j o i e : d e : t e a

Moving digs

2011-11-22T13:13:00.000+11:00

Hsving decided I do indeed want to get back into tea blogging, I have likewise decided that the best place to do so is over with the good people of TeaTrade. Henceforth all tea-related posts can be found at http://joiedetea.teatra.de - I'd love it if you followed me over there (and checked out the other wonderful tea blogs and discussion and marketplace to be found on the site), but no hard feelings if not.

Thanks for coming along thus far and I hope to see you on TeaTrade!

The taste of failure...

2011-11-19T15:08:00.000+11:00

...is unbelievably bitter, astringent and, on an empty stomach, head-spinning. Yes, that is what the failure to brew a cup of sencha PROPERLY tastes like.

Not just any sencha either, dammit. A Darjeeling sencha from Badamtam estate, very kindly sent to me by the lovely people at Lochan Tea. I've never had a Darjeeling sencha before. It looks very like a deep steamed Japanese one, dark green leaves like fine needles. So naturally I brewed in the way I normally brew sencha these days... A tablespoon of leaves, boiling water, multiple short steeps.

Well. This method works beautifully for Japanese greens, and really pulls the most out of Australian sencha too... But it was an absolutely abject failure for the Badamtam. I haven't had such an appallingly bitter cup of tea in a while, especially not one I've made myself.* So I shall try again; less leaf, cooler temperatures... Hopefully I'll be able to work it out before I use up all my sample.

I still drank the tea, though, undrinkable though it seemed on first sip. Self-flagellation? Well, maybe a little, but once I'd got past the grimace-inducing taste of the alkaloids, that same astounding sweetness that sencha has was still there. So it was worth it, in the end.

*a notable example at another establishment was a pot of Earl Grey at Trunk; I cannot even begin to imagine what they did to it to make it so vile. I suspect a ritual circle of black magic, worked by coffee-drinking tea-haters, may have been involved.

Jamira Estate Assam

2011-04-12T09:00:00.000+10:00

I have a tendency to desperately crave teas I don't keep on hand very often, usually of the rich Irish Breakfast or strong (but complex) Assam variety.

I found one in an unlikely spot, on holiday a couple of weeks ago - we were staying in Apollo Bay but made a day trip to Lorne where we stopped in at the River Tea House for lunch. I ordered a pot of the Jamira Estate Assam and it was so good I bought a packet to bring home. I should, in fact, have bought two or three because I have gone through nearly 100g of it in just over two weeks (with a bit of help from Tennant).

It is fruity, extremely puckery if oversteeped, malty and strong and sweet in the aftertaste, with a powerful wake up kick. I love it. It does tend to need milk to smooth it out but hey - in this autumn weather that's just the kind of tea I like. I'm having trouble going for green tea at the moment; although I usually enjoy it once it's made, I can't enthuse myself about it quite as much as I can in the warmer weather.

A google search for 'jamira estate assam' does not bring up any particularly detailed or indeed cheerful information about the estate. Workers' deaths and a cholera outbreak (it's not clear how recent). A depressing reminder that the tea that I enjoy so much does come with a lot of hidden costs.

Stressful day

2011-04-11T14:43:00.000+10:00

Perhaps a tea of fresh mint from the garden might make me feel a bit better...?

Well, a pretty picture does, anyway.

Hope you are having a more relaxing day than me. If not, surely a cup of tea will help. Go make one now.

Taking tea outdoors

2011-03-20T12:45:00.000+11:00

I took advantage of the sunny weather and an hour to myself this morning to take my tea outdoors in the Fitzroy Gardens. Just lovely.

So... What would YOU call it?

2011-03-15T14:36:00.000+11:00

Just following on from my previous post about Australian green tea, and whether it should be called sencha or not - Jackie, for example, seems to feel NOT - but what more exciting name than just 'Australian green tea' could be used instead?

For example: Oolong tea grown in New Zealand is called Zealong... Apparently the tea is very good but I am afraid the name doesn't really work for me; it just sounds kind of silly.

Moreover, what if there were more than one kind of tea being produced? For example, green tea grown in Australia but processed as for longjing, chun mee, bi luo chun? Clearly just calling the whole lot 'Australian green tea' wouldn't cut it - you would need to differentiate somehow. Would 'Australian XYZ-style tea' be adequate? I am a bit less sure now than I was when I wrote the previous post.

What do you think?

Green tea from the Alpine Tea Co

2011-03-12T14:32:00.000+11:00

Did you know that green tea is grown in Victoria, Australia? Yes indeedy, right in the Victorian Alps - Tawonga to be precise. The tea bushes at The Alpine Tea Co are the 'yabukita' strain, which is one of the most popular for sencha in Japan, and the leaves are processed as for sencha.*

I came across the company at the Collingwood Children's Farm farmers' market a few months ago and purchased some of their first (spring) harvest tea. I haven't tried the regular green tea yet, but I have been greatly enjoying the first harvest one (in fact am nearly out of it).

Sometimes I brew a smaller amount of leaf with low-temperature water, for about 2 minutes at a time (2-3 infusions), sometimes with lots of leaf for very short infusions (30 secs or so) in boiling water. Either way it is delicious. There are unique flavours that I haven't come across in a Japanese sencha. The taste profile is similar - the roasty, savoury taste for example - but there are also at times fruity notes, even floral ones, and sometimes an extremely distinct smell & taste that I can only describe as 'fresh dairy cream'. In some ways this tea makes me think more of an oolong than a sencha. I guess this is the effect of terroir at work.

The Alpine Tea Co teas are very reasonably priced too, and I am thinking that at $50-$65 a kilo a substantial purchase might not go amiss... especially at the rate I have been drinking sencha lately.

Interestingly, the company states on their website that

to ensure no direct comparison to Japanese Sencha (ours is not as strong), we prefer to call it Australian Green Tea.

What do you think about that? I know that green tea grown in China and processed as for sencha is sold labelled as such - I believe that this is because the Japanese tea industry alone simply can't meet the full market demand for sencha. I think that so long as it is also labelled with its country of origin and not purported to be Japanese that there is no harm in calling it 'sencha' as well, or 'sencha-style' - and that this even opens up the opportunity for people to celebrate more diverse flavours and taste profiles.

*I expect (though this is speculation on my part) that this production decision was at least partly influenced by the fact that sencha processing is almost entirely mechanised, from harvest to finish - given the high cost of labour in Australia, I imagine that a hand-plucked and processed tea would be beyond exorbitant in price.

Jinxed

2011-03-08T11:14:00.000+11:00

I am having a teaware run of death at the moment. Over the last four months or so I have

Broken two glass teapot lids (the second one was my spare, my glass teapot is now unusable)
Shattered a gaiwan lid (luckily I have a spare)
Broken the handle on my beautiful Royal Doulton cup (mended)
Shattered the lid of my tokoname teapot (not fixable, teapot now can't be used)
Smashed the handle of my small zero japan teapot (well, the cat knocked it off the bench; can't be fixed)
Smashed to smithereens a lovely green mug that was a gift from my husband.

The green mug died last night. I went to bed in tears. I have not allowed myself any tea so far today in case I break something else...

Tea and Food: A match made in heaven

2011-03-01T19:41:00.000+11:00

Peaches and almonds go together so beautifully. Not surprising really I suppose, when you consider they are closely related within the same botanical family.

I think many teas pair well with fruit and nuts as a snack, but my particular favorite is a sencha. I love the way the initial bitterness of the tea contrasts with the sweetness of the fruit and creaminess of the nuts, and then the sweetness comes through again at the end.

I have just used up the last of my sencha of the spring sun from Obubu Tea. I love this tea. I make it the way they recommend, with lots of leaf and boiling water for multiple VERY short steeps. This brings out the bitterness that I love in a Japanese tea in the first infusion; subsequent cups are sweet and creamy, a little floral. It cold-brews beautifully too.

I'll be purchasing some more of this delicious tea as soon as I can.

If you'd like to know more about Obubu, have a look at this great interview with Matsu and Akky , the farmers, on the Travel and Tea blog!

PS do you like my incredibly beautiful Royal Doulton 'moss rose' teacup set? I love it SO MUCH!

My proudest moment

2011-02-25T13:17:00.000+11:00

Last Sunday Tennant Pippin and I went over to my sister's new place to check it out for the first time. Naturally my lovely sister brewed me up a pot of tea (T2 Creme Brulee, tres nice).

Pippin was chattering away and I wasn't paying much attention, but then I heard Tennant say, 'Hey guess what? Pippin just said "TEA"!'

And it was true. Pippin was pointing at my mug and saying, as clearly as he could, 'TEA!'*

I was So. Proud. I almost cried.

Then, this morning (yes, it gets better!!) we were all just about to head downstairs for breakfast and I said 'I'll put the kettle on.'

Pippin immediately said 'TEA!'

We tried to get him to say it again: 'Pippin, what happens when mummy puts the kettle on?' - but all he would do was giggle and say 'Yay!' Also an entirely correct response, I would note.

He is a boy after my own heart. Oh, I am so proud.

Here he is having a teaspoonful or so of some cooled Giddapahar autumn flush after his breakfast:

*it comes out more like 'K-HEE!' (he is not super good at 't' words yet) but it is entirely clear what he means. I am not wishfully thinking this.

Tea tasting comparison FAIL

2011-02-22T12:23:00.000+11:00

Well, of all the brain dead things to do... I set up a little taste comparison between two 2009 Autumn Flush Darjeeling teas which I picked up inexpensively late last year from Thunderbolt Tea - one from Sungma Estate and one from Giddapahar. I've been drinking quite a bit of the Sungma on a daily basis but I wanted to compare it with the other.

So I set it all up, two teapots, two mugs (colour coordinated with the teapots if you please, although that was more by happenstance than design), warmed them all up, weighed the leaf (2g of each), steeped, poured... And then I couldn't remember which leaves I put in which pot.

FAIL!

The green mug brew was spicier, lighter; the blue mug brew was a bit thicker, darker tasting and slightly sweeter & more musky - so I think that one may have been the Giddapahar and the green mug the Sungma. I'm not sure though. at least they were both delicious.

I guess if at first you don't succeed...

A couple of things

2011-02-15T09:00:00.003+11:00

I've had a couple of interesting comments posted lately and I wanted to respond to them where more people may see the reply.

Alex commented on my post about What's a letter worth? :

The few times I've tasted tea from the same harvest and garden of different grades, I have not always preferred the "better" grades. Sometimes, higher grades taste more delicate, and I may want a more robust tea.
...
Also, you can't generalize about the price of grades. I've picked up some FTGFOP1 Darjeeling First Flush when it was a bit late and out of season, and yet still fresh and outstanding quality, for a lower price than a lot of "lower" grades.

Re: the first point he makes: I agree, I often prefer the more robust-flavoured teas myself (although I do enjoy a first flush Darjeeling). Sometimes I feel a bit bad about this: does it mean I am actually not as sophisticated a tea drinker as I like to imagine myself? But, really, does that matter? I like what I like... and there it is. Of course it's also good to try different things, of course and to be open to putting aside my preconceptions about tea (like with puerh for example, but more on that in another post) because I might be pleasantly surprised.

In relation to Alex's second point, I also agree - I have also picked up high grade teas for a bargain price, for example when they are from the previous season and the new crop is coming in and commanding the higher prices. In my experience though, this is something that is most likely to happen with online and, in particular, specialist tea vendors such as Thunderbolt Tea in Darjeeling. It seems to me that the average Australian consumer walking into a bricks and mortar store would be unlikely to be confronted with information about the latest, freshest teas and given an opportunity to purchase previous crops for a cheaper price regardless of grade... if that makes sense. Even in a store with a broad range of quality teas you would have to know what you were looking for, and be prepared to ask the staff about it if you wanted something so specific. Does anyone else have an opinion about this, from an Australian perspective or from elsewhere?

In response to my post on Sustainable, organic and fair trade tea, Jenny asked

How about you? Do you go for organic tea(products)?

In general, I would have to say: No, not specifically. I do my best to purchase as much as I can from companies who produce high quality goods - tea, food and so on - and this sometimes means that the products are organic (e.g. at the farmers' market) and sometimes that the company has a strong social ethic (e.g. Thunderbolt Tea). I like to purchase close to the source, hopefully ensuring that more of the money goes directly to the people involved - again buying tea from Thunderbolt Tea is a good way to do this and Obubu Tea in Japan is also excellent (and all of their teas are delicious as well).

It is important to me that the products I consume are as ethical as possible - but as the interview I linked to in the previous post indicates, ethical production and consumption are not as simple and clear-cut as one might think!

Sustainable, organic, fair trade tea

2011-02-13T05:27:00.000+11:00

I am quite the groupie of Nigel Melican of Teacraft Ltd - his knowledge and experience in the industry is vast and I am always interested in what he has to say. So, you can imagine how rapt I was to discover that Cinnabar of Gongfu Girl had interviewed Nigel at last year's World Tea Expo and shared the interview on Cha Dao.

If you care about issues of sustainability, organic farming and fair trade - in relation to tea in particular of course, but I think there is much in this interview that applies to agriculture and trade in general - then you should read this. The following excerpt is one I found particularly thought provoking:

NM: I'll give you an example of the dilemma that you might get into. I was working with a new tea grower in Hawaii -- not one of the small guys that we've seen at the Expo, but someone who wanted to do it on a hundred-acre scale, 200-acre scale. He wanted to be organic, said the production must be organic. He was a berry farmer on the mainland, and he always had an organic farm, and he wanted to have an organic tea farm. So we started off and sourced his tea and his raw materials from Africa and got it planted, and his soil was not acid enough, which is unusual for Hawaii, but this was an old sugar-cane plantation and they'd put down a lot of chalk, to benefit the sugar cane. This was 20 years ago, but it was still there. The normal way that you'd acidify soil for tea is to put sulfur on it. Sulfur is recognized by the organic people; they're happy with it. So he goes off to his supplier and when he sees the sulfur that he's offered, he says, "where does it come from?" and they say it's a by-product of the petrochemical industry, and he throws his hands up in horror! So we look and see what else we can get. It's possible to get sulfur which is rock sulfur, mined sulfur. The dilemma is, would you rape the countryside with big holes, ripping out rock sulfur, or would you use a by-product of the petrochemical industry that has to go somewhere, and is at least greening the petrochemical industry at least a little bit?

