New Kid on The Block

Posted on by Robert Godden

A new tea shop opened in Adelaide yesterday.

I know most of the international tea community will assume that meant that a limo pulled up at TDSSTL* to collect Lady Devotea and I – whisking us off to cut a ribbon at a swanky tea affair, but that’s not what happened.

In fact, I found out about it on Twitter the night before – just like an ordinary person might, can you believe it, so I had to move my day around a bit. Luckily, one of my students had been lax, so I gave him a short lecture and gained some time.

I headed toward the new T2 store on Rundle Street.

It was an odd opening – no specials, no fanfare. It’s a bit like they plan to be solely dependant on passing trade.

In order to make this whole thing more relevant to you, Dear Reader, I suggest you imagine it’s the restaurant district in your home town, and substitute any retail-only merchant that sells teas and accoutrements. I believe “Teavana” in the States might be a good example.

I’m pretty familiar with T2 stores in Melbourne and Sydney. Often, I buy a little box of tea from them for use in a hotel room. Also, they sell these nifty tea travel containers I’ve amassed a few of.

I bought some tea, but given in a two hour period I bought loose leaf tea from three different places and purchased three cups to drink, that’s probably not a surprise to anyone.

Now, as people so love a review, let’s get that bit over with:

The highlights:

  • Plenty of Teas
  • Francesca, who served me without ever saying “What’s wrong with you?” did a great job
  • Wonderful Teapots etc
  • A great tasting selection of chai on the tasting table. There was a liquorice-based one I particularly liked, but the name escapes me.
What I went “hmmm” at:
  • The peppermint and oolong mix tasted like peppermint and oolong. They were so distinctive, they might as well as been served in concurrent cups.
  • It’s a little pricey. I spent 12.95 on 100g of a tea I know damn well I can get at The Perfect Cup at the market for $5.15 per 50g
  • The portions are fixed. It’s all sealed. I love a nice open container, and the ability to say  ‘I’ll have 75 grams of that’.
However, there are some interesting dimensions to the presence of T2 in that strip.
  • It is a restaurant and café district. It probably has the same percentage of café owners who insult their customers with tea bags – I referred to them as“Thieves, liars, fools or all of the above” in a video a while back and I certainly stand by that – but the sheer scale means there’s always been a little loose leaf about the place if you know where to look.
  • So, as with every major city, good tea is available, and only slightly harder to obtain on the street than say, heroin.
I hope the presence of T2 is a shining beacon. It makes a liar again of nearby cafe owners who profess “it’s all too hard”. It get customers thinking “loose leaf”, yet does not serve it hot, except as a sample.
Surely the surrounding establishments will gradually submit as the loose leaf tide washes over them.
T2 might look like a trendy, overpriced warehouse full of tea in boxes that would not be out of place in a kindergarten activity set; but I’m hoping that within it’s faux-industrial walls beats the heart of a revolutionary, and there will be no place to hide for those establishments foolish enough to believe that they can serve bagged tea, as they are swept aside in a tannin-stained, taste-led tea revolution to be proud of!
Welcome to Adelaide, T2!
(*I guess you all knew that TDSSTL is The Devotea’s Super Secret Testing Lair, right?)

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