Times have changed, for the better.... and we have moved on..

If you have walked along Greville street, Prahran lately you would have discovered that our shop "Express Life" has closed, however this is not cause for sadness because even though that location on Greville street has served us well for over two years it is your very positive response to SerendipiTea has made it necessary for us to move on to a larger location and shift our focus to servicing our ever expanding list of wholesale clients.
You should know that while we have moved out of our retail location we have definitely not forgotten about our many retail customers... SerendipiTea's wonderful Organic and fair trade teas are now and will always be available online at www.serendipitea.com.au and your enquiries are always welcome at our office phone 03 9383 4442, fax 86100113 & mobile 0458442224.
So many of you have been so positive about our teas and we thank you all... and if you love our teas ( and I know you do ) check in at this blog, our facebook page or follow our Tweets for some
fantastic "thank you" offers, additions to our growing list of cafe and restaurant clients and our new SerendipiTea Tea Ambassador program! ... ( More about that soon)

Mate & Mocktail Masterclass a little Press !

(Photo Courtesy of newsphotos.com.au)

By now I hope you have heard bout SerendipiTea's Mate & Mock-tail masterclass this Sunday 14 March on Greville Street,
It will be two hours of information on Yerba Mate' & SerendipiTea's award winning cocktail recipes ( of course we will not be using alcohol that's why we use the word mock-tails) our friends at The Stonington leader has published a couple of articles on the event, you can read one Here & the other Here.
There are still a few places available to book
call Express Life On Ph : 03 9510 4334

Reviews ... Reviews ... Reviews!

You know I love reviews ( especially when they're good) so I am linking this one from Purely Tea
for SerendipiTea's "Fiji" but it's more than just a positive review it shows a continuity of quality because even though this review was posted a while ago all the qualities that are written about will still be found in the box you'll pick up tomorrow!

Fiji Review

Mate's & Mocktails : A Masterclass

SerendipiTea Australia is putting on another Masterclass !!
In partnership with "The Tastes of Chapel Festival"
This time there will be two subjects ... the first subject will be the phenomenal South American tisane Yerba Mate' !
Yerba Mate' has been used for thousands of years and is linked to health, well being and a deep social bonding experience. We believe that this is the year that Mate' will become better appreciated in Australia, so we will do our part to help shed some light on this fantastic tisane!

The second subject will be pure fun!

Tea & Tisane Mock-Tails !
Over the years SerendipiTea has been at the forefront of rethinking how teas and tisanes can be used, and a by product of that quest for the new has been a stockpile of exceptional Cocktail recipes but of course our shop has no liquor license so we remove the alcohol and what remains are exceptional Mock-tails!
Teas , Tisanes, fruits, juices & a bit of a flourish.
Your taste buds will not believe the flavors !

To reserve a spot contact us on

Ph: 03 9510 4334

or even better visit us at

Express Life / SerendipiTea
143 Greville Street
Prahran

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!

... But they never mention taste!

When I read the reviews of some other teas or the companies that produce them I am astounded by the fact that each one seems to find a way to avoid what to my mind is a very basic characteristic of tea .... the flavor!
I wonder what would make them avoid the subject?

You'll notice when we get reviewed the first thing written (as in the one above... thanks Karen Salken) is about taste... this is our focus!
Yes, we do single origin, organic, eco packaging and as much as we care about all these things (and we do! ) what would it matter if the taste wasn't there!
We make a great effort to create unique blends and we go to great lengths to assure that our oolongs are smooth and luxuriant, our greens are crisp & fresh so we are proud when it gets noticed.

So when you hear about other teas that claim this or that ... ask yourself ... " I wonder why they didn't mention taste?

Just read an article titled "Tea gets a quality infusion"

It is a fact that SerendipiTea has done a lot of great work over the years to raise the profile of tea, tea drinkers, single origin, fair trade & organic tea manufacturing, so when I recently read the article quoted in the title of this post I was a bit concerned.
I guess that after just under a year of SerendipiTea returning to Australia it might be expected that some points points about what SerendipiTea does and how we operate that are generally very well known around the world may not have been communicated clearly here in OZ...

Let's try to correct that!

Let it be known, that our mission is to raise the profile of tea & tea drinkers and further single origin, fair trade & organic tea manufacturing and much much more... in general to bring the tea lover out of second class status and into a place where the tea offered is of the same quality that is currently enjoyed by coffee drinkers, this is what our founder Tomislav Podreka had in mind at the start... all those years ago right here in Melbourne!
The accomplishments of Tomislav are well documented through his work with chefs, culinary institutes, tea organizations and plantations world wide.

Now pardon me if I show my passion a bit here but as my job everyday is tea... I know what is available out there and I am also fully aware of the bold steps taken by SerendipiTea to shake up the perception of Tea and to raise this drink out of the shadow... the rather long shadow, cast by coffee in this town (Melbourne) I hope and am trying to bring to an end the day when a bag dropped into a cup of hot water, or sub standard loose leaf served in a stainless hospital grade pot is truly over!
There is much more enjoyment to be had from a great cup of tea than is currently acknowledged.
But ...
It doesn't all go unnoticed... In my last Tea Master Class I was very happy to speak to a room full of tea lovers and future tea lovers that were very interested in how much pleasure could be derived from a cup of tea and stunned by how far the flavor palette can be stretched.
In the end we will continue as we have been, championing the merits of tea and in particular fair trade , single origin & organic tea and now I guess we will redouble our efforts to get in the faces of the foodies.