Dessert degustation

There is a certain excitement I get when I do a thing I've never done before ... And I must say I have never done a 10-course chocolate degustation before!

SerendipiTea is providing the teas for this function at savour chocolate & patisserie school so it would be wrong if I didn't show up... Right?
So ... All the un-usual suspects will be creating 2 courses the proprietress Kristen Tibballs and Paul Kennedy providing the finishing coup de grace'
Adriano Zumbo, Deniz Karaca, Tim Clark & Bernard Chu will all be creating desserts that sound fablulous... Mille Feuille this and caramelised that, Sorbets and pineapple brunoise ... listen that's all good and I promise i'll learn what it all means, post event the point is, as always... taste and flow and when you have talent like this crew I think we can be assured that the results will be stunning.
I've done my best to match up a set of teas that will accompany the night well OK... I was being a bit facetious about the culinary titles because I've had to look into it a bit to pair up the teas.
Let's think a bit about taste & flow the chefs involved in tonights creations are all Master Chefs so taste I think is well covered so hat leaves flow. Flow is a sometimes mysterious thing strange since we all deal with it in our lives everyday.
Flow is movement, rhythm, cadence it has facets and subtleties, think about how you move from room to room in a public space. How do we wish to move? Clumping & clomping like a child walking in his mothers heels
( don't judge! ) leaning against walls and clutching at door frames? or moving about gracefully, floating, sliding effortlessly? Yeah I know it's not really a question... The latter is what fills my expectations, this night will be filled with one off's, sights and tastes I may never see again!
it's Jazz man!
Monk takes the stand and you don't know whats gonna happen but you know it's gonna be a stone gas!
As I sit in the Savour boardroom surrounded by the scent of chocolate & fruit the sound of the occasional ignition of a chefs blowtorch and the clink clank of a kitchen in full production I find myself getting just a bit excited.
Now I smell ... Bacon?
Yeah... a stone gas!

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The JACKSONS , Craig David and a brand new blend

Recently, we got a call here at Serendipitea central ... It was our friends at the Melbourne convention & exhibition centre and they had a very interesting question for us ... "Do you have a tea that would coat, relax & soothe a singers throat?" This is exactly why it great that we are an artisan tea blender... My answer was ... of course we can blend something up for you!
Little did I know that the throats in need of soothing were those of none other than THE JACKSONS.
Long story short... I blended up a mix of Lemon myrtle, mint, liquorice,cinnamon, cardamom, blue marrow flower & black tea and a few other things and sent it over to MCEC. It was a smash!
The next week Craig David played The Plenary and we got another request and again another smash.

So now we're thinking... Why not release it....spread the word far & wide!



Maybe it'll start a sensation ... People will be sipping it from Sydney to Perth!! It may even change the way australia thinks about tea!!

... Ok... Maybe not but hey, it tastes great so look for it soon on Serendipitea.com.au

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A cocktail Night at Cafe Dior

A couple of weeks ago at Cafe Dior Commercial rd, Prahran Serendipitea had the great pleasure to be part of a function put together by the management to launch their spectacular new menu.

While the guests sampled selections from Dior's new tapas menu and discussed the new direction & later hours I was behind the bar cooking up a few Tea Cocktails.
There was a crowd of about 100 and let me tell you they were all very thirsty!
I selected a few of my favorite recipes using Ruby Sipper (Blood Orange Tisane), Fiji (Sencha Green Tea, Pineapple & Papaya), Congo Bongo (Black Tea Coconut & Mango), Eve's Temptation ( Apple Tisane ) & Cha Cha Chai ( Our award winning Chai) , using those teas I worked up about 8 cocktails using, Gin, Vodka, baileys, Kahlua, ice, banana, mango, orange, lemon, lime, cranberry juice & mint... the proportions are a tightly held secret known only to me and my clients.The night went along fantastically and I think as the weather turns we will do a few more events like this to show how much can be done with SerendipiTea's teas.

SerendipiTea Retail Partners : Chocolattea

Chocolattea in Strathmore is a tasty oasis, the first thing you'll notice is the design & decor it is a fantastic looking place without being cold or sterile it is warm & welcoming of families and neighborhood regulars.
Part cafe, part chocolateria and much more you can also find tea & coffee accessories.
For such a small footprint Chocolattea has much more that it's share of chocolate, too many to list here, gourmet coffee and of course SerendipiTea

Words , words , words

Words are fantastic!

They can be persuasive, poetic, descriptive ... beautiful and also on the other side of the coin they can be deceptive and nebulous...
For example take the words Single Origin, for some it is now becoming a generic term meaning "quality" when the truth is far from that.
Single origin can be a great thing in tea production, it can assure a quality product but it is far from the end all, we must consider where that origin is... is it a known plantation in India that has been producing quality leaf, or is it a new plantation in Brooklyn!
Now don't get me wrong I am a great lover of Brooklyn and I will have no bad words said about her!
However... Brooklyn as diverse as it is has never been known for producing great teas... so there's the thing... a tea can come from a place well known for tea, claim single origin and still taste like a bit of Brooklyn.
So don't give too much weight to the words the next time you try a new tea ... trust your nose & taste buds they won't lead you astray!

Tea & health

More and more the health benefits of tea drinking are becoming part of mainstream thinking.

“It is believed that the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung (2737 BC) was the first to discover tea. Nung, whilst sipping boiling hot water in his garden, caught a leaf from a nearby tea plant in his cup. The taste of the water was altered and
he greatly enjoyed the result”.

Now if you think about it that's one heck of a long time for the merits of tea to move around the planet!
Finally, most of the world now knows what Nung discovered so long ago, and we also know much more about tea that complements what we can feel immediately.

Green tea , chamomile, white tea, black tea & oolong have all been studied for their curative properties but if you are a tea drinker your senses have already told you what the medico's are hinting...
Tea is good!