C: Why would the organic regulations say that you couldn't use petro-chemical by-products?

NM: the regulations don't say that you shouldn't, but they would prefer that you use the natural sulfur.

C: "Organic" meaning that you take it from the earth regardless of consequences? That makes no sense.

NM: No it doesn't make a lot of sense. That's why I say that sustainability and organic should be done with some degree of realism.

The interview is relatively lengthy, so it's been divided into three parts. Definitely worth every minute of your reading time and worth coming back to. Check it out here!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

What's a letter worth?

2011-01-31T12:20:00.000+11:00

You know those letters that you see after the name of a tea - GFBOP, TGFOP, SFTGFOP1 etc etc - it's funny the effect they can have on my purchasing habits.

These letters are, for those of you who don't know, part of a grading system for orthodox-style black teas, primarily those from India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon as it used to be known). The basic is the OP - 'orange pekoe'. Many people will be surprised to learn that this has nothing to do with orange flavour in any way; it is actually all to do with leaf size. If there's a B in front of the OP, that stands for 'broken' and means the leaf pieces are not as whole as they could be.

T, G, F all stand for 'tippy' 'golden' and 'flowery' respectively and relate to the number of tips (leaf buds, which tend to turn golden rather than brown during the production process) in the tea. The more buds, the younger the leaves were at harvest, the finer the pluck, the more expensive the tea. Stick an S for 'special' and an F for 'finest' on the front of all that and you have a very fine tea indeed...

Or that's the theory anyway. In reality, the processing of the leaf probably has at least as much impact on the quality of the final product as the initial pluck. However, many people wandering into your average tea shop would not necessarily know this; and there is a bit of a 'wow factor' involved in purchasing something that has lots of letters after its name (just like looking at the business card of someone with a lot of university degrees I suppose). After all, wouldn't you like to have a bit of the most special (indeed the most finest??) tea in the shop?

But what are these letters worth really?

From a price perspective: The Assam that I wrote about the other day (see here) retails from Tea Leaves for the very reasonable price (as Alex pointed out in the comments) of A$5.50 for 100g (about 3oz). This tea is a TGFOP. In comparison, a STGFOP1 Assam retails from the same vendor for $10.45, nearly double the cost for the same quantity. These two teas may not be exactly comparable of course; for one thing, the more expensive tea is identified as a single estate tea whereas the one I bought is unidentified, presumably blended from a mixture of estates.

I almost came away with the more letter-heavy Assam; the main reason I didn't was because I happened to recall that this is a grading system based on size, not taste quality. So I reckoned I would save my pennies (well, only to spend them on some Dragonwell, ahem) and went with the cheaper version. Very happy I am with it too.

But even so - I wonder if the STGFOP1 would taste twice as nice? Or would I only think it did because it was more expensive? And anyway, doesn't it all come down to personal taste in the end? Perhaps when I run out of my current stock (which I am going through at quite a pace, I must say) I will get some of both to compare.

Hello... yes, it's been a while.

2011-01-27T15:04:00.000+11:00

Quite a while, just over three months in fact, since my last post. Blogging got a bit on top of me I'm afraid, when added to all the other things that I both need and want to get done on a daily basis; but I do miss it, and I would like to continue this tea blog. Although, given the number of in depth, well-researched, beautifully written tea blogs out there, i have had quite the crisis of confidence regarding this one and am not really sure of what of value I have to offer in the tea blogging world. But let's just give it another go, eh?

I have, of course, been drinking loads of tea - much more hot tea than is usual for me over the summer period because it has been most unseasonably chilly and wet... The wettest it has been in Melbourne for a LONG time... I can't remember the last time I saw things looking this green.

My current favourite tea, for its undemanding yet enjoyable nature, is a tippy Assam from Tea Leaves in Sassafras, where my sister and I ventured the other week. The dry leaves smell like a brandy-rich fruit cake; brewed the taste is not super-exciting, but pleasant and robust - amazingly, you can overbrew this tea (as I did one morning when I forgot about it for about ten minutes) yet it is still delightful and does not become bitter or astringent. I even drank it black after its ten-minute steep, that's how ok it was. Also nice with a spot of milk, but really, you don't need it. I like it a lot, at any time of day.

I hope you'll stick around to read on; I'm not going to commit to any kind of posting schedule because I'm really not certain what I can manage at the moment, so I'm just going to play it by ear. But please, do comment - I read each and every one even if I don't always manage to respond in any sort of timely fashion. And don't forget to have a cuppa while you're reading...

Tea in Art

2010-10-22T11:33:00.000+11:00

Here are some beautiful tea-themed artworks, photos and images I've spotted round and about... enjoy!

Sailing in a tea cup by Pragya K (thanks Jess for introducing me to Pragya's work!)

This one is a free printable card - thanks Kellie!

A beautiful tea kettle image from Tea for Joy

Stunning tea cups - found on We Heart It.

And I love the funky colours in this one (also from We Heart It).

Ginger Craving

2010-10-18T11:59:00.000+11:00

Ever since I read a recipe at Chai Pilgrimage for 'Darjeeling Ginger Chai' I was totally smitten with the idea... and I have a LOT of Darjeeling floating around in the pantry, thanks to the arrival of another order from Thunderbolt Tea.

Check out the original recipe here... there's a printable download of the recipe card too!

So I've been brewing up quite a bit of it the last few days. The totally FOUL weather we have had lately has been extra encouragement. I really like the way the plain pure heat of the ginger harmonises with the brassy taste (I mean that in a good way) of the Darjeeling tea. I don't normally drink my Darjeeling with any kind of milk, but it has worked well.

I've tried it with Risheehat and Giddapahar second flushes, and a bit of Arya first flush as well. I've used soy milk, cow's milk and almond milk. I've made a lot of mess with saucepans and tea strainers.

I think my favourite was the one with the Giddapahar and cow's milk... but that might also be because this was the only one I sweetened, with some syrup from some preserved ginger that I had used up earlier that day. Damn, that was good. And that was Pippin's first sip of chai, too! I should have taken a photo, but I was too busy being a tea-proud mama.

Do you name your teapots?

2010-10-13T15:33:00.000+11:00

Some people do! Brett at the Black Dragon Tea Bar has a whole League of Pots... with superpowers... wouldn't want to mess with any of these guys or gals. I rather like 'Chip' myself -

- his brewing specialty is Assam. Brett rescued him from a thrift store... I'm sure they are both glad about that!

Some little yellow teapots have a whole lot of personality all of their own, and even conduct interviews with other personable teawares.

To be honest it never really occurred to me to name my teapots. Perhaps I should? I wonder if they feel unloved, to go unnamed.

Tea Fields

2010-10-10T13:19:00.000+11:00

Now this is a view of Mount Fuji that I really like!

Image from Travel and Tea

Sencha Wazuka

2010-10-08T13:53:00.000+11:00

I could rave about this tea for hours. So I will try and keep this short and sweet (because I anticipate that Pippin will wake up any moment and frustrate my blogging ambitions for the day).

The dry leaves, which are longer, darker and less broken looking than most sencha I've had previously, smell like strawberries and cream... and toast... and these flavours carry over into the brew as well. There's some bitterness, which is enjoyable; the second and third infusions break out into a multitude of herbaceous, even camphoraceous flavours. Lavender? Pine? The leaves look rather like pine needles, as well.

This is like no sencha I have ever had before and it has opened my eyes to a whole new realm of quality. It came to me as part of the Tea Geek certification course (it's available for purchase on the Tea Geek website as well, which is where the image below is from). I may cry when I have worked my way through the rest of the sample - I think I have enough for another 2 cuppings - and then I will probably buy some more.

Risheehat Clonal Flowery Second Flush 2010

2010-10-05T12:26:00.000+11:00

This second flush Risheehat is another lovely tea I purchased from Thunderbolt Tea (can't wait for my next order to arrive in a couple of weeks...) - I have been drinking lots of it over the last little while and enjoying it greatly!

When I first opened the packet there was a lovely burst of flowery aroma - roses? maybe gardenias? - sadly since it has been in its new tin the flowery scent has faded (it seems quite common for the taste and aroma of tea to change once it has been opened, no matter how well I try to store it) but there remains a very pleasant, rich warm smell in the dry leaves - it kind of reminds me of a dark spicy gingerbread, or almost chocolatey? It is not as 'muscatel'-smelling as some other Darjeeling teas that I've tried. This is not a complaint.

My nose is a bit blocked so I can't detect much in the wet leaves today, but previously I have noted some tropical fruit notes - pineapple definitely and a bit of passionfruit as well perhaps?

The brewed tea (3 minutes seems about right, as recommended on the website - scroll down to get to the Risheehat) is moderately brisk and makes my mouth tingle a bit. The further you get into the cup the cleaner and sweeter the lingering aftertaste. When my taste buds are functioning properly I can definitely detect those tropical fruit notes. 'Lush' is a word that comes to mind to describe this tea. The first infusion is the best; a second is possible but the flavour is fairly muted - although that said it is also forgiving, because half the time I pour in a second lot of water into the teapot and then can't get around to drinking it for quite a while!

Am I a morning person?

2010-09-30T12:59:00.000+10:00

Alex asked in the comments to my post on what to drink with breakfast whether I was a morning person, in that I don't necessarily need a big caffeine kick to start my day.

I would probably have to say yes, I am a 'morning person'... I would much rather be up early getting things done than staying up late to do them... But that said, I also acknowledge that I *do* rely heavily on tea-sourced caffeine to get me through the day, more than I ever did before my son was born!

(image courtesy of wikipedia)

I used to think that caffeine was evil, back in my hippy-herbal-tea-only days; it supposedly dehydrated you, tanned your insides and kept you awake at night. I have fortunately moved on since then, particular since discovering the many, many wonders of loose-leaf, high-quality C. sinensis. I try not to overdose on caffeine, but it is extremely difficult to determine how much caffeine is in any particular tea; the safest thing to say is that all tea made from Camellia sinensis leaves will contain caffeine regardless of whether it is white, green, black, wulong or pu'erh.

This article by Nigel Melican explains some of the factors that influence caffeine content of tea, and why it is so complicated to quantify; it gets a lot of mentions (I am sure I have linked to it before) but that's just because it is so damn good. You should read it if you haven't already. And then have another cup of tea... that's what I'm going to do!

Everything Old is New Again

2010-09-28T15:49:00.000+10:00

Well, kind of!

I had a very successful op-shopping trip last week and came home with some excellent booty, including this wonderful retro tea cosy:

And this gorgeous teapot - English Staffordshire ware, although I don't know how old it is:

As you can see it's rather crazed and the crazing is a bit stained - so I'm going to have a go at cleaning it (carefully). Also some of the gilt is a bit worn on the handle, but there's nothing else wrong with it - it pours beautifully with nary a dribble in sight and it is a good size (holds about a litre, which is comfortably between my 2-cup pots and my 6-8 cup pot).

I also had the good fortune to be the recipient of a large collection of Noritake cups, saucers and plates, courtesy of a friend whose parents didn't want them any more, and who had no use for them himself. There are about ten demitasse cups and saucers, three trio sets of full size cups and a few extra plates - all in very good condition despite being very old (I believe they originally belonged to my friend's great-grandparents).

I don't know much about researching china patterns - does anyone have any handy tips? I would love to know the name of the Noritake pattern; it's not like any Noritake I've seen before!

Size Does Matter

2010-09-26T12:53:00.000+10:00

Teapot-wise, that is.

Think about it. The more water you put into a pot, the hotter it will stay. A smaller amount of water will cool faster, even if you warm the pot first. This will affect the way that the tea brews when you put it into the pot. Even if a tea is meant to be brewed with water that has just come to a full boil, it is not meant to be kept at that temperature but to cool gradually as it steeps. This is why it is not recommended to place a tea cosy over your teapot while the leaves are still in there; the tea will stew.

I also think it is why some teas do not taste as good when brewed in a larger pot (much as I love my 6-8 cup London Pottery teapot, seen here coyly wearing its tea-cosy [tea-leaf free], it is better suited to herbal and robust black teas rather than anything more delicate).

Sometimes even brewing a two-cup pot rather than a single-cup pot can make a difference; I feel that the delicious Keemun from SanTion tastes better only brewed a single cup at a time, for example. Have you had a similar experience with the teas that you drink?

Tea Stuff Round-Up: Mind-boggling Prices, Tourism and more!

2010-09-25T12:43:00.000+10:00

Tea often seems to be touted as a (relatively) inexpensive luxury, particularly when you can infuse the same leaves multiple times. However, over the last few days my twitter stream has been boggling at recent news reporting that shows the commodity price of Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) has risen to $30,000 per kilogram. Yes... even if you could get say, 8 infusions from your teaspoon's worth of leaves... that's still damn expensive tea!

I have recently discovered the Travel and Tea blog - great photos of tea around the world, by the way - and was interested to read about tea tourism in India. I wouldn't mind staying at a tea plantation in Darjeeling... There are also apparently tea tours available for visitors to Taiwan. I'm far from being a seasoned traveller, and confess happily to being very much a homebody, but I would love to visit tea-producing areas and see how the process works. Too exciting!

A further post on the issue of tea being marketed as a medicine (and Unilever/Lipton getting smacked by the FDA, as I already mentioned here), this time from Cinnabar at Gongfu Girl. I particularly like this point that she makes:

...as tea drinkers we really do not want it to ever be sanctioned and regulated by the FDA as a medicine. This would have enormous and far-reaching impact on the tea industry which would severely damage it, because aroma, flavor, tradition, character, etc. have no bearing on the validity of a substance as medicine. Medicine just has to do what it is sold to do.

When I was completing my naturopathic studies there was regular discussion of similar problems regarding the use of herbal medicines and the level of regulation which they attracted - trying to find the balance between safety and 'proven' efficacy - not simple (and of course herbal medicine is big business these days as well). The thing with herbs - and I'm including Camellia sinensis tea here as well - is that they are so much more than the sum of their parts, and when you put them into the complexity of the human body - no wonder it's hard to get a standard response. But should we want to? I think probably not.

And finally - have you ever wondered why the tea leaves sink to the bottom of your cup rather than sticking to the sides?

