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I love tea as much as people love coffee, but it has been a more recent love – I would say in the last 4-5 years. Theic Tea Bar is a pop up store which is located inside the INSITU Furniture Gallery in Collingwood and serves a variety – 24 in fact – of specialty teas and is owned and run by Nathan Wakeford (Somage Fine Foods) from their Chamellia range.
You can literally spend hours if not the whole day here at this pop-up sipping on different cups of tea, trying out the colourful and intriguing furniture that is around and eating the delicious delicacies in the form of sweets. There is a small range of vegan and mostly raw bites, as well as some pieces being gluten free – which range from small treats to medium eats – and from reading the descriptions they all sound delicious and serve as a the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea. There are sweets such as Pana Chocolate Raw Passionfruit Cheesecake to the Raw Chocolate Donut and Snickers Ball. These are created thanks to the working combination of Chinta Desserts, Loafer Bakery and Botanical Cuisine. If you wanted “A little bit more” – there is a selection of a Raw Vegan Salad and a Theic Tasting Plate which consists of raw linseed crackers, dried fruits nuts and 2 dips of your choice from the 4 on offer all for $10. Dips include Carrot & Fennel Pate, Victorian Olive Pate, Lemon & Dill “Cheese” and Mushroom &Truffle Pate.
The name itself means is quite interesting and means ‘‘a tea drunkard, one prone to the immoderate consumption of tea’ – and it really does represent what Nathan is about. He is all about the tea and brewing it with love using the utmost care and perfect temperature. If that is not enough he drives almost two hours up Mount Donna Buang to collect fresh spring water and fills massive jugs to bring them back to Melbourne. This is the ensure Theic Tea Bar is brewing their Chamellia tea with the best of waters to further enhance the tea flavour.
Now to the teas – there are pages and pages to choose from and the specialty brews come from Korea, Sri Lanka, Nepal and China and include white teas, green teas, blooming teas, oolongs, black teas, tisane, puerhs, herbals, iced teas, a rooibos from South Africa and tea lattes. The Benifuuki Green Tea Latte sounded simply magnificient but after my third cup of tea (and unfortunately I couldn’t stay for much longer at the Tea Bar) – I was too full to try it out. This green tea comes with raw panella sugar and served with either soy or rice milk.
The tea is brewed using the spring water from Mount Donna Buang in boilers which are adjusted to the specific temperature that is required of each tea. The tea leaves are then placed in handmade teapots and pre-rinsed and served. The serving presentation is fantastic – there is a wooden tray as a base together with the teapot which was used to brew the tea, another vessel where the tea has been poured out into, as well as a cup which you use to drink the splendid tea and sometimes a square dish which shows you the brewed leaves. It really is a cute and great style.
Each tea that is served to you comes with an information card – which is another great little idea – and provides you with a background and description of the tea on one side, and facts such as water temperature, amount of tea to use, number of infusions and the grading on the other side.
The first tea that I tried was he Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea. This tea had a great floral aroma and had a great sweet taste to it. This tea is from Taiwan in the Miaoli Country region and had two infusions. The second infusion was just as nice as the first infusion – it enhanced the floral and sweet flavours of the tea. To go with tea I ordered the Pana Chocolate Raw Passionfruit Cheesecake – which was a bite sized piece of deliciousness. The passionfruit cheesecake was a great flavour combination – sour and sweet perfection with the chocolate base and topped with coconut.
I was tossing up between getting another tea and getting the Benifuuki Green Tea Latte. I settled for the Himalayan Spring White Tea which comes from Nepal in the Maipokhari, Ilam region. This tea was more crisp and flowery at the same time. I did enjoy this second tea a fraction more than the first one – but having said that both of the teas were fantastic.
Theic Tea Bar is such a fantastic concept and the staff really do have a passion and love for tea and are super friendly. There was another staff member who was infusing her first teas and I got to watch as Nathan taught her how to perfect the process. It is such a great place to come on the weekend to sit back, relax, unwind and drink some really delicious teas and eat some great tasting sweets.
Theic Tea Bar
https://www.facebook.com/theicspecialtyteabar
Tel No: 0438 770 087
NOTE: They were located at 77 Cromwell St, Collingwood – however are no longer there. Please visit their Facebook page to see where they will “pop-up” next.
Truffled Brioche – Sauteed mushrooms, Asparagus, Poached Eggs and Truffled Hollandaise and a Latte
grazing panda 