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!