No, I haven't either. But now that I've seen this article explaining the science behind 'the tea leaf paradox', discovered by Einstein no less (thanks to this post by Tea Guy for the link) I realise that I probably should have! And I feel ever so much better informed. So should you.

Wishlist Wednesday - Vintage Teapots

2010-09-22T12:43:00.000+10:00

I am totally craving a new teapot and it must be vintage. Want want want. These are a few of my current favourites from Etsy:

Cute handpainted vintage teapot from Sassy Spaces - love the unusual shape!

Flower power Sadler teapot from Violets and Grace - so cheery!

Blue ceramic teapot from merchant of kismet - gorgeous colour and pretty pattern.

And this one is my current absolute favourite - am seriously considering shelling out for the postage on this one!

Retro teapot from third coast vintage - how do I love thee; let me count the ways - perfectly cute shape, awesome flowers, nifty lid, great size!

And finally, this one:

Atomic eggplant tea kettle from DooDah Factory - ok, not technically a teapot but full of WIN! It looks like it is ready to take off on an intergalactic journey - for which of course you would need plenty of tea.

Learning to Love Matcha

2010-09-21T11:26:00.000+10:00

I am very much a novice when it comes to matcha; I haven't really had much experience with it since I wrote this post quite some time ago. I have wanted to try it but felt a bit overwhelmed at the range of choices available from O-Cha.com and unsure of whether anything of reasonable quality is available in Australia... You can get matcha from T2, but they only have one kind (clearly I am not the type of person to be easily satisfied am I? Too many... too few... so high maintenance, I know).

Recently, however, I discovered a company which I had not previously come across - Obubu Tea. Obubu has been given a good rap on RateTea.net as an ethical company producing high quality teas. And they offer two drinking grades of matcha (as well as some culinary matcha products) - not too many to choose from! I ordered some of each: the Gokou and the Uji.

I was not at first sure how much to use; one website I looked at suggested 1/4 teaspoon in 1/2 cup of hot water. I tried this but it seemed very weak and tasteless to me, despite some creamy sweetness. So I contacted Ian from Obubu via Twitter (so handy, Twitter is!) and asked about his recommendation, and he pointed me in this direction.

Just under a teaspoon in 1/4 cup of hot water, okay. So I tried that just before with some of the Uji matcha (my whisk and whisking skills are sub-par, I fear, so I was not able to produce the very nice creamy looking froth on the top)... and whoa. It's powerful stuff. Quite bitter and very, very 'green' to my taste buds; some sweetness in the aftertaste. It does not taste anything like a sencha; there is no brothiness, no 'seaweedy' taste. I feel like saying 'grassy' but that's not quite the right word either. I'm not sure how to describe it. 'Green' is the best I can do - and not even a specific kind of 'green' either. Just quintessential greenness!

I think matcha will be an acquired taste for me. I am definitely willing to acquire it though! And I feel ever so awake and alert and calm. Heh!

Tea and Food: What to drink with breakfast

2010-09-17T13:28:00.000+10:00

I don't really have a single tea that I could say is my 'breakfast' tea. I tend to drink something different each day depending on what I'm having for breakfast. The other morning my husband decided that we needed French toast with maple syrup and bacon - not perhaps the wisest decision on a weekday morning when (as it turned out) he had a relatively early meeting to get to work for, but that's as may be - which set me hunting through my pantry for an appropriate tea to go with such a hearty, savoury yet also sweet, breakfast.

It's common for Western-style breakfasts to be accompanied by powerful, wakey-uppy type teas, typically blends involving Assam and other brisk black teas that take milk and sugar well. See for example this brief Wikipedia article on English Breakfast tea, and for my thoughts on some common breakfast blends, have a peek here and here. If I'm going for one of these kinds of teas, Irish Breakfast would be my pick. However, I actually opted for some genmaicha to have alongside our impromptu fancy breakfast.

Genmaicha is a Japanese tea blend containing green tea and roasted rice kernels; perhaps a slightly perverse choice for morning drinking as the lower proportion of tea leaves means that it is significantly lower in caffeine content. It's not something that I drink on a very regular basis; it's an intensely savoury tea that tastes predominantly of the roasted rice with little green tea flavour (at least this is the case with the brand that I have, which is made by Ujinotsuyu). It is an excellent partner with many kinds of savoury food though, and went quite well with the smoky, sweet flavours of the maple syrup and bacon.

Other teas that you might like to consider with a substantial savoury breakfast include Lapsang Souchong (or add a little pinch to your regular plain black tea) or a darker-roasted wulong (oolong) like Da Hong Pao. Chinese gunpowder green could be good too, and plain or vanilla-flavoured rooibos would also be a great herbal option. I'd definitely steer clear of anything very flowery or too light.

Cooking With Tea - Barm Brack

2010-09-13T13:33:00.000+10:00

I didn't think I would ever find a tea-soaked fruit cake that I would like better than my beloved Marmalade Tea Loaf, but I have. It's the Barm Brack recipe from (appropriately enough) the Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia cookbook.*

Barm Brack is an Irish fruit loaf, often served with a cup of tea in the afternoon; it may be yeasted, or not.

The version I made is unyeasted, and could not be simpler. You are meant to soak the fruit in the tea overnight; I wasn't that organised but it didn't seem to matter (thought I should probably do it properly next time). The recipe in the NMAA book says you can use mixed dried fruit or a single one; I opted for currants and soaked them in a strong cup's worth of Ceylon tea - although I suppose Irish Breakfast would be most appropriate!

Here's the recipe as I made it:

500g currants
250ml strong black tea, hot
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups self-raising flour
1 egg

Mix the currants and sugar together and soak in the strained hot tea for an hour or so (or ues cold tea and soak overnight).
Preheat oven to 150C and thoroughly grease a large (9in by 5in) loaf pan (if it's not non-stick you may want to line it as well just to be sure)
Stir the flour and the beaten eggs thoroughly into the fruit mixture. Pour into the prepared tin and bake at 150C for about 2 hours (mine took about 1 hour 50 minutes).
Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then turn out and cool completely.
Serve sliced with butter and a cup of your best black tea.

I can't tell you how well this went with a pot of Margaret's Hope 'Silver Moon' second flush Darjeeling (from Thunderbolt Tea) - the currants and the muscatel flavour of the Darjeeling were perfect together.

*My mum cooked lots of stuff from this when I was little, and still goes to it for many cakes, which are all delicious. She bought me a new copy just before I had Pippin; it is unchanged - and I mean unchanged, curried sausages with sultanas and all - from the original 1975 version. I'm not game to make the curried sausages as I have less-than-fond memories of them from my childhood, but the cakes and slices really are excellent.

Jolimont Expresso

2010-09-11T12:02:00.000+10:00

Last Sunday we ended up at Federation Square after a walk along the Yarra, and found this cafe, next to the NGV Shop, called Jolimont Expresso. I was very impressed with the terrific display of teapots and things that they had in one window.

Some were new, some quite obviously vintage. Loved the shape of the large white pear-ish-shaped teapot!

And the vintage Weet-Bix tin!

Their tea selection was entirely brought to you by T2, but since they had a much larger range than the usual run of the mill offerings, I was quite happy. There were quite a few teas you dont see at cafes very often including Girlie Grey, French Earl Grey (yum), rooiibos... I opted for a pot of Red Fancy Fruit, one of my favorite flavored rooibos blends.

The biscuit my husband had with his affogato was a bit mediocre and I didn't try any of the other food, so cant speak to that, but as a place to go and have a pot of tea, not a bad option for when I'm out and about in the city.

Tea Stuff Roundup - Assam, & Mind Your Health Claims

2010-09-09T07:50:00.003+10:00

I came across a link to this interesting article about the increase in the number of small farmers producing tea in Assam, India. The farmers grow the leaves and then sell them to larger companies to be turned into made tea. This can provide a significant and steady source of income for the farmers, which is great, although there may be some concerns about quality. However, since better leaf fetches higher prices at auction, i presume there's a strong incentive for the farmers to improve where they can.

Also spotted via Twitter, my main (only?) connection to the external world since I never pay any attention to current affairs, this article about Lipton in the US getting warned off by the FDA for making tea-related health claims. It is simultaneously funny and depressing to see companies claiming that their highly processed, sugar-filled, RTD teas are 'good for you' - come on, it's non-fizzy soft drink, people!

Plus it appears that the antioxidants in tea degrade over time, so fresh is going to be better than bottled - but we knew that anyway!

Finally, I boggled when I read this here:

Tea is generally considered to be safe, even in large amounts. However, two cases of hypokalemia (abnormally low serum potassium levels) in the elderly have been attributed to excessive consumption of black and oolong tea (3-14 liters/day).

To be honest, I think that anyone who was drinking that much (14 LITRES? How could you manage it?) of anything might end up just a little bit potassium deficient...

Spare Teacups?

2010-09-08T12:10:00.000+10:00

No problem! Check out the nifty things you can do with mismatched, spare teacups...

Jess made a teacup succulent garden - doesn't it look beyond terrific, like something from a magazine shoot!

And Deb shares tutorials on how to make mini cake stands out of old plates and other crockery, including teacups - great for cupcakes or small things.

I would love to do either or both of these activities, and they seem pretty well within my creative abilities, but if you are totally talented and capable of something really challenging, then take some inspiration from this 'storm in a teacup' which I spotted on Tea for Joy:

A Hard Decision

2010-09-07T12:48:00.000+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I received some information from my local council regarding the requirements for a home based food business. On the basis of this information, after doing some investigating and calculating and careful thinking, I have come to the conclusion that Joie de Tea 'the shop' is not currently viable. I can't meet the council's requirements at this point because to do so would require a substantial financial investment and on top of that the amount of time I would need to put into the business to make the financial investment worthwhile would substantially detract from my ability to care for ten month old Pippin.

So it is with mixed feelings that I declare my shop closed for an unspecified duration. I am hoping to use the spare time that I have to improve my knowledge of both tea and business so that in a year or two I will be better placed to start up the shop again with a bang!

A huge thank you to all my customers who have supported the shop and enjoyed my teas over the last 12 months or so. I appreciate it greatly!

Oh, and the blog will still be going strong with reviews and musings and snippets about tea, so please do keep reading.

Battle of the Japanese Greens: Round Three!

2010-09-03T12:24:00.000+10:00

I've been trying not to have too many packets of tea open at once (tempting though that is) but seeing as I worked my way through my other bags of Japanese tea (see here and here) and am nearly out of Chinese green as well, I thought it was time to crack open my Yabukita deep-steam sencha that I got in Sydney from the Taka Tea Garden shop at the Strand Arcade (where I also got my lovely tokoname teapot!).

I don't have the time for taking photos myself today but here is the image of the tea from the Taka Tea website:

Because this is a deep-steam (fukamushi) tea that has been steamed for a touch longer than regular sencha, the leaves are more delicate and almost dissolve into mush once brewed! Yabukita is the name of the cultivar, widely grown in Japan for its adaptability.

I love this tea! I brewed about 1.5 teaspoons in my tokoname pot (which holds a bit less than 300ml) for 40 seconds, then 1 minute and then another minute. Each infusion was delicious, but the first two were the best. The dry leaf doesn't smell of much, but the wet leaves have an incredible aroma that I can only describe as toast with strawberry jam... bizarre I know.

The liquor is mildly grassy, with the second infusion having a noticeable fresh artichoke flavour (this diminishes as the tea cools though). The aftertaste is long-lasting, slightly lemony and very sweet, leaving your mouth feeling refreshed. I have just finished drinking my third infusion and am going to add some cold water to the leaves for a few hours to see if I can get anything more from it.

Definitely recommended, a very friendly tea to brew and drink!

Tea Geek Longjing

2010-09-01T12:52:00.000+10:00

Today I am drinking some of the Longjing (Dragonwell) that I received as part of the Tea Geek 'Tea Bascis' Certification course that I signed up for. Check out the beautiful and strikingly-shaped leaves:

This is quite an unusual shape for tea leaves and is characteristic for Longjing; it's the result of the particular pan-firing process used to produce the tea. (They're actually a bit less silvery and slightly more yellow than they show up in the photo.)

The liquor is a very very pale greeny-yellow and tastes lightly toasty, and has a lovely lingering sweet aftertaste.

This is probably the nicest Longjing that I've ever had, and certainly the nuttiest-tasting. I think it actually does taste of chestnuts (although it probably also helps that I had some actual chestnuts not that long ago, so the taste is still reasonably fresh in my memory).

I'm enjoying the Tea Geek course very much... scribbling away in my notebook and trying to remember the names of different provinces (true Longjing comes from Zheijiang! But don't ask me where that is on a map!), and oh yes, catalysing a spot of myth-busting as well! Good times!

Green Tea from Laos

2010-08-31T12:31:00.000+10:00

My sister sent me a few packets of tea from her trip through Southeast Asia. This is my favourite so far (although I haven't tried all of them yet!) - a green tea from Laos. It had such pretty packaging, handmade, handpainted paper by the looks of it:

(love the smiley faces on the little printed label)

The tea inside is coarsely plucked, with quite a bit of stem, and seems to contain some jasmine blossoms as well. It certainly smells of jasmine. Most of the leaves are a medium olive-green, although some are darker.

The jasmine scent carries through to the flavour which is creamy, rich and thick, and surprisingly sweet. It's a very robust tea and stands up well to two long-ish (three minutes each) infusions, and you could probably do a third as well. Thanks little sis!

What's your brewing style?

2010-08-25T14:00:00.000+10:00

This is how I brew my tea most of the time:

1. Boil water in my stovetop glass kettle (actually a coffeepot, minus the percolator bit, that belonged to my parents - but seeing as they don't use it any more, I nabbed it [politely]).
2. Warm my glass teapot with a bit of the hot water, then pour that water into my green teapot to warm it as well.
3. Put the leaves loose into the glass teapot and pour on the boiled water (after it has cooled a little if necessary).

4. Steep the appropriate amount of time (or longer, if I get distracted... Whoops).
5. Strain the tea from the glass teapot into the green teapot. Drink and enjoy!

