I spent the afternoon yesterday in The Oriental Tea House on Little Collins Street, Melbourne. I had a jasmine lychee tea ball with two steepings, and then a Long Jing.
I’d spent two hours immediately previously at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms where I’d consumed a Bard’s Tempest and a Congo Bongo: the latter because it’s a favourite, the former because my friend Verity (@joiedetea) urged me to give it another chance after I said I didn’t like it in my last blog post.
And this time around I did.
But I’m not going to continue my last blog’s theme on the delights of tea in Melbourne.
A week ago, I counted that I have 72 teas at home.
The point is, I’m rolling in good tea, It’s everywhere. And as just yesterday’s list above includes a black blend/ a fruit/black blend, a green, a fruit green blend and I should add the Lord Petersham and the Hattalli Golden Lion I had before I even got to Melbourne to that lot.
I have eclectic tea tastes.
What I’m leading up to is this: I had the best iced tea yesterday evening I ever had.
After spending the afternoon in The Oriental Tea Rooms, I actually had a booking to buy dinner for my clients. And I was a bit over hot tea on a hot day.
I asked them to make me an iced version of their Apple Sencha, which I noticed had no lemon peel, a rarity for apple teas..
I don’t think that’s an iced tea that’s actually on the menu. But I usually ask for these things with enough conviction to ensue either I get it regardless or they call the police. Anyway, she scurried off.
My dining companions ordered a light Tasmanian beer and a New Zealand Savignon Blanc, so there was a certain colour palette on display when they bought the tray, hues of greenish brown all round.
The Apple Sencha. It. Was. Divine. I. Had. Seconds.
Apple and tea in perfect balance.
I don’t usually write a blog about just one good tea, but it reminded me of an unremarked-upon happening on last week’s Melbourne trip.
I bought two bottles of Ready-to-drink iced tea – and they were fantastic!
“Impossible!” I hear you cry. Specifically, I hear @amazonv ‘s rantabout RTD’s ringing in my ears.
But they are excellent.
“Stolen Recipe” Iced Teas.
Slightly sweet, I grant you, but tasting of tea. Real tea. Nice dryish Ceylon finish. I had the watermelon and raspberry and the coconut and something. I really want to try the Ginger & Star Anise one.
Their website is here.
Are we on the cusp of a revolution? If one company can bottle actual tea, surely they all can.
It’s great to see a small company doing something a damn sight better than the Nestlés and Liptons of this world.
I shall offer them a recipe to steal.
“If one company can bottle actual tea, surely they all can.”
Unfortunately, no.
Why? Because big companies compete on the world market (although small ones can do so today thanks to the Internet) and try to standardize their products or to adapt themselves lightly to the local tastes (by local, I mean big countries or blog of countries) and they have to answer to their owners/shareholders, which means selling at a high price lot of cheap to produce products.