I have a score to settle. Yesterday, I went for walk down The Parade with Lady Devotea. As previously mentioned, that’s a street here in Adelaide. About 40 minutes away from our house. On this occasion it was the Food and Wine Fair. It was very hot – well very hot-ish – and we walked the length and breadth, poking into little homewares shops and and […]
A few years back, we ran a tea and coffee shop, and for the most part, the people who came into it were within the range of ‘extremely pleasant and well mannered’ down to a ‘trifle surly’. Once a man came in, shouted that our range of gelati was not vegan – not that we’d ever claimed it was – and then left, still shouting. My […]
Today, on Australia Day, I launch the first of my new global tea sales sites, hosted by Tea Trade. This site which ships from an Australian distribution Centre will be followed by two others as soon as possible, and perhaps more. Certainly I intend to have the US up by April and the UK up […]
New York City has never been big on my wish list of places to go. I’ve always been sure I’d love it if I got there, but I don’t have the imperative like some people have. It’s a bit like Paris; I’m not that interested in going but if it crops up I might find myself there. […]
I’m writing this using up time that I should be using for other stuff. And the “other stuff” is putting the final touches on my preparation for a small market stall I have once a month. This time Lady Devotea will be swinging by later and joining me today will be Devotea Jr (regular readers […]
WOW! This tea is sensational It’s light and peppery on the tongue, and yet has a full-mouth feel that has an odd similarity to fragrant soap. Except that if this is what having your mouth washed out with soap is actually like, I wish I’d sworn more as a kid. But to fully explain, I need to […]
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 […]
Those of you who awaited each day’s gripping recounting of my search for decent tea in Thailand last June might well expect similar tales of deprivation and heroism whenever I travel, and as we’ve slipped away to Melbourne for a few days, you may be breathlessly awaiting the sequel to those heady days. An earlier […]
I’ve just sent off a stinging rebuke via twitter. I do that a bit. When customer service lets me down, I like to have a good whinge about it. But not today. Today I will be singing some praises. I’ve been considering this post for about two weeks after I got fantastic service. I actually decided to do another complete order just […]
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 […]