So why all the high maintenance and creation of more washing up than is strictly necessary? Well, I can't prove it with science but I really do think that allowing the leaves to float freely produces a better cup of tea... They have the chance to fully open and swirl around. Given that most of my teapots hold more than one cup's worth of tea, though, I need to decant it into a second teapot to prevent oversteeping.

Also, while my glass teapot is good because you can see how pretty the leaves look while they brew, it does have a badly chipped spout and doesn't pour well, making it less than ideal for serving the tea, especially to guests.

Tea Stuff Round-Up: Teacup Fun and Fruity Tea

2010-08-18T10:00:00.000+10:00

I just LOVE these beautiful light fittings, made from upcycled teacups, which I saw in a post on the Frivoli-Tea blog. Aren't they amazing:

Images from Domestic Construction, via Frivoli-Tea

Here's a delicious idea: infuse your fruit with tea and your tea with fruit, simultaneously! Check out this post on T Ching for more details. Basically all you need to do is to gently simmer the fruit with the tea that you have brewed and strained and sweetened to taste, and then you have some tea-flavoured fruit to eat and fruit-flavoured tea to drink.

I have read about tea-poached pears on the Tea Spot NYC blog before, but never tried them; I think I will have to. And imagine how tasty tea-poached peaches or nectarines would be once summer comes round. I can't wait!

And guess what! For those of you who love tea-themed art* like I do, you can enter a giveaway at 74 Lime Lane to win one of Ruby Victoria's beautiful letterpress teacup prints, like this one (I so hope I win!):

*ok, tea-themed EVERYTHING. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Versatile Blogger Award, continued...

2010-08-18T00:01:00.003+10:00

Ok, so to continue my post about the Versatile Blogger Award... The blogs I am going to pass the award on to are not strictly recently discovered by me, but they are a regular part of my reading schedule and always brighten my day. I know I am meant to list fifteen, but I am actually only doing ten, because I don't like randomly handing out awards like this just to fill in numbers!

These blogs are written by some of the wonderful members of the Down Under Street Team whose advice and support are invaluable to me as I navigate the world of small crafty business:

Dance In My Garden
Music to My Eyes
Maddabling
Epheriell Designs
74 Lime Lane
Pink Lizzy Sews
MooBeeTees
New Earth Soaps
Two Cheeky Monkeys
Wing By Sea

Do check them out...

Tuesday's Tea of the Week - Chai Masala

2010-08-17T20:25:00.000+10:00

I LOVE chai masala. There is something so comforting about a good cup of milky sweet spicy tea... A really special treat. There are obviously dozens of ways of making such a blend, and this is the one I've come up with for the shop. I think it's well balanced... No single spice predominating, just all round yumminess.

Along with the organic black tea, in this blend there you will find cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cardamom, fennel and black pepper - so many of my favourite things!

The good thing about this tea is that while it's delicious prepared the traditional way, by gradually bringing milk to boil on the stove top etc, it actually also works really well made a bit more quickly, just infused in boiling water in a teapot and with the milk added after, to taste.

I find that the cinnamon makes it sweet enough for my taste without anything added, but of course you can add some honey or sugar if you like! Perfect for curling up with on a cold winter evening - or for serving alongside your Indian dinner! If you have a milk frother, you can also make your own genuine chai latte, too easy (and 100 times better than anything made from chai 'powder' or 'syrup').

Next week: Outback Sunset

Versatile Blogger Award

2010-08-15T18:00:00.003+10:00

Thanks to Samantha from Tea and Ink I have received a 'Versatile Blogger' Award - how lovely, thank you Samantha! I am glad that you enjoy my blog so much!

The requirements of the award are as follows:

Thank the giver and link their blog in your post.
Share seven things about yourself.
Pass the reward to 15 recently discovered blogs.
Contact the bloggers to let them know about the reward

It's taken me a bit of time to get around to fulfilling them as Real Life has not left me much time for Blog Fun this week, unfortunately, but here we go - seven things about me:

I'm a terrible gardener. I get inspired to plant stuff every spring, but it never works out because I forget about whatever I've planted and they die. This is why I don't grow my own herbs. So this spring I'm NOT going to even start!

I'm hearing impaired, since birth, which makes life a bit more complicated sometimes, but I manage pretty well.

Very occasionally, I have an inexplicable desire to watch a Big Dumb Action Movie. The Transporter is awesome (or anything with Jason Statham really) and GI Joe was quite fun too.

I have one of the world's daggiest iPod music collections... The Lord of the Rings soundtracks, Clannad and Enya are my most listened to items.

I drink more tea than any other fluid these days (no surprise there). Yum.

I am a rather anxious kind of person. Also impatient. Working on both these things.

I would love to go on a meditation/yoga/spa retreat at some point. Especially the spa bit.

I will have to come back to this in order to pass on the awards to the appropriate people, but I will have it done soon...

Morning Flower Tea

2010-08-15T14:11:00.000+10:00

I was lucky enough to win some of this lovely tea from Samantha at Tea and Ink: Morning Flower Green Tea from The Tea Centre.

It's very pretty to look at, with the colourful petals scattered amongst the green leaves. I've been drinking quite a lot of it since it arrived (I kind of overdosed on awesome Darjeeling black teas from Thunderbolt Teas in the last couple of weeks - too much of a good thing, etc - so am going for greens for the next couple of days at least!) and enjoying it greatly. It's a very pleasant change of pace for me.

The website doesn't really describe the flavours of this tea at all, just labels it as 'Green tea with sunflower blossoms, cornflowers & rose buds', but there is a peachy-apricotty flavour to it; it's fruity and floral without being cloying at all. I've been doing two infusions at a time (about 2-3 minutes each) and they both have plenty of taste. I bet this would be a terrific iced tea for the hot weather as well! If we ever get any. I am totally freezing today.

Thank you so much for this tea Samantha, I have really appreciated it! Samantha was also kind enough to give me a 'Versatile Blogger' award, and I am getting around to passing it on... I might have to do it in two batches, though, being rather short of time!

Wishlist Wednesday - A Question of Necessity

2010-08-11T12:30:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since I did a Wednesday Wishlist!

My sister maintains that a milk jug is an unnecessary piece of tea accoutrement. I suppose, from a certain point of view (a certain point of view??), and depending on the kind of tea you drink, she may be right. However we should not let that stop us from celebrating the dubiously necessary in all shapes and forms...

I have a little Bison milk bottle (scroll down on the Bison page to spot them) in a lovely sagey grey-green... which colour would you choose? I'd quite like a cherry red one as well.

Love the simplicity of this creamer and sugar bowl set - the little birdie detail is adorable!

How about a teabag rest... well if you're not into teabags then like me you would use it for your tea strainer...

... wouldn't mind this tea strainer myself actually!

And some coasters... I would LOVE to have this set:

So much fun stuff to choose from... luckily I'm rotten, stinking, stony, stinking broke at present.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Relax

2010-08-10T10:00:00.005+10:00

My Relax blend was created at the request of my friend Melanie, who wanted to know if I could make something similar to a herbal blend that she loved, but wasn't able to get hold of easily where she lived. I thought this would be an interesting challenge... and luckily Melanie, I and many of my other customers have been very happy with the result!

This has definitely become one of my most popular teas. I love the look of the variegated green leaves, and I also love drinking it myself... in fact I think I need to go and divert some of my bulk stock to my pantry right now.

Relax contains a beautiful array of calming, soothing herbs - lemon balm, passionflower, skullcap, limeflowers - and a bit of spearmint and stevia (a naturally sweet herb) for added flavour. Everything organic! The stevia makes it sweet enough that you shouldn't need to add any honey or anything. However, Melanie likes to drink hers mixed with her favourite black tea... a combination I have also tried and can heartily recommend! I am wondering whether I should actually offer such a blend, pre-mixed, it's so nice!

Just as a word of warning, because of the passionflower and skullcap, I wouldn't recommend drinking this tea during pregnancy without at least consulting with your health professionals first.

Next week: Chai Masala

Tea Stuff Roundup - Tea Spaces, Tasting and Economics

2010-08-04T11:01:00.000+10:00

I have just discovered the Bon Teavant blog and was so inspired by this post describing the creation of 'tea spaces' in Taiwan:

The "tea room" designs created by the students under the direction of Ms. Li are sometimes very contemporary and at the same time in rhythm with centuries of traditional tea cultures found in Asia. Ming Dynasty tea bowls sit on brightly colored modern textiles laid on the ground as a tea "tableau" rather than a traditional tea table. Dramatic overhead lighting is screened through trees brought in to throw shadows on the scene and highlight the drama of the tea ware. Dancers spin through the empty space like human mobiles or constellations in a dark and open sky.

How awesome would that be... I would love to see something similar in Melbourne!

An interesting post from Alex Zorach about whether tasting tea affects your palate, and vice versa... and some more about tea-tasting on the Leafbox Tea forum. I've been thinking about this, as I've been re-reading some bits of The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea and trying to pay more attention to the flavours in my tea. Is it all too subjective though? What do you think?

And, on a more serious note, the ever-thought-provoking Corax from CHA DAO writes on the economics of tea: is tea an affordable luxury? Is the tea industry in danger? Should we develop our own 'tea stimulus packages' (I certainly do my best)? I don't understand a great deal about economics, but it seems to me that this might be another argument for purchasing tea as close to the source as possible, cutting out the middlemen and helping the manufacturers of high quality tea to make as much profit as possible from their extraordinary skills. What's your opinion?

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Lemon Myrtle Basic Black

2010-08-03T10:10:00.003+10:00

I am slightly in love with lemon myrtle, I think. I like it better than lemongrass (although that is also good stuff). I can't tell you how much I love opening up my bulk bags of lemon myrtle tea; the aroma is sensational. If I could bottle it I would. Also using lemon myrtle makes me feel wonderfully Australian in a refined rather than bogan manner.

Lemon myrtle is a little bitter and overpowering on its own though, which is why I include it in quite a few blends (Rainforest, Outback Sunset, Lemon Breeze) but rarely drink it on its own.

Lemon Myrtle Basic Black is a fantastically complementary combination. The zestiness of the lemon myrtle is offset by the very slight astringency of the black tea base; it's fragrant and delicate enough for an afternoon tea party but also refreshing and energising.

The black tea does contain caffeine but because at least half the bulk of the dry leaf is herbal, it's not that strong so should be less of a concern for those of you who are cautious about caffeine intake. Both the lemon myrtle and the black tea are organic as well.

Next week: Relax

Daintree Tea

2010-08-01T10:59:00.001+10:00

Yes folks, tea grows in Australia too, up the top in sunny Queensland!

The other week a friend of mine was making a trip to Sassafras and offered to get me some tea from Tea Leaves... I was going to be good and say 'No' but then I didn't, because I am a naughty, naughty tea fiend at heart, and asked her to get me some Daintree tea and some Nilgiri, neither of which I have tried before. Actually, that's not quite true - I have had Daintree tea before, in a blend - Hari Har Chai - but not on its own.

Image from Tea Leaves site.

I've been drinking quite a lot of the Daintree over the last week and getting to know it a bit better. According to the Tea Leaves site, this is:

A superb black tea, grown near the Daintree rainforest of northern Queensland. The rich, fertile, lowland soil produces a well-rounded, medium strength tea.

I don't know if I would describe this as superb,; it's not ever going to make my list of top teas, but it's enjoyable enough. The dry leaves (as you can see in the photo above) are very small CTC with quite a bit of (what I think are) thin pieces of stem. They have a faint smell of strawberries.

I've brewed the tea at three minutes (two infusions), four minutes and five minutes (single infusion). The first three-minute infusion was my favourite (the second was a bit of a waste of time). The wet leaves had an aroma of raspberries and possibly gingerbread, and a faint yet distinct smell of star anise or maybe liquorice (the confectionery not the herb). This aniseedy flavour carries over, still faintly, into the brewed tea which is a beautiful clear copper colour.

I was actually expecting this to be quite astringent and need milk once I got past the four-minute infusion mark, but even at five minutes it's quite ok black. It does leave my tongue feeling dry though; not as thirst-quenching as some teas can be. The flavours I mentioned just before kind of disappear though and it just tastes... boring, I think is the only word to describe it. Bit of milk and sugar though and it would be quite an acceptable and comforting cuppa for those days when what you want is a cup of tea just like your mum or dad used to make when you were little.

(Side note: dubiously, the Daintree tea website claims that their tea contains 'no tannic acid'. This is both true and slightly misleading, because as I understand it, NO tea contains tannic acid... just polyphenols [a type of tannin, which is different from tannic acid]. I'm doing a little more research into this, although I'm no chemist, and hope to post about it in the near future)

Yunnan Green from SanTion

2010-07-31T11:06:00.001+10:00

I had another Tea Stuff Roundup planned for today, but unfortunately haven't had time to put it together properly. So instead, here are some notes on Yunnan Green from Santion. Roundup next week!

This is definitely a go-to green tea of mine now: I enjoy its fruity, vegetal flavour a lot. Here are a few tasting notes from the other morning, when I had time to sit quietly before Pippin woke up:

Four infusions in gaiwan, filled about 1/3 with dry leaf. Started out with a 40 second steep and lengthened each infusion so the fourth was probably about 1.5 minutes. Fruity notes to the fore while drinking, specifically apricot and peach, a hint of grapefruit (?) in the third or fourth infusions. Savoury vegetable flavours in the aftertaste, which is reasonably long; silverbeet or chard maybe. This is quite a chewy tea. (This is the first time I've used this term and that's because I think I now know what it means: a tea that is substantial enough to make you want to chew it!) It leaves a cool dry feeling in the mouth.

I think I actually like gaiwan brewing for this tea more than teapot brewing, although I don't always have the leisure to use my gaiwan (which is tiny, only 150ml). It's still pleasant enough in a teapot, brewed for say 2-2.5 minutes at a time (I would normally do two or three infusions) but I think that more leaf and shorter steeps suits my palate better. I will keep trying and see.

Tea and Food: What to drink with Italian

2010-07-29T10:00:00.002+10:00

I find that Italian food is one of the hardest with which to pair tea. There's just something about it that gives me a mental block for some reason. However, being stubborn, and preferring to drink tea to any other beverage no matter what the circumstances, I am trying to come up with some options.

