Carolina café has always been on the elusive side since it’s
opened for me. My friend Miss B and I have been trawling up Nicholson St for
months trying to find it. Oddly enough it was on an outing with Master M that I
stumbled across this inconspicuous café – it is one of those “so cool” places
that rely on word of mouth rather than signage to draw people in.
Well, now that it’s location had been discovered, fellow tea
lover, Miss B and I organised to have a business meeting there Sunday morning.
Naturally we were both keen to try the tea, and the coolish start to the day
made it an ideal temperature to enjoy a pot.
We arrived around 10.30, and the lovely outside area was
packed so we sat in the booth inside. A blackboard proclaimed the tea to be
provided by Vee Tea, a brand Miss B and I were both unfamiliar with, but we do
love trying new things. A white tea with jasmine and liquorice caught our eye.
I will admit to being quite a fan of T2’s liquorice leg, so I was curious to
see how this would translate to a white tea.
Now, I don’t like to complain about slow service in
hospitality, having spent a good deal of years working in the industry myself.
But Miss B and I waited half an hour
for our tea. And we witnessed the barista using boiling water right out of the
coffee machine onto our white tea. I am yet to figure out how pressing one button
on a coffee machine equates to us waiting half an hour. It didn't add to our mood when Miss B ordered some raisin toast, only to be later told they had run out.
Sadly, things did not improve from there. Inspection of the
tea revealed rose and jasmine petals, and a lovely golden liquor poured from
the pot. The taste was…interesting. The liquorice overpowered everything,
starting on a sweet note and then completely covering the mouth a few seconds
after swallowing the tea. It was much stronger than I was accustomed to when
mixed with a black tea, and I don’t think white tea has enough body to pull off
such an overpowering flavour. Miss B was not a fan at all, and I ended up
drinking most of the pot while she got a piccolo latte to clear away the taste.
Perhaps we made a poor decision on tea choice, but the whole
experience was a bit of a let down. I have had decent tea there before, but
that was one of Carolina’s own herbal tea blends. This may have to be one tea
review I give a second chance further down the track.
The Rating
Atmosphere: 3/5
Available food: 2/5 (good available range, loss of points for running out of what we ordered)
Tea range: 3/5
Tea had: 2/5
Overall: 9/20
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