Last year in Sydney, I drank smooth, creamy flat whites, but I also found my way to the city’s welcoming, vibrant tea scene. While coffee is more prevalent in Australia, Sydney’s tea vibe drew me in. The city boasts a warm, diverse, and growing tea community. In fact, the fifth annual Sydney Tea Festival will take place on August 19th. The celebration of loose leaf tea features a market, workshops, master classes, and a tea pairing dinner. Clearly, I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of Sydney’s tea culture. Here I detail some of my memorable Sydney tea experiences.
The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar
[DECEMBER 2018 NOTE: The Rabbit Hole’s Redfern location will close after December 23, 2018, but Barangaroo location will still be open.]
Co-founders of the Sydney Tea Festival, Corrine Smith and Amara Jarrett opened The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar in 2010 as a way to bring new, creative sipping options to Sydney’s tea enthusiasts. When I stepped into the Redfern location, studious-looking people filled the tables, mugs of tea placed next to each laptop. I also spied a handful of Instagrammers snapping shots of their colorful tea lattes. The space was open and airy. Thanks to the yellow accents, it felt sunny and warm. I sampled the perfectly pink Turkish Delight Latte and then moved on to The Rabbit Hole’s other tea offerings: Lemon Aid (lemon myrtle, lemongrass, ginger), Grey Goddess (a delicate, citrusy white tea), and Lavender Cream (Milk Oolong with vanilla and lavender petals). The Rabbit Hole organic teas are whimsical, tasty, and thought-provoking.
The tea bar offers a full array of hot tea, tea lattes, and tea “mocktails”, but one mustn’t overlook the tea-inspired foods on the menu: Earl Grey infused strawberry jam, Lapsang Souchong mushrooms served on sourdough toast with hummus and basil oil, and avocado toast with preserved lemon freekeh and hazelnut dukkha. Sweets include puffy meringues, pretty nougats, and a daily cake offering. Each food item is listed with a suggested tea pairing.
Redfern Tea Bar
146 Abercrombie St, Redfern NSW 2016
Barangaroo
Shop 1, 23 Barangaroo Ave
https://therabbithole.com.au/
Teahouse at White Rabbit Gallery
The White Rabbit Gallery features one of the world’s largest collections of contemporary Chinese art. Before spending time with the art, I relaxed for an hour in the gallery’s teahouse, enjoying savory dumplings and oolong tea. I steeped the balanced and slightly floral Ti Kwan Yin several times. Due to jetlag, I spent most of the time gazing at the fabulous birdcage-covered ceiling, but White Rabbit’s teahouse would be the ideal place to spend a rainy day—with a book, a friend, or both!
White Rabbit
30 Balfour Street
Chippendale NSW 2008
Teahouse
T Totaler
T Totaler is a homegrown tea business, focusing on Australian grown teas and botanicals. Founded in 2012, Amber and Paul Sunderland make custom tea blends for restaurants, develop tea-based “mocktails”, and teach workshops. At their Newtown tea bar, I sampled a dazzling Teagroni, an iced White Peony tea with rose petals, and a hot Australian grown Sencha with coconut and lemon myrtle. Each one was perfect in its own way, and the tea bar’s decor was charmingly cozy with fiddle leaf figs and apothecary jars. Since my visit, T Totaler has opened a second location in the center of Sydney, which is now their primary location.
T Totaler
555a King Street
Newtown 2042 [Weekends only]
The Galeries Tea Bar
26A, Ground Floor
The Galeries, 500 George Street, 2000
T Totaler Tea
Lotus The Galeries
One of Sydney’s favorite dumpling restaurants, Lotus The Galeries also features a range of teas. I had the privilege and pleasure of sharing dumplings and tea cocktails with Sydney’s own teagramming sisters Neha and Smruthi. This charming and generous sister team marries the art of tea with the art of cocktails on their teatini__ Instagram page. Using tea from small tea companies from Australia and New Zealand, Neha and Smruthi develop tea cocktail recipes that highlight rather than mask the taste of the leaf. Their original recipes can be found on Instagram at teatini__.
Lotus The Galeries
Shop 6, level 1, 500 George Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
http://www.lotusdining.com.au/
Photo courtesy teatini__
Afternoon Tea at the Langham
Sydney’s innovative and cutting edge tea scene also leaves room for traditional afternoon tea that showcases high end teas and fine pastries incorporating local ingredients. I spent a leisurely and luxurious afternoon at the Langham Sydney. This afternoon teatime is perhaps the most perfect I’ve ever experienced—attentive service, perfectly-infused teas, delightful savories and sweets, a cozy armchair. The pink champagne enhanced my languorous afternoon! I was able to sample a number of teas—a subtle Orange blossom tea, a creamy black Assam, and a white tea with melon. The scones were warm and crumbly, and other sweets were graced with an Australian touch: a hibiscus and guava tart and a cherry lamington. The savories were traditional and spot on: a curried free range egg finger sandwich as well as a prawn, shallot and dill finger sandwich.
The Langham Sydney
89-113 Kent Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/sydney/dining/afternoon-tea-with-wedgwood/