This post focuses on the simpler, lighter-flavored Italian type foods, the ones that you might choose to accompany with a white wine. So, think of things like a risotto with veggies, pasta with sauteed greens, dishes that actually include some white wine in the cooking - even pizza if it's a fresher sort that's light on cheese and meats. Jamie's Italy and not the local pizzeria kind of thing (unless your local pizzeria happens to be DOC or Ladro, in which case you are lucky).

In my opinion these dishes actually pair well with fruity Chinese greens and greener oolongs, I think because the fruity notes and dryness can be quite similar to those you find in white wine. So you could brew up a pot of bi luo chun or milk oolong and it would be right at home... sort of... at any rate it would taste good! This week I drank some milk oolong alongside a pasta dish of penne with rainbow chard and it was a very good combination.

Milk oolong steaming from its initial rinse

Likewise you would also do well with a greenish first flush Darjeeling; I accompanied my pasta leftovers the next day with some Singbulli first flush - also a very acceptable partner. Basically, I think in your tea selection you are looking for something with a bit of fruit and a bit of astringency - not mouth puckering, just enough to let you know it's there.

Herbal tea-wise... I would try chamomile, spearmint, maybe even fresh basil, bay leaf or lemon myrtle, depending on what flavorings you were using in the dish. Aniseed tisane would be very refreshing for afterwards (and that way you wouldn't need any Sambuca!)*

I'm still trying to get my head around the kinds of tea you would serve with more robust Italian dishes such as bolognaise... Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is this just not going to work?

* Just kidding. You can have the Sambuca too.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Vanilla Rooibos

2010-07-27T10:00:00.004+10:00

If you like vanilla, and tea, but you fear caffeine and weep because you can't drink Vanilla Basic Black, you really should give Vanilla Rooibos a go. It is absolutely just as nice. Pure organic rooibos and finely chopped vanilla beans... nothing more, nothing less.

Rooibos is a great complement to vanilla (or perhaps the other way round?) because it has a kind of vanilla-y taste all to itself (at least I think so). This combination is a beautiful tea-party tea - fragrant, sweet, takes milk and sugar well if you are so inclined. I often am...

I also like this one after dinner, with or instead of dessert. Yum!

Next week: Lemon Myrtle Basic Black.

Tea Stuff Roundup

2010-07-23T10:00:00.002+10:00

I have read a few interesting tea blog articles over the last few days and thought some of them worth sharing.

This article 'Whose Tea Is That?' by Michael J Coffey of 'Tea Geek' has been getting quite a bit of kudos in my Twitter stream - deservedly so. Michael points out that most of the time we just don't know where our tea is coming from - and what's more, can you really say that one company's tea is better than another if they originally came from the same source? What is there to like about one, but not the other, in this case?

The issue is not just confined to single-origin unblended teas, either; in fact perhaps it's even more problematic in the case of flavoured teas. Take this quote from Charles Cain, who writes a fascinating blog about the process of opening a bricks and mortar tea store for a large US tea company, Adagio:

The supply chain for most teas sold in the US is ridiculously incestuous. Half of wholesalers buy from other wholesalers. It's not uncommon to find the same flavored tea, blended by the same large wholesaler, sold at dramatically different price points under the names of quite a few smaller wholesalers. Many independent retailers pride themselves on choosing only the finest teas for their collection. As proof of this, they buy from many different tea wholesalers. I've heard shop owners boast of having more than 30 tea vendors. The incredible irony is that I've also heard tea wholesalers boast of selling to the same shop owner under the name of a half dozen different companies.

Read the rest of Charles' article here. Kind of depressing, isn't it. I suspect that things are not that different in Australia, although perhaps on a smaller scale; I know that in most retail tea shops I see a whole bunch of very similar blends, sometimes under slightly different names (think Monk Pear-type blends, French Earl Grey variants, Blue Mountain blends etc etc) that almost have to be imported from a bulk tea supplier somewhere in the world. They're just too similar to be individually made by each of the shops concerned. I'm not saying that these shops have NO originality because most of them probably do in some areas. I've just always found it a bit disappointing I suppose when I find that something I thought was unique actually isn't.

On the plus side it does mean you can shop around til you find the tea you like at the best price! Cloud, silver lining, etc.

Enough with the grumping, I didn't mean for this to be a depressing entry. Let's cheer ourselves up with a post from the awesome Stephane at Tea Masters (if you can't read the French, he does post a lot in English, and his photos are always worth a look). In this one he brews up a low-mountain oolong from Zu Shan and explains how important it is when starting out with tea to really get a feel for it. It can be so tempting to get a lot of small amounts of different teas and not really learn how all the variables (water, temperature, amount of leaf, even time of day) affect a single tea and your enjoyment of it. This is really sound advice and something I am going to pay more attention to.

Tea and Food: what to drink with chocolate

2010-07-22T11:00:00.000+10:00

Last week I made some rather fabulous dark chocolate brownies, which I ended up eating accompanied by several different kinds of tea over the course of the week. Some pairings were more successful than others, and this set me to thinking that a series of posts about tea and food might not be a bad idea. If you have a particular kind of food you'd like me to focus on, just place a request in the comments and I'll do my best to accommodate it (barring seafood, of which I am not a fan).

So here's this week's instalment: teas to pair with CHOCOLATE - cake, brownies, or just all on it's lonesome own. Aw.

Just crying out for some tea to keep it company!

My first recommendation: jasmine tea. I find that jasmine goes beautifully with moderately dark chocolatey things; the sweet floral taste offsets the slightly bitter chocolate very well. Even though I often prefer to drink my really good teas on their own, without any disruption to their flavour caused by combining them with food, I think it is actually worthwhile cracking out the good jasmine tea to have with your chocolate, simply because the jasmine flavour will be stronger. Keep the lower-rent jasmine for having with your Chinese takeaway and have a really top-notch one (I have still got some of the 2009 Moli Jin Zhen Wang from Amazing Green Tea which is just divine).

Second recommendation: a strong Japanese green - sencha or matcha, or why not both (like the Macchairi Kabuse Ryokucha I blogged about here). The bitter-sweetness of the tea and chocolate play off each other and the greenness of the tea cuts through the richness of the chocolate as well. I thought jasmine and chocolate was my favourite until I tried this. It's really an incredible combination.

If you are looking for a black tea I would go for something robust and a bit astringent like an Assam, or fruity like a second or Autumn flush Darjeeling; the taste of a first flush Darjeeling gets overwhelmed by the chocolate. I also felt that my beloved Yunnan Golden Tips didn't shine as I would have liked when I drank it alongside the brownie (which you can see in the corner of the picture in that post!). Earl Grey is a good option though and one I often choose when I am out somewhere like Koko Black; the floral/citrus taste of the bergamot is refreshing and also cuts through the richness.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Mint Delight

2010-07-20T10:00:00.003+10:00

Another minty treat for you this week, Mint Delight is inspired by Moroccan mint tea. The combination of spearmint, peppermint and green tea (all organic) is extremely refreshing, if not 100% traditional.

Nonetheless, Mint Delight is a delicious and convenient pick me up to have at your desk if tall silver teapots, rock sugar and bunches of fresh mint are not readily available (they weren't in my office. Of course, perhaps some things could, and should, be changed).

Mint Delight is another one of my blends that is equally good hot or iced, with or without added sweetening. So versatile! I'm sure you need some... I certainly do!

Next week: Vanilla Rooibos

Joie de Tea in the News!

2010-07-19T11:56:00.001+10:00

I had a major attack of excitement last Friday, when in the course of a totally unrelated conversation with Angharad from Bees and Me, she mentioned that she had seen me in the latest issue of Notebook: magazine.

'WHAT??' I said. I had no idea!

Following some rather hysterical running around and a fruitless trip to our local milk bar where they didn't have the August edition in stock, I was able to grab a copy at the supermarket and sure enough, on page 153 (heh) there it was:

I like Notebook: magazine a lot, I must say - I have subscribed in the past although for financial reasons I don't at the moment - so it was the greatest compliment to have my blog mentioned there. Especially as they clearly found it and decided to include it all on their own without any input from me.

Thanks very much to Angharad for pointing it out and to the team at Notebook: !

If you remember, the other week I was also interviewed on the Two Cheeky Monkeys blog by the lovely Deb. She submitted her interview to Craftgawker (click that link if you dare, you may never escape when you see all the shiny, fun stuff) and it was accepted... so Joie de Tea is on there too!

Yunnan Golden Tips

2010-07-14T16:34:00.000+10:00

I have been reading over at Jenny's Blog about her quest for the perfect selection of teas for her cabinet... ten teas that she loves enough to always have on hand. It's an ongoing search (but what a fun one, huh?). I hadn't ever thought about selecting teas in this way; but if I were going to start a Top-10 teas to always have in my cupboard, Yunnan Golden Tips from SanTion would definitely be on my list.

Apologies for the blurriness of this photo; I took it without realising that the camera was on

manual focus not auto focus, and drank all the tea before I could take another. Whoops.

The leaves are incredible, so long and tippy, it is absolutely full of golden buds (as the name would suggest). My favourite part is actually opening the canister - there is such a rich smell of sweet raisins that greets me. Immensely cheering on a cold grey day. The wet leaves have a creamy, slightly spicy smell. The liquor is very smooth, no bitterness or astringency - just a rich round flavour with a touch of spice and also flowers, I think. A little malty as well.

I am going through this tea at a rapid rate and will shortly have to order more. It is just such easy drinking.

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Ruby-Red Mint

2010-07-13T14:34:00.000+10:00

This is another really simple combination of two ingredients - spearmint and hibiscus - but it works so well. Both of the herbs are organic and it's caffeine free.

The colour of an infusion of Ruby-Red Mint is just amazing - such a vibrant shade of red.

I love hibiscus for adding that depth of colour to a blend. The dried leaves look pretty cool too:

The flavour is really burst-y: the deep tang of the hibiscus and then lighter minty notes from the spearmint makes this truly refreshing. It is a little on the sour side so you could sweeten it if you wanted, but it's not really necessary. A great soother for a sore throat, as well.

I acknowledge that it's a bit perverse to be writing about iced tea in the depths of Melbourne winter (although the weather has really been quite mild the last few days; I'm sure that will change soon enough) but Ruby-Red Mint truly shines as an iced tea. Make it strong and then dilute with cold water and ice... who needs soft drink?

Next week: Mint Delight.

Lovely Features - Thank You!

2010-07-09T15:17:00.002+10:00

I have been lucky enough to have my shop featured on several blogs this week:

Joie de Tea was in the Lime Light thanks to Kellie at 74 Lime Lane...

Michelle from Wing By Sea included Vanilla Basic Black in her stylish black wishlist... (you can read more about Vanilla Basic Black here!)

And I am the featured artist over at Deb's blog Two Cheeky Monkeys today!

Wow - what a great week. Thanks so much to Kellie, Michelle and Deb for making it so! I really appreciate it.

In other news, I am in the process of applying for a stall at the August Modish Market... and working on some decorated tea cups to add to my Etsy shop. You can see some prototypes here!

Singbulli First Flush 2010

2010-07-07T10:00:00.002+10:00

My tastebuds are not fully operational after the rotten cold I have had (another one!) but here are a few little notes on the Singbulli First Flush tea (Clonal Classic Super Fine) that I received from Thunderbolt Tea a few weeks ago.

The dry leaves smell faintly of hay or sweet cut grass. They are lovely to look at (check them out in this post here). The wet leaves vary in colour between shades of copper and medium green:

They have a vegetal smell that I can't quite name... maybe nettles? Or asparagus?

The liquor is a very pale golden colour, honey-like in aroma. It has a light, bright flavour, not a lot of body; it is mainly vegetal in taste - but not brothy/seaweedy like a Japanese green - think more along the lines of silverbeet or chard rather than spinach. A faint hint of roses and possibly honey as well?

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Vanilla Basic Black

2010-07-06T10:40:00.000+10:00

Another member of my tea-plus-one-other-ingredient 'Basic Black' range, the Vanilla Basic Black is deservedly (if I do say so myself) one of my most popular teas. Black tea and finely chopped vanilla beans... that's it. This means that the fragrance and flavour is true vanilla... not some kind of artificial flavour that so often disappoints in vanilla teas.

The other great thing about this tea is its versatility. It's obviously delicious on its own, or you can add a splash of milk and even sugar and it still holds up extremely well. I love it alongside my breakfast - perfect for when I want something just a bit more special than regular plain black tea - but if you go the more decadent route of adding the aforesaid milk and sugar it makes a beautiful dessert all by itself.

Next week: Ruby-Red Mint

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

2010-07-03T16:51:00.000+10:00

#5: Hunt frantically for a clean teapot then resign yourself to having to wash one of the dirty ones.

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

2010-07-02T16:44:00.001+10:00

#4: Find your prettiest cup and saucer... The special set you hardly ever use cos it's too good. It's not! Fetch it now!

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

2010-07-01T16:43:00.001+10:00

#3: Blog about things to do while you're waiting... sheer genius.

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

2010-06-30T16:41:00.004+10:00

#2: Get yourself a piece of cake or some nice biscuits... like HobNobs. Yum!

PS: the chocolate-coated ones are more fun.
PPS: I like that HobNobs have their own Wikipedia entry.
PPPS: If you were super-organised, you could make your own. I recommend this cake, and these biscuits!

Look what I made

2010-06-30T10:00:00.002+10:00

I came across this tutorial on the Etsy blog the other week, and thought: teacup painting! Genius! Surely I could give that a try.

So I did, and here are a couple of trial cups and saucers... what do you think?

It makes me happy to drink out of mine (which is the one with the boy and the balloons... ironically, my husband's is the one with the flowers. It just kind of turned out that way, and he didn't want to change).

Should I experiment a bit more, and offer some of them for sale in my shop or at a market stall, perhaps?

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

2010-06-29T16:36:00.001+10:00

#1: Fold the nappies.

Rainforest Tea Giveaway Winners!

2010-06-22T18:48:00.000+10:00

Ok, for their bravery in entering a giveaway for a tea that is evidently too much on the adventurous-sounding side for many people... ;-) I am going to declare that ALL THREE entrants to my giveaway are winners!

Isis, Melanie and Deb, some Rainforest tea will be on its way to you as soon as I can manage it! I'll be in touch to get your postal addresses shortly.

