Faux Pas and A Nice Cup of Tea

Oh dear. Dear readers, just yesterday I made the most unforgivable of tea-related faux pas. Let me relate the tale...

My fellow tea lover and great friend, we shall call him Master M, called by my house yesterday. I have been a bit lax with my shopping this week, so all I could offer food wise was half a chai tea cupcake before we journeyed off to Prahran to support a friend's band.

Imagine my horror when Master M pointed out, as we were lining up for the gig, that I had failed to offer him tea! Without fail, when I have visited his house I have always had tea (granted this is mostly at my own insistence). I am a terrible host!

 To soothe my anquish, Lady J sent me through this piece this morning which I thought I would share with you all. It is from Mr George Orwell...

A Nice Cup of Tea

A Quest for Scones - Winchelsea Tea Rooms

I have a dear friend, let's call her Lady J, who is a knitter. A voracious knitter, you could say. You will rarely find her without a half-knitted something in her bag. I will admit I've taken advantage of this over the short time I've known her, having acquired a pair of socks, gloves and two hats (all very cosy).

As it would happen, Lady J's birthday is coming up and there was a particular wool shop she wanted to visit near Colac, so as a bit of a pre-birthday expedition we set off on the weekend on a quest for wool and scones. Because every good road trip should include scones and tea at some stages, no?

Return and Covet

Alright, I will be the first to admit - after the amazingly heavenly experience of Monk Bodhi Dharma, which I really didn't think I could top, I put the blog on hold. In the year I've been away I've moved, travelled to China and drunk a whole lot of tea.

The Melbourne tea scene surely seems to be heating up in my absence, with a new tea cafe in Fitzroy and plans for ones in Northcote and West Brunswick. It is to these ends that I am back, navigating the oft times disastrous path of the tea connieseur in the hopes of easing the way for those that follow.

So! Where will we start today?

The problem with so many cafes in Melbourne is that they go to the effort of sourcing a nice tea, and then pour scorching water from the espresso machine over it. I have to say, I'm guilty of a similar crime at work where the only hot water comes out of a dual boiling/chilled filter. So when I was reading a magazine and stumbled across this all I could think was "WANT". What am I coveting this week?

The TeaTotal

Ok, not actually finished development yet, and more for the cafe scene, but can you imagine how this little baby will change the tea drinking experience?

Cambridge Consultants, the brains behind this device, say: Users, in the form of cafe patrons, home consumers, or those at a vending machine, select the preferred loose-leaf tea variety, temperature, and strength level. Instead of walking away with a tea bag attached to a string dangling out of a to-go cup, the tea drinker becomes witness to the process itself: the tea is introduced to the water, where a stirring mechanism facilitates consistency and steeping efficiency. When ready, the finished tea is funneled into a waiting cup

What a completely brilliant idea. Never again would a tea drinker be served a burnt, over brewed tea bag. Fantastic!
Check out more on the TeaTotal here