditional jasmine green tea however it has a mellow sweetness which introduces the pear.  It is more an aftertaste than the main fanfare but I rather like it.

It is a strong tea so those that find green teas a little too strong or astringent would probably prefer a lighter green tea flavour.

I, for one, am a fan.  So Green, Jasmine and Pear has been featuring as the green of choice in my tea box for the last twelve months and it has been very well received by my tea guests.

I would highly recommend checking out Madame Flavour's website.  Even if you don't particularly care for tea, you will still enjoy the beautiful graphics and words.  For the standard tea lover, I highly recommend the English Breakfast.  For the herbal tea lover, I recommend the White Tea with Rose (I know it is still a real tea but it is so light and sweet that you would never know).  She has also recently introduced some real tisanes to the mix.  I have not yet tried them but I be sure to report once I have!

I want Kandy

Black tea has always been my favourite tea!  Regardless of all the new-fangled types and blends that come along, a plain whole leaf black tea is the classic.

The Tea Centre has a lovely, relatively inexpensive black tea that is just lovely: Ceylon Kandy OP.

So what's in a name?

Ceylon:  obviously, the tea is from Sri Lanka;
Kandy:  no idea, but is sounds tasty; and
OP:  this stands for "Orange Pekoe".  Yes, I know that Orange Pekoe is a tea type in its own right but orange pekoe actually refers to a tea made using the full unbroken black tea leaf.  Blended teas like English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast are not made using full tea leaves, rather broken leaves, so they are not orange pekoe tea.

So, in front of me is a lovely cup of Kandy.  It is without sugar or milk.  It smells very strong.  Like rich tomato bolognase, like chocolate and hot chips.  It's a whole meal in one small cup and yet the smells seem fitting and right together.

The taste is slightly smoky but full-bodied.  Like a red wine.  The flavour is like tomatos and rich lasagne.  It is delicious but not sweet.  It is a heavenly savoury taste, unexpected in a cup of tea.

There is no bitterness, bite or acid.  It is smooth and aromatic.

I don't think I need dinner now.  Or maybe some lasagne would hit the spot....

Fast Coffee Tea

People generally fall into two categories:  those that would never consider purchasing tea or coffee at a fast coffee outlet (e.g. Starbucks, Gloria Jeans) and those that never purchase theirs anywhere else.

I have varied over the years in which of the two categories I fall into but since giving up coffee, I would rarely have cause to frequent a fast coffee outlet.

However, the genius that is Starbucks has invented a beverage to capture the tea-lover market:  the English Breakfast Tea Latte.

I recall my first EBT Latte.  I purchased it at Darling Harbour with my fiance and we were both so surprised that it actually tasted like english breakfast tea.

I later discovered the secret: an actual english breakfast tea bag.  Genius!

They wack in some hot water, a genuine Tazo tea bag, some steamed milk and a shot of the classic syrup and there you have it - a delicious, sweet, creamy cup of tea.  And it doesn't taste half bad.  In fact it is one of my staple favourites.

I dare you to take up the fast coffee challenge and try and EBT Latte for yourself.  Pure fast coffee heaven!

Besides, not matter how often one dines on fine food, sometimes only Macca's will hit the spot!