Shop Sabbatical

2010-06-22T10:42:00.000+10:00

Just to let you know I am putting my Etsy shop on sabbatical for a week or so. Baby feeding issues are disrupting our family life at present and I need to get this sorted out before I can think about anything else. Wish me luck!

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the giveaway from last week! I'll get to that a bit later today!

True Diversi-tea

2010-06-19T15:13:00.001+10:00

Ok, I couldn't resist the pun, but take a look at this anyway... four different kinds of black tea, and how different they all are:

Arya Autumnal Darjeeling

Ceylon orange pekoe

Singbulli STFGOP First Flush Darjeeling

Yunnan Golden Tips

The Happiness of a New Teapot

2010-06-18T13:40:00.000+10:00

This is my new pride and joy, a Tokoname teapot that I purchased at Taka Tea in the Strand Arcade in Sydney last weekend. I fell in love with the design of maple leaves (there was also a very nice cherry blossom one) and the fact that it has a built in mesh that stretches almost all the way round the inside of the pot - much better than an infuser basket, but I don't have to use my strainer! It pours like a dream - I wasn't sure how easy I would find using the sideways handle, but it's not difficult at all. It will, obviously, be dedicated solely to Japanese green teas.

(According to O-cha.com, Tokoname is one of the 9 ancient kilns of Japan, and here you can see step by step photos of teapots being made by the throwing method or the slip casting method - how cool!)

The lovely people at Taka Tea were very happy to spend time talking with me about their teas and teapots (you can check out their online shop here). They also kindly brewed up a small pot of gyokuro for me to sample, which was deliciously light and fresh. I came away with a packet of first flush yabukita* which I haven't yet opened; I'll work my way through a few other things first, but I'm looking forward to it.

*this appears to be a clonal variety of tea bush widely grown in Japan, capable of adapting well to wherever it is planted. Handy!

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Rainforest (and a Giveaway!)

2010-06-15T10:15:00.019+10:00

Today I'm inviting you to take a deep breath and step into a beautiful Australian Rainforest. That really is just what this tea smells like. I was totally inspired one day when I received a herb delivery from my supplier... I had ordered a small packet of eucalyptus along with all the other things, just to see what I could do with it, and when I opened the box and smelt it alongside the big bag of lavender that was also in there, I just knew I needed to try making it into a blend.

And guess what: combined with green tea and some lemon myrtle, it worked. (I was on a big 'lemon myrtle is the best stuff ever' kick that week too.) The incredible freshness of this tea will blow you away. It sounds like a really unusual combination, and I guess it is, but you definitely should try it. It's aromatic, and sweet, and lemony, and just the remedy for city living if you can't schedule yourself a tree change.

If you live in Australia and would like to try Rainforest, leave a comment on this post - one entry per person only please - because next Monday I will randomly select two winners to receive a free sample size (enough for five cups of tea). Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you if you win! Good luck!

Next week: Vanilla Basic Black

Battle of the Japanese Greens: Round Two!

2010-06-10T12:18:00.001+10:00

The second Ujinotsuyu tea which I bought from Fuji Mart is this one: Ujicha Maroyaka-Jitate. I don't know what the name means, I'm afraid. There's definitely no matcha in this one though.

The instructions for brewing this tea specify 4g leaf in about 90ml of water at 70C, with a steep time of about one and a half minutes.

The brewed tea is relatively cloudy and lime-green in colour, but not quite so striking (alarming?) as the Kabuse one. The taste is much less punchy, presumably because of the lack of matcha. There's a little bitterness/astrngency, and a very pleasant mouth-filling, savoury vegetal quality. The stand-out is a rich, round sweetness in the aftertaste that lingers with you nicely.

The tea lasts two or three infusions although the flavours are definitely getting washed out by the third infusion. The Maroyaka is easier drinking than the Kabuse and doesn't make me reel if I drink it on an empty stomach; in fact I think it shines best on its own, without food. That said, it paired well with the leftover berry and apple crumble that I had for breakfast the other morning.

If this tea were a giant movie monster it would leave poor stomped-out Tokyo alone and do ikebana or something instead (which would be much to my husband's disappointment I'm sure).

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Peppermint Soother

2010-06-08T12:10:00.000+10:00

This week's featured tea is Peppermint Soother. It was a runaway hit at my market stall last month and sells well for me online too.

Peppermint Soother contains peppermint, lemon balm (also known by the first half of its botanical name, melissa) and chamomile. I learned about this combination during my time at naturopathy school, where it was recommended for people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. I could rabbit on about the beautiful synergy between these three herbs for ages. To keep things relatively short and sweet - not only do they each have specific benefits for the digestion (having aromatic and bitter digestive, antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory properties for example) but they also work together to tone and soothe the nervous system. Stress plays a big role in IBS and many other digestive problems so you can see why this particular combination is ideal.

Enough with the naturopathic lecture already. It's good for you but it also tastes wonderful, with peppermint dominating and then a more subtle lemony-chamomile flavour. For best results in digestive upsets it should be drunk hot, but if you're just drinking it for fun (and why wouldn't you?) it is also lovely cold or at room temperature.

Next week: Rainforest

Oh, and one more thing...

2010-06-04T16:51:00.000+10:00

... that I like about the Ujinotsuyu website:

Nice life with a cup of tea... What more could one ask for?

Battle of the Japanese Greens: Round One!

2010-06-03T12:44:00.000+10:00

I made a trip to the Fuji Mart in Prahran the other weekend - it's at the back of the Prahran Market for those of you who know it, just a little way down from The Essential Ingredient. Fuji Mart is, so far as I can tell, an entirely Japanese grocer, and I was interested (as it will probably not surprise you to know) to see what kinds of tea they might stock.

I cam away with only a couple of kinds, both by the Ujinotsuyu company whose teas are commonly found in Asian supermarkets round here; I hadn't seen these particular ones before, though; I think they are slightly higher end than what you find in a regular Asian grocer. I have had and greatly enjoyed Ujinotsuyu sencha and genmaicha in the past, although I wasn't rapt in their matcha (but I should note that I know very little about preparing matcha properly. For $8 a tin, though, when you can spend up to $50, I think it was probably not a very high grade).

So, onto the first of my two new teas: Iemon Macchairi Kabuse Ryokucha, which apparently means green tea (ryokucha) that has been shaded for a couple of weeks (kabuse) and combined with matcha (macchairi).

This is powerful stuff. As best I could I brewed it as per the directions - I don't know any Japanese but from looking at the little pictograms and comparing them with pictograms on other packets that also had some English text, I deduced that I should be brewing about a tablespoon of leaf in 50ml of water at 60C, for about 2 minutes. I don't have any teapots that small... (An excuse to buy one perhaps?) ... Anyway, so I brewed 2 tbls in 100ml water in a small drinking glass, figuring that it would be okay at the low temperature specified.

Result was about 75ml of the most radioactive looking tea you ever saw... Godzilla drinks this stuff, I'm positive. It's a cloudy, lurid green:

As for the taste, it's strong and bitter at first, really quite a slap in the face; swallow and you're rewarded with the most astonishing sweetness in the aftertaste. Quite addictive. Don't drink it on an empty stomach though; it's much too strong without something to buffer it.

I'm drinking another small glass of this Tokyo-stomping tea right now, it's cooled quite a bit and there are definite coconut notes... lending yet more support to my theory that coconut and sencha are natural partners. Hmm. If only I had some coconut cake to go with. Never mind, I'd better go and eat some lunch before the tea eats me...

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Paintbox

2010-06-01T16:44:00.000+10:00

I'm still sick, and I think what I'l be drinking to brighten up my mood this evening is Paintbox.

I wanted to go full-on with a really flowery, and, okay, girly blend, and this is what I came up with. Don't you just adore all the colours? Pink rosebuds, golden chamomile and calendula, green passionflower leaves and lavender... well, lavender... all mixed up with yummy rooibos.

This tea is actually a little similar to the Relax herbal tea from Tea Leaves that my husband and I drank on our wedding night after we arrived at the Candlelight Cottages (gee I'd like to go back there sometime) where we were staying for a couple of days... so it's a bit special to me from that point of view too!

Paintbox is best without any milk and should be sweet enough not to need any honey or sugar. My favourite thing about this tea is the way the delicate floral tastes linger in your mouth after you've finished it. It's caffeine free and extremely relaxing, and definitely one for the sophisticated afternoon tea table.

Next week: Peppermint Soother.

Autumn Bliss Morning Tea

2010-05-28T11:48:00.000+10:00

My morning tea for the Cancer Council went off beautifully last weekend - thanks so much to everyone who came and supported it!

I was unfortunately too busy hostessing to take any photos... but you can see some really stunning shots, and read all about it, here on Celeste's foodie blog. Thanks heaps Celeste for the glowing write-up!

Wishlist Wednesday - TEAPOTS

2010-05-26T12:03:00.000+10:00

Can't live without them...

A friend of mine has one in a similar shape to this: Tea Pot by Tye River Pottery. I love the rusty colours and elegant shape.

I'm not sure how functional this one would be, but it's extremely cute to look at: Pear Teapot by Clamlab.

A Brown Betty is a classic, of course:

The turquoise glaze on this one is just beautiful: Personal Teapot by Hodaka Pottery.

And this sunny yellow one would give the Little Yellow Teapot a run for his money! Vintage Sunshine Yellow Teapot:

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Rosie

2010-05-25T10:15:00.006+10:00

I have a cold and didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm going to keep this post as short and sweet as the tea itself. Rosie is a blend of organic Sri Lankan green tea with fragrant, lightly crushed rosebuds. It brews up into a lovely delicate infusion; no need for added sugar or honey, it's delicious just as it is.

As a side note, I really like the green tea that I use as a base for my green tea blends - it's an interesting mixture of different shades of green and is mainly comprised of large-ish leaves. Its taste is a tiny bit astringent at first, with a touch of mintiness (which I believe can be characteristic of Sri Lankan teas) but it mellows into a beautiful lingering sweetness. Very easy drinking, and it reinfuses well once or twice too.

Next week: Paintbox.

Funny things do turn up in my teapot sometimes...

2010-05-19T16:05:00.001+10:00

(that's flowering pineapple sage, from our garden)

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Chamomile Sunburst.

2010-05-18T10:15:00.003+10:00

Chamomile Sunburst is probably the nearest and dearest to my heart of all my blends; it's the first one that I came up with when I was toying with the idea of setting up shop on Etsy. I got the idea for it from one of the Tea Shop Mystery books - Death by Darjeeling, I think - which mentioned a blend of chamomile, papaya, rosehips and vanilla.** I couldn't find any dried papaya, so I substituted dried apricots and never looked back.

Being a herbal concoction Chamomile Sunburst is caffeine free. It has a wonderfully heady vanilla fragrance and subtle vanilla flavour with a touch of tartness from the apricots and rosehips, all mixed up with the sweet appley taste of the organic chamomile. I would love for everyone to buy some of this, not because it will make me money but because it is just so damn nice.

Next week: Rosie.

** Just to prove that I have read all these books too many times, I will note that this particular blend was called 'Angel Oak'. Yet in another book - I can't remember which - Angel Oak is the name given to a completely different blend. Authorial slippage? Or was the original Angel Oak just not a good seller? Only Laura Childs may know...

Differences of Grade

2010-05-12T15:59:00.000+10:00

When I made my purchases from SanTion a couple of months ago, I took advantage of the sample sizes they offered to get two grades (A and B) of several of their teas: Organic Misty Green, Organic Silver Needles, Da Hong Pao. A while back I also ordered some tea from Amazing Green Tea, a special combination deal that included two grades (A and AAA) of Huang Shan Mao Feng.

I wanted to see if there was a substantial difference between the two grades of each of these teas, and if so, what that difference was; and was it worthwhile paying the premium for the top grade. I am happy to pay money for good products, obviously; but I'm also aware that just because something costs more, it is not necessarily that much better.

I didn't get around to taking photos of the SanTion Teas, but here for comparison are the two grades of Mao Feng:

(The darker one is the A grade, the pale one is the AAA grade.)

The dry-leaf differences between the two grades of the SanTion teas was less stark; the B-grade teas were less finely sorted, so there were slightly more broken or less-immaculate looking leaves, particularly noticeable in the Silver Needle and the Da Hong Pao. The A-grades were sleeker, finer; in the case of the Silver Needles, quite breathtakingly plump and shiny.

In terms of taste, however, I was pleasantly surprised. The Silver Needles and Misty Green teas tasted very, very similar, equally good; I strongly preferred the Da Hong Pao A grade, though, as it had a wonderful roasted apricot flavour that I couldn't detect in the B grade. However, interestingly, I ended up preferring the A grade ('everyday' grade) of the Huang Shan Mao Feng. While both the Mao Feng teas were delicious, the A grade was slightly more robust, fruity and vegetal in flavour, which I liked; that said, the AAA was also wonderful, varying in taste from a delicate toastiness like a Japanese sencha to a fruity Chinese-green taste depending on how long I steeped it (I found that about 7-10 minutes in relatively hot water produced the best results; only one infusion, but what an infusion! You can see my attempt to photograph the brewing tea here).

Interesting, isn't it? It's also a matter of individual taste, of course, and I definitely don't lay claim to having a truly well-developed palate, especially not when my tea drinking gets interrupted regularly by the need to tend to Pippin. I suppose the next question is: if two teas taste equally good, is it worth spending the extra money to get the 'top' grade? What do you think?

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Lemon Breeze.

2010-05-11T10:15:00.003+10:00

I just love my Lemon Breeze blend. It's a bit summery for me to drink much of it at the moment now that the weather is cooling down, but it makes me happy just to think about it... and I'm really quite proud of the lemony photos I took as well:

There's a triple shot of lemon goodness in this tea; the rooibos base is blended with lemon myrtle, lemongrass, and lemon balm. All the ingredients are organic. It's citrussy and refreshing and makes a great pick-me-up, but being caffeine free it can be drunk any time of the day without affecting your sleep.

As I mentioned above I think of this a bit more as a summer tea, but drunk hot on a cold day, perhaps with a spot of lemon juice and honey, this would also be a great tonic for a sore throat and to ward off the winter blues.

Next week: Chamomile Sunburst.

