Coffee culture under threat as high-end tea revolution brews

MARY-JANE DAFFY
AUGUST 18, 2014
HERALD SUN
FORGET nanna’s bottomless teapot complete with soggy tea bags and a well-worn spout.
Tea has cast off its crocheted tea cosy and emerged all spruced up in a slew of high-end specialty tea salons and bars opening across Australia.
Threatening to take on the mighty power of an entrenched coffee culture in Melbourne’s Carlton North is Travelling Samavor Tea House.
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Opened just over a year ago, the tea house has 40 teas on the menu and an army of small batch varieties hidden under the counter, including a rare oolong tea from Taiwan with an extraordinary flavour and price tag of $18 a pot.
Owners Pascale Sameli and Rebecca Kidson agree Australia is on the cusp of a tea transformation with many cafes and tea bars now weighing their tea and steeping it for specific times in temperature-controlled water.
“Tea is becoming more and more exciting as people learn about it,” Pascale says.
“We give customers a tea timer and extra hot water and we guide them but in the end they’re in charge.
“It’s their palate to play, experiment, and have fun with. It’s about seeing what you can discover with tea.”
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Peggy Veloudos was ahead of her time when she opened the first T-Bar tea salon in Adelaide 15 years ago with her family.
“The tea culture has changed so much,” she says. “We now sell over 120 of the 5000 teas named in the world today and most people get excited by that because they know it’s simple to make a beautiful tea.”
Here’s what we discovered from sipping our way around the many emerging tea salons:
Tea that’s true
“All true teas come from the camellia sinensis plant,” Peggy explains. “From that one plant you get black tea, white tea, green tea, oolong tea and pu-erh tea. Only the processing and terra are different.”
These five tea varieties are a great base for novice tea drinkers to start from. Each tea contains vastly different characteristics. Oolong has distinct earthy tones and many swear by pu-erh tea for its high mineral content.
“White tea is 200 times higher in antioxidants than green and is becoming a favourite,” she says. “Because it’s picked so young it is tea in its purest form.”
Infuse, infuse
Dip, dip, dunk and discard; it’s the mantra of tea bag tea making that many of us grew up with. Until now.
Many Chinese black teas, oolong teas and green teas have been designed for infusion more than once.
“In China they drink these teas in very tiny teapots and use very tiny cups,” Pascale explains.
“They reinfuse a good tea up to 10 times or even more.’’
She suggests preparing all oolong and some Chinese black teas by pouring hot water into the teapot and letting it sit for 10 seconds before pouring it out.
“This wakes the tea up to perform,” she says. “If the tea is smoky it will reduce the smokiness and it also reduces the amount of caffeine in the tea.”
To milk, or not to milk?
As a (very) general rule full-bodied black teas (think Assam or English breakfast) and chai work well with milk.
“Putting milk in green tea
is sacrilege,” Peggy says. “It’s wrong in herbal, too, and I wouldn’t add it to a fruit melange because it would curdle.” In the end, it’s a personal preference. Much like the pinky finger lift.
Sip and sup
Don’t just drink it — eat it.
T Totaler founder Amber Hudson is dishing up tea in pots and on plates at her new tea bar and cafe in Sydney’s Newtown.
“There are so many flavour profiles in tea and certain flavours pair particularly well with food,” she says. “We match French Earl Grey with a cardamom and almond cake but it also works really well with Turkish delight and dark chocolate.”
It’s all about experimenting with flavours.
T Totaler offers a drool-worthy mixture of spice, salt and sweet created by the pairing of a cold drip chai with salted caramel popcorn. Seriously.
Brewing the perfect cuppa
Peggy favours a kettle and uses filtered or fresh rain water.
“Never use water that’s been sitting in the kettle or steeping at boiling temperature for hours,” she says. “The water will be depleted of oxygen and will make the tea taste flat.
“You don’t need mountainous scoops of tea either,” Peggy says. She recommends one flat teaspoon for a cup of tea and one heaped teaspoon for a pot.
Pascale encourages people to experiment.
“Anytime you buy a new tea make a pot as you usually would and then pour a cup at one minute infusion, two minutes, three minutes and four minutes,” she explains. “Try all four cups of tea and one of them will be your favourite.”
Remove the infuser from the pot after infusion to avoid increasing bitterness or pour the entire contents into a cup.
Each tea has its own personality.
Each tea has its own personality.
Storage tips and tricks
“A good tea will sing to you, it will overwhelm you,” Pascale says. “Freshness and proper storage is so important. Without it, the tea will be flat.”
Allow tea to sing a sweet melody by keeping it in a tightly sealed, preferably opaque container, away from heat, light and moisture. Tea absorbs odours, so be mindful of storing tea near spices or fresh food.
Personality plus
“Each tea has a personality,” Peggy says. But what does the tea you drink say about you?
Think about the tea you drink and what characteristics it offers.
Do you need a zingy ginger herbal lift? Are you a simple, bold black tea man?
Or does the floral notes of an earl grey bode beautifully with scones in the afternoon?
The answers are in the tea.