Tealosophy

Create a tea experience you would be proud of and want to attend yourself. This has been at the heart of all of the events I have produced for my customers encouraging both learning and a new way to appreciate pure leaf tea. For the past 18 months we have spent time collaborating with our good friend Tanya who runs an incredible food business called Indie Treats. Famed for their Brekkie Bars as well as other tasty morsels (that you can buy online...hint! hint!) you can also catch her in the Wandering Cooks kitchens serving out wholesome and wonderful food...

I started to take tea seriously, moving beyond just being the friend that knows a bit about tea into the full on tea nerd space where my friends dreaded asking me to come over for for a cup of tea for fear of not making it properly, over a decade ago. One of my biggest regrets was not being more systematic about my approach to tea and having to rely on my memory for the impressions I had for certain teas at a specific point in time. I wish I had been introduced to tea cupping earlier in my life...

I always get excited around March and April as the Spring harvest season for tea is not too far away for some of our neighbours. My fresh tea supplies from 2018 are almost exhausted (a bit like the crude tea in this warehouse) and I long to enjoy sips of the really fresh greens (in particular).  On the upside I enjoy hearing from my network of producers about what might be and how the weather leading up to and the actual day of picking will impact the aroma and flavour of the tea.  I have been taking a bit of a...

Selecting a quality water for tea is not a new or modern idea. I recently had an email conversation with one of the most knowledgeable tea specialists in Australia on Chinese tea, Cathy Zhang of Ms. Cattea, who reminded me of the history attached with this element, water, in the tea making process. I feel this is important to recognise and remember when moving forward in my own journey of designing and building water for tea so as not to loose sight of the 'why'.   The historical reference Cathy reminded me of when chatting about this topic was the Classic of...

You would have recently noticed that we added a new local Sydney ceramist, Katherine Mahoney, into our Australian tea ware collection. Already her beautiful range of pourers and small tasting cups are proving popular with our customers. I had first seen Katherine's work in early 2018 but I was very fortunate to be able to meet her in Brisbane at GOMA's Design markets at the end of last year. I was drawn to her wheel thrown pieces and found such aesthetically pleasing pieces for the tea table. You can see Katherine's full body of work in her stunning Instagram feed. When...