Market Wrap

2010-05-10T20:19:00.000+10:00

So, last Saturday was my first ever market stall for Joie de Tea. Overall, I am pretty happy with the results - I didn't turn a profit but I nearly did; and I learnt a lot as well, in the best way - by experience. The Malvern Town Hall was a beautiful venue too; all indoors and the ceiling of the main hall looked like it was designed by Wedgwood - stunning in blue and white and gold.

Here's some photos, kindly taken by my husband who did a beautiful job of looking after Pippin all day!

So, what did I learn?

c\_/ that the lead-up to a market is a lot of work;

c\_/ that a lot of people who go to markets are - surprise - like me, and prefer just to browse and/or are shy about talking to stallholders;

c\_/ that I need to merchandise my stall better - more height, more variety, more 'clutter' to make it look good (but I've got some great ideas for next time, involving things like stacks of books and that kind of thing, product information, signage and brochures);

c\_/ that I need to work on my patter with the customers... got to get over that shyness! and

c\_/ that it is really, really nice to have an almost-completely baby-free day once in a while! My goodness, how different it was to my usual daily routine!

So many thanks to the friends who stopped by to keep me company and to all the lovely customers that I had. All in all I'm very pleased with the whole experience and I think I will apply for another stall at the Modish Market - perhaps not the June one, that might be a bit rushed to get all the things organised that I would like to - but for August. I'll keep you posted!

Tuesday's Tea of the Week: Star Anise Basic Black.

2010-05-04T10:15:00.039+10:00

I thought I might spend a little time introducing you all a bit more to the blends that I make... so here is the first post in a new series: Star Anise Basic Black.

This blend is, as the name indicates, part of my 'Basic Black' tea range - organic black tea from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) mixed with a single other herb or spice, allowing the flavours of both ingredients to shine through with eloquent simplicity.

I was inspired to make this blend by a good friend of mine who has a tremendous love for star anise. The heady liquorice flavour of the spice goes beautifully with the smooth base of the black tea and is wonderfully invigorating yet also elegant.

It makes for an exquisite tea to serve after dinner with dessert... and a good digestif as well.

Next week: Lemon Breeze.

Market prep a-go-go!

2010-05-03T13:22:00.000+10:00

In case you were wondering about the blog silence over the last week or so, it's because I have been more or less frantically preparing for the Modish Creators Market at the Malvern Town Hall which is being held THIS SATURDAY, 8 May. My first market stall for Joie de Tea and I am both excited and nervous.

However, thanks to some wonderful help from the best mum ever, who cut ribbons and tied labels onto dozens of bags of tea for me last Friday (and maintained it was fun! don't you love her!) I am just about organised.

Here is a sneak preview of my table layout which Mum and I trialled on Friday...

Check out the Modish Creators Market blog for lots of great info about the stallholders... including my interview... it's going to be a great day and if you're in Melbourne I'd love to see you there!

Tea for Two at The Snooty Fox

2010-04-23T11:11:00.000+10:00

The other week I took a trip with Pippin, my brother (who has been having a well-deserved holiday from work) and Lucky Pinky Dots up the Mountain Highway to have morning tea at The Snooty Fox. It was a lovely cool and overcast day, my preferred weather for trips to the Dandenongs (perverse, I know).

Pippin was a bit cranky about the whole thing unfortunately, but Pinky Dots was right on the ball when it came to diving into the scones (which were really delicious) with cream and raspberry jam:

I was a bit disappointed to find that the tea was just Twinings tea bags (we shared a big pot of Earl Grey), especially when Tea Leaves is only about 10 minutes' drive away... but what the heck, it was a great chance to catch up with my brother and (if I didn't already mention it) the scones were exceptionally good...

Wishlist Wednesday - Finely Flavoured

2010-04-21T13:47:00.002+10:00

I don't often drink flavoured teas these days - it's not really necessary with so many amazing flavours in tea just on its own, and of course I drink my own blends but they're not really 'flavoured' in the sense of having flavouring essences added, just herbs and spices - but every now and then I feel like having a cup or two.

Here are three delicious sounding ones I'd like to savour...

Amaretto by The Tea Centre: black tea with almond essence and finely diced almond pieces.

Capris Peach-Flavoured Green Tea by SanTion House of Tea: green tea with Chinese flowers and natural peach flavour.

White Berry Bliss from Tea Party: silver tips, white tea and berries.

What are your favourite flavoured teas? Love to hear about them!

Behind the Cup... with Eric from Tea Finely Brewed

2010-04-19T11:09:00.010+10:00

I can think of few better ways to kick off the week than with an interview with Eric Daams, the tea aficionado behind Tea Finely Brewed. I was lucky enough to meet fellow-Melbournite Eric in person a couple of months ago (over some tea of course) and it was great to hear about his experiences with tea, blogging and family life. Tea Finely Brewed encompasses a tea blog, a tea marketplace which allows you to compare similar offerings from different tea companies, and a 'beginner's guide to tea' with much useful information.

How did you become enthused about tea and what is it that you like most about it?

I think the thing that most excites me about tea today is the breadth of variety. You could try a new tea every week for a year and you'd still be scratching the surface.

To begin with though, I think my motivation for liking tea had something to do with that dark force of the hot beverage world: coffee. I'm someone who likes to do things differently to those around me, so as the youngest boy growing up in a family of coffee drinkers, I decided to become a tea drinker. After years of tea bags in which I slowly exhausted the supermarket choices, I started venturing into loose leaf teas a few years ago. Once you start on loose leaf tea, the world (of tea) opens up to you.

How would you define Australian ‘tea culture’ based on your experience and observations? Have you noticed any changes over time (including your own tea preferences) and what do you think has driven these changes?

For a country with such a vibrant coffee culture, it's sad to see how the Australian tea experience languishes behind. It never ceases to confound me how a café serving amazing coffee can serve their tea-drinking patrons Lipton or Twinings tea bags -- while charging us $3.50 it!

The emergence of T2 and other Australian-based loose leaf tea brands seems to be a sign of change. I'm not crash hot on T2 — I think they're overpriced and capitalizing on a market that is barely aware of quality tea — but I do believe that they're a harbinger of better things to come.

Any thoughts on the direction that tea is headed?

I think tea culture is going to boom in much the same way that coffee culture has boomed in Australia. At the moment, I can think of a handful of restaurants where I could go to have quality tea with my lunch -- they're all Asian restaurants, of course. With time, I believe we'll see that spread into more and more places.

When I was in New Zealand about a year and half ago, I noticed that quite a few of the cafés offered a great range of teas. How often do you go to an Australian café where they offer sencha, dragonwell and gunpowder green tea? Give it ten years, and I think we'll have more places like that around.

What do you think the greatest challenges are for Australian tea consumers and/or businesses? e.g. is it easy for you to find the kinds of teas you enjoy in Australia or do you mostly purchase from vendors in other countries?

One of the perks of blogging about tea is that a lot of companies send me their tea, free of charge. I'm thankful for that, because if I didn't have companies sending me their teas, I would be severely limited by what is available on the market here. I've shopped at Tea Leaves, Lupicia and T2 (among many others), but the choice of high quality specialty tea is invariably limited. Shops cater to what the majority are looking for, which seems to be flavoured teas and herbal blends. Single-estate Darjeelings, first flush Japanese greens and quality aged pu-erh -- these kinds of teas aren't big priorities. That said, I'm pleased to see Santion catering to the discerning tea crowd that knows their Keemun from their Yunnan.

Any other tea musings you would like to share.

Champagne is the Darjeeling of wine.

Heh. Thank you Eric for putting the proper relationship between tea and wine in perspective. I am in awe of the amount of work you have put into your tea marketplace - it will be extremely useful for all the tea purchasers out there when they are looking for the pick of the crop!

I'm so high maintenance, II

2010-04-15T11:35:00.001+10:00

Last night I put the kettle on to boil (I now have a stovetop glass kettle - technically actually a coffee pot, but I just use it for boiling water without the coffee-percolating bit in it - my parents don't use it any more; genuine vintage, it's about 40 years old) but then discovered that I needed to take Pippin upstairs to change and try and settle him, so I asked my husband to just turn the stove off one the kettle came to a boil.

A couple of minutes later:

My husband (peeking round the door of the baby's room, mouthful of cake): What exactly did you want me to do with the kettle once it boiled?

Me (I regret to say, slightly irritated, jiggling a teary baby): Um, just turn it off??

My husband: Oh! I thought that's what you said, but then I thought it couldn't be quite so simple!

Oh dear... I really must be high maintenance...

Wishlist Wednesday - Fancy Pants Afternoon Tea in Melbourne

2010-04-14T10:10:00.000+10:00

...afternoon tea was quite a feature of Bertram's. It was nothing less than splendid. ... There were large crested silver trays, and Georgian silver teapots. The china, if not actually Rockingham and Davenport, looked like it. The Blind Earl services were particular favourites. The tea was the best Indian, Ceylon, Darjeeling, Lapsand, etc. As for eatables, you could ask for anything you liked - and get it! -- Agatha Christie, At Bertram's Hotel

Sometimes there's just nothing you want more than a fancy-pants afternoon tea... Here are some I'd like to try out...

High Tea at The Tea Room at the National Gallery of Victoria International on St Kilda Road (they have Larsen and Thompson teas, yum!) giving you the opportunity to be artsy as well.

Afternoon Tea at The Windsor Hotel, Spring St.

Tiffin Afternoon Tea at The Langham, Southbank (the Chocolate Indulgence one sounds pretty good...)

Check out High Tea Society for more luscious locations!

Behind the Cup... with Monika from SanTion House of Tea

2010-04-09T10:15:00.003+10:00

A little while ago I purchased some samples (including the Keemun I was so enthused about) of different teas from SanTion House of Tea, a fairly new player on the Australian tea scene, and have been very impressed with their quality. This week I am very pleased to be able to post an interview with Monika from SanTion.

What inspired you to get into tea, both as a drink and as a business? How long has SanTion been in business?

I discovered ‘real’ tea about two years ago when meeting Taoist Master Dong Yang. This was the time in my life when I felt the need for spiritual guidance. It was a lucky charm to discover that there is a real Taoist Master in Sydney. Together with a couple of friends I immediately got in touch with Master Dong Yang, and began the training. We were taught that certain exercises, music, calligraphy, wei chi, painting and drinking tea help improve the internal energy level and overall health. Master Dong Yang would brew tea while discussing important issues. In fact, he would drink tea all day long adjusting only strength of the brew and matching the sort of tea to the time of the day. Drinking tea, for him, was just like meditation.

These meetings introduced the world of tea to me and my friends. This was the first time that we have tasted and appreciated Dragon Well, Da Hong Pao and many other marvellous teas. We discovered that tea can bring one back to nature, help become more peaceful and relaxed, escalate feelings of joy and happiness. We found out that with a cup of tea in hand one can experience a touch of pure nature while surrounded by everyday life. One can feel the fresh breeze coming form the mountains, smell the aroma of an ancient forest, sense a touch of softness under the feet. The world transforms.

We have also discovered that one needs to be careful when choosing the right tea and that it is easy to go astray. Not all teas have these transforming world abilities. We have decided to go straight to the source – China. We wished to find the gate to a precious ‘tea garden’. We departed from Sydney on the 1st of May 2009 into a trip of tea discovery. We discovered many unique teas and decided to not only buy it for ourselves and our friends, but also to bring it to the wide public.

Santion commenced its operation in August 2009. We are a very young company and we are trying hard to establish our position on the market because we believe we are bringing something of genuine value.

How did you decide on the 'focus' for SanTion in terms of the types of tea that you carry?

It was very difficult for us to decide on the sorts of tea we carry.

On one hand we knew that Australians love their blends and flavoured teas. We knew that SanTion will be more successful if we offer teas that will match palates of most of our potential customers. On the other hand, we always wanted to educate people about unblended and unflavoured tea.

In the end, we decided for the latter - to concentrate mostly on high quality, loose leaf tea and educate customers and friends of how wonderful ‘pure’ tea experience may be. Profit and business success is secondary to this goal of ours. Despite that, we also imported some naturally flavoured teas and a few blends for those of our customers who are just starting on their way to tea discovery and are not quite ready to go ‘all the way’.

For some of us tea is just an alternate for coffee. Most of the times - a small bag dipped into water and often infused with milk, lemon or sugar. For others it may be an iced drink, nice and refreshing in hot summer days. For a few it is a way to healthy lifestyle, source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Finally, only some people are truly passionate about tea. Those passionate enough are able to create a truly unique tea experience.

Australia is now amongst those countries that pride themselves for ‘coffee culture’ rather than tea culture. Most cafes still offer only tea bags as these are much more convenient. Cafes and restaurants offer only a few, most popular varieties: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Peppermint, Camomile etc. The reason for this is simple – no demand for more and no tea-educated customers. For Australians White Tea still means a black tea with milk!

Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the future for tea in Australia is brighter than ever. Australians are very health-conscious and quality-oriented. Tea sales grow from year to year.

Tea is healthy, fashionable and affordable – more and more people acknowledge the fact. ‘Tea Culture’ is coming. It is now just a matter of time.

Any thoughts on the direction that tea is headed?

Tea lovers are becoming more and more sophisticated. I believe that whilst interest in tea blends and flavoured teas will always be there, over the next few years we will also observe increasing interest in unblended and unflavoured teas prepared in the traditional, oriental way.

As far as the distribution channels are concerned, 2010 Tea Market Forecast by Joseph Simrany and Pearl Dexter of www.teaandcoffee.net states: “Tea is in, it is trendy, relevant and continually attracting an ever-expanding group of avid and knowledgeable consumers, most of who are gaining that knowledge via the Internet. Tea companies of course are still using traditional advertising vehicles including TV, radio, print and direct marketing but they are increasingly turning to non-traditional marketing vehicles such as; websites, blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and now the iPhone”.

As interest in tea grows, the need for tea knowledge increases. Over the next few years we will witness growing number of visitors on tea-related websites and blogs. Visitors will be looking not only for tea, but also for information on tea preparation and brewing, tea philosophy, tea history, tea health benefits etc.

What do you think the greatest challenges are for Australian tea businesses and/or consumers?

