Tealosophy

Australia is unlikely to spring to the top of your mind when thinking about the world’s tea producing regions. Not only do we grow and produce tea domestically there is some excellent tea coming onto the market.  This week I am excited to feature Arakai Estate, an Australian artisan tea maker, located in the beautiful Conondale Ranges in South-East Queensland.  This is a wonderful story about all the things I am passionate about when it comes to tea. A local, family owned and operated tea estate that produces small batch artisan tea. The estate maintains a sustainable approach to tea production...

I have been singing an “I love matcha” song for many months now. For me, the bold and bittersweet flavour makes matcha the perfect replacement to coffee, particularly at home. This week I thought I would share 5 interesting facts about this mighty green tea and why I love it so. 1. A tea to be respected There is more to matcha than meets the eye. To respect this tea you really need to appreciate the effort and skill required to produce it. tea plants are shaded 2-4 weeks prior to harvest to increase the chlorophyll content, or the bright...

To cap off an extremely fulfilling and exciting year for me personally I was very honoured to receive this in the mail during the week. I have been a tea enthusiast for many years. Apart from drinking many a cup of tea, I love reading extensively on tea and my teaware collection is burgeoning to a point where dedicated cabinets have had to be purchased to house them. I have spent a good portion of my global travels as a tea tourist visiting tea estates and gardens, learning from tea masters, sitting with tea shop owners and soaking up the...

Here are some delicious and simple Iced Tea recipes to get you through a hot Australian Christmas and New Years. You can feel a little less naughty knowing that you are getting some health benefits from the tea and breaking up your month of overindulgence. These recipes are really easy you just need to be a little organised to cold brew your tea the day before. The method of cold brewing used in my recipes typically results in a sweeter infusion so I prefer not to add any extra sweetener. However, I have provided suggestions for sweetener below for those...

So you intended to watch the water come up to temperature, you were waiting to see those little crab eyes (see my previous post), and next thing you know, you have been distracted, and the water is bubbling away. So how do we get this water back to a desirable tea brewing temperature? There are a few different methods you could use to cool your boiling water down. It really depends on how desperate you are to make your cup if tea. Here are a few suggestions. Instant Gratification   Come to the rescue, thermodynamics. Thanks to a little bit...