The greatest challenge for customers is to open up for a quality product by educating themselves about tea. It is important to savour and experience a wide variety of teas to get to know which tea sorts and varieties suit them best.

The greatest challenge for tea businesses, especially the smaller ones is to find their way through the slower period which we are encountering at present. Customers are still not aware of how to judge a good quality product and therefore often settle on cheap alternatives offered by international corporations or supermarkets. This way most of us never have the chance to discover the ‘real’ tea and small businesses don’t have the chance to get the recognition they deserve.

It is also important for the Australian tea market to find a healthy balance between quality and price. As per now, too often do we observe very low quality tea sold at tremendous prices only because of a smart marketing campaign.

Any other tea musings you would like to share?

For SanTion, tea is primarily a lifestyle, secondarily a product. Tea is there to enjoy it! Our advise is to treat tea health benefits as a side effect.

Thank you very much Monika for your thoughtful and inspiring responses. It is very exciting to have a company like SanTion operating in Australia and I wish you every success.

Trying to capture a moment of beauty

2010-04-08T16:29:00.001+10:00

Leaves fall through water

Slowly spinning as they sink

Like weary dancers

I'm not much of a photographer... this was the best I could do to try and capture the exquisite grace of Huang Shan Mao Feng leaves brewing in my glass teapot.

Joie de Tea is featured on Calico & Co!

2010-04-05T14:26:00.001+10:00

Thanks very much to Amanda for featuring me on her gorgeous design blog Calico & Co - you can read the interview here!

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter... I am not sure which I have had more of... chocolate or tea. Tea may be slightly in front. Or so I hope.

Behind the Cup... with The Devotea

2010-04-01T10:15:00.000+11:00

The first interviewee for 'Behind the Cup' is Robert Godden, aka The Devotea. One tea-related site is not enough for him; he has a video blog, a 'teaconomics' blog, and also designs tea shirts (how good is that?).

How did you become enthused about tea and what is it that you like most about it?

I come from a tea drinking family, but that means Lipton’s tea bags I’m afraid. I do remember every so often getting ‘real’ tea at an ‘eccentric’ aunt’s place. I married into an English family, which meant more tea bags, millions of them.

Over the years, my cooking went from sauces in jars to making my own, and tea more or less went down the same path. I love the extra time it takes – you feel you are contributing to the quality of the end product. Take your time and make it with care, and the care is rewarded in the cup. I feel the same way about coffee, but only drink 1-3 per week, whereas I drink 6-12 cups of tea.

A few years ago, we bought a tea shop, and the venture did not last. But being around 162 teas bought me into contact with a whole new community, and once I got on-line, that’s just grown immensely. I used to laugh at my kids for having all these “friends” they’d never met, but now I’m the biggest Twitterer of the lot. For centuries tea has connected people across a table, and now it does so across the world.

The Australian tea culture is quite prominently tea bag driven, to the extent where Bushells ads actually seem to suggest you’re not a real Aussie if you like good tea in a nice cup. Our shop had 162 teas and 40 coffees. Both were outstanding quality. On that same block were 7 other coffee shops; yet we sold 95% coffee. Often tea was “English Breakfast” when it was consumed.

The small but vibrant group of tea lovers, though, was a very determined group. You’d see 5 blokes with long blacks and a guy the end with a Wild Cherry Green Sencha, and they’d be giving him a hard time; but nothing would stop his enjoyment of the tea.

Lately I’ve strayed much more into greens and whites, and I think that reflects tea consumers as a whole. I get mildly annoyed at people who prattle on about health benefits – just enjoy the tea, and why not have that biscuit?

Any thoughts on the direction that tea is headed?

It’s clear that quality tea is undergoing a massive resurgence ion the US. It will be a shame if we end up getting “tea culture” coming back to us via US movies and TV, but whatever it takes. It does seem that tea drinkers in the US are far fussier that US coffee drinkers, which is a great thing.

For me, the real worry is that quality tea plantations are being ripped out or taken over by multinationals with little interest in quality. I hope the counter to this is that new plantations, dedicated to quality, spring up as the value of great tea rises through demand.

What do you think the greatest challenges are for Australian tea consumers and/or businesses?

It’s impossible to go into a supermarket and buy real quality tea. The best you can hope for is a fair quality CTC black. It’s all about effort – you have to make the effort to find the tea, then the effort of making it. I’ve never bought tea on-line. I like to poke, prod, smell and feel tea before I buy it. I buy the best tea I can from whatever is in front of me. I realised that tea bags in the house – basically tea with training wheels – need to be gotten rid of before you really make a commitment to tea.

As far as businesses, it’s a hard call. In Adelaide’s Deep South, where I live, there’s one shop that has about 40 teas. Now, some of them are a little stale – probably because I’m the only person that has bought them in a long while. I feel for them, and I have given them a deservedly good review and try to promote them.

I think one issue is that the difference between the quality of tea from a bag versus real loose leaf tea is not as obvious as say, instant coffee versus a cappuccino. So when people go out, they have a cap because it’s so much better than what they can make at home.

And I think we should support Australia’s three tea growers. But they need to engage more with the discerning consumer. I’ve actively tried to contact them all with no response.

Any other tea musings you would like to share?

I can’t drink a cup of tea without having at least one of these thoughts:
• Who picked this tea, and what is their life like?
• When did I last have this, and who was I with?
• Why was I stressed a few minutes ago? I now have tea and the world is a better place.

Thank you so much Robert - I really appreciated your thoughtful responses and, as it turns out, we think quite alike on a number of points (especially about the having of biscuits).

I hope to have further Behind the Cup posts to share with you all soon!

Battle of the Breakfast Blends - Part Two

2010-03-30T18:36:00.000+11:00

So... have you all been dying of suspense?? Here they are at last... the tasting notes!

First off, I tried taking photos of each of the different cups of tea... and basically they all looked like this:

The Scottish Breakfast was a little lighter in colour, a little clearer; but they were all pretty similar. The taste though was quite distinct for each!

The basics: I brewed about 3g of leaf in about 200ml water for each tea, for 4 minutes (as recommended on The Tea Centre website). I tasted each black initially and then with the addition of milk, no sugar.

English Breakfast: this is described on The Tea Centre website as 'blend of leaves from India and Ceylon with a strong flavour'. Well, the first part may well be true, but the rest of it is not. English Breakfast tastes and smells like the most basic, traditional tea that you grew up with (if you come from a Western background). It has a good rich burnt umber colour but the flavour is just not that strong, or that interesting for that matter. A touch of astringency which is smoothed out by the milk, but not a great deal of character.

Irish Breakfast: Drinking this black first off, my tastebuds went 'WHOA' and then 'wheee!' and did a little dance. This. Is. Astringent. And strong and a bit bitter. And then, after a short while, nicely sweet and malty. I can't drink a whole cup of this without milk; maybe I could if I brewed it for only 2 minutes, but that's not really the point is it? This is definitely what I think of as a 'breakfast tea' - a really powerful wake-you-up kick... but a genuinely pleasant flavour as well.

Scottish Breakfast: This is possibly the most interesting and unusual of the three blends. I actually thought that it was a Yunnan blend but apparently it's Assam and Kenyan. It's got a deep musky-malty aroma and flavour. I actually prefer this one without milk, and based on my other experiments with it, brewed for a slightly shorter period of time (3 minutes) which lets the fruitier notes of the Kenyan tea through better I think.

To sum up:
English Breakfast - boring, I wouldn't bother.
Irish Breakfast - wham! wakes you up!
Scottish Breakfast - intriguing and enjoyable.

This was fun. I think I'm going to play more teas off against each other in the future.

Upcoming Feature - Behind the Cup

2010-03-28T09:00:00.037+11:00

As I wander around the internet tea world I notice that a lot of tea blogs and sites are based in the US (and a few in the UK). There is a wealth of valuable knowledge available about the tea industry, as well as customs and trends - but is it relevant to me?

Living Down Under as I do, I can't help wondering about tea culture and the industry in Australia: where it's at, where it's going, the challenges that tea businesses face. I have my own ideas, of course, but in the interest of exploring some of these issues more broadly, I'm going to start up a series of 'Behind the Cup' interviews with some of my fellow Australian tea bloggers, lovers and entrepreneurs. The first one should be up soon!

I'm hoping to get a wide range of views from both large and small Australian players. Would you like to be involved? Contact me at joiedetea [!at] gmail [dot] com - I'd love to hear from you!

Battle of the Breakfast Blends - Part One

2010-03-27T08:00:00.001+11:00

I have recently become consumed with a desire to apprentice myself to a master tea blender and learn oodles of exciting tea-blending secrets... well, that's easier said than done (master tea blenders apparently being thin on the ground in Melbourne - but if you happen to be one, and are reading this, please get in touch), so in the meantime I have decided to do a bit of D.I.Y. blend-tasting and experimentation.

Blends seem to divide tea enthusiasts. By their very nature, branded/named blends are designed to be consistent in flavour across the years. This has advantages for consumers who like consistency in their cup; they can be pretty confident that they're getting what they like (or avoiding what they don't) and not have to worry about the potential variations in quality and flavour that can affect tea harvests.

To some, this consistency goes against the spirit of tea, denying the natural mutability of the tea experience. To others, however, the skill required to combine teas of different grade and origin in order to produce the required result is a cause for celebration. I think there's room for both these views (and, unsurprisingly, that the quality of the teas involved is of paramount importance).

Where to start?

English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast are two classic and popular blends that I have not given much thought to in the past - but I think they deserve a bit of closer attention. And who knew - there's a Scottish Breakfast blend as well. So in a bonanza of UK-tea-orientation I ordered up a small quantity of these three from The Tea Centre.
I've been drinking a bit of each over the last couple of weeks, but I'll save the tasting notes for another time. Today we'll start with a comparison of the dry leaf. [At the time of writing The Tea Centre's website is down... I will update hyperlinks to each of the blends when I can]

Close inspection reveals that each looks quite different...

English Breakfast: mainly very very fine brownish-red particles but with a good proportion of slightly longer, black, finely twisted leaf. The aroma of the dry leaves is light and a little lemony.

Irish Breakfast: mostly dark brown CTC leaf (see the tiny little clumpy balls - looks like the Assam Dimakusi BOP that I've had in the past) mixed with some longer twisty black leaf and a scattering of golden tips. The aroma is warm and slightly spicy.

Scottish Breakfast: full orthodox-style finely twisted leaf, dark browny-black in colour, no tips. The leaves smell fruity and rich.

Stay tuned for the tasting notes. I'll hopefully get a couple done today, before the cold I've been battling fully stuffs up my nose and I can't taste anything, let alone tea...

Learning to Taste Tea

2010-03-18T13:55:00.000+11:00

I bought a copy of the wonderful Harney & Sons Guide to Tea a couple of months ago, and I have enjoyed reading it very much. It takes you step by step through the tasting process for a wide range of teas, from white to green to oolong to black and pu'er. It also contains some fascinating information about the ways in which these teas are manufactured, which actually also helps to understand why particular teas exhibit particular flavour characteristics. For example, it's the fast withering process that is partially responsible for the brisk astringency of Assam teas, while the slower, steamier withering of Keemun brings out the smoother mouthfeel and chocolatey notes commonly found in this kind of tea.

Books like this, and also the excellent New Tea Companion by Jane Pettigrew (which contains tasting notes as well as handy pictures of a huge selection of teas), are extremely useful for learning about tea. I can't help wondering, though, about the limits to their usefulness (these in no particular order) -

- seasonal variations may produce different flavours, not to mention quality, of a given tea;
- the risk of setting up a stringent standard: 'This is the way this tea is supposed to taste, and if you can't taste the same things, you're wrong';
- conversely, the risk of relativism: 'Everyone's tastebuds are different so there's no standard you can actually apply at all, any given tea can taste like anything and there's no 'better' or 'worse'';
- variations in brewing parameters (water, temperature, length of steep, amount of leaf, etc) which can produce a radically different cup;
- (perhaps most importantly) the risk of frustration and (ironically) lack of appreciation for the tea because of being too caught up in trying to 'work out' what it tastes like... rather than just experiencing what it tastes like.

For all these potential problems I think that these tasting note type books - and the tasting notes you find in other sources such as the TeaMail group - remain useful because they can open your eyes to different ways of interpreting the tea you are tasting. For example, it would never have occurred to me to even imagine tropical fruit flavours in an Autumnal Darjeeling... and I haven't specifically noticed any in the Castleton Estate Autumnal I enjoyed so much, but I have identified berries.

It is also an encouragement to pay attention more closely to the other foods and drinks that I consume. Noticing more about their flavours broadens the palate I can bring to my teas. Every little bit of mindfulness helps.

In the end I think that is what it's really all about.

Wishlist Wednesday - Glass Tea Cups

2010-03-10T13:26:00.001+11:00

Here are some gorgeous glass teacups for you to enjoy... so delicate, and perfect for showing off the colour of the infused tea!

Blue glass vintage teacup from Noodle.

Glass teacup and saucer from Jing Tea.

Glass gaiwan from SanTion House of Tea.

Cups and saucers from Juniper Lodge.

And my personal favourite today:

Etched glass tea cup and saucer from Dishes' Shop.

Made My Day

2010-03-05T11:03:00.000+11:00

Running a business is not easy by any means - as I'm sure many of my readers would know. Some days the sales don't come in. Some days my tea-blending creative mojo is just not there. Some days I can't get anything done because Pippin won't settle. It can be very frustrating.

And then on some days I find beautiful messages from my customers, like this one from Karen of MooBeeTees, in my Etsy inbox:

Hi Verity,

I just have to thank you for sending me your divine tea blends. I think I'm in love!! As tea is my only drink beside water, it is so nice to find some beautiful fresh blends that do what they say they do - relax!

I also wanted to let you know that when your package arrived, MooBee [Karen's daughter] wanted to know who it was from. I told her 'Verity'. She thought on your name for a couple of minutes and then asked me, 'Is Verity a fairy? She has a name that only a fairy would have.'

So in our house you are now 'Verity, the tea fairy' :)

Cheers,
Karen.

Well... so long as I'm someone's Tea Fairy (how awesome is that?)... I can remember that it's all worthwhile!

(If you'd like to read more about what joie de tea customers think of my tea blends, please have a look at my Customer Feedback page!)