Creative Brews
The Age
Saturday March 22, 2003
The secret of a perfect cuppa is in the teapot, writes Michelle Hamer.
A good cup of tea takes time. Sure, you can jiggle or dangle to get by, but for true tea flavour and a quiet moment of reflection in a chaotic day, a teapot is the only choice.
Tea drinking has been a ritual since people climbed out of the primordial mud and realised that water tasted better from a cup than a puddle. From there it was a quick evolution to rubbing sticks together to heat the water, and, of course, when you're living outdoors, leaves will fall in your crude clay vessel - and hey presto, you've got a cup of tea.
The true story is that China introduced tea drinking and teapots to the world.
The first teapots were made from the "zisha" or purple clay of China's Yi Xing (ee-shing) region.
Yi Xing teapots are still made today, in their original style as a teapot and cup in one single-serve vessel. The teapots gradually season as the unglazed clay absorbs the brewed tea flavour, and it's said that after several years of use, tea leaves are no longer even needed.
The English have made an art of tea drinking with Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling, or Earl Grey loose-leafed teas brewed in a china or silver teapot and drunk from fine bone china, little finger crooked, of course!
Melbourne has a teapot-making history of its own, producing the Robur teapot - an Australian icon - since 1935. The silver-plated design has long been popular in Australia and in the 1950s housewives collected coupons from Robur tea packets to trade for a teapot.
According to Aisha Dadabhoy, the silverware product manager at Whitehill, producers of the Robur teapot: "Anyone who has used a Robur teapot knows why it is so good. They keep the tea lovely and hot, pour well and look good."
The company makes just 300 a year because their production is labour-intensive.
Teapot specialist Trevor Richards says that when Robur first began making its teapots the company gave complimentary silver tea sets to Melbourne doctors to induce suburban teapot envy.
"The patients would see these beautiful silver tea services and because doctors were held in such high regard they would be determined to have one of their own. It was very clever marketing," he says.
Richards immerses himself in teapots every year through the Weird and Wonderful Novelty Teapot Exhibition he hosts at his shop in Morpeth, an historic village north of Sydney. As Australia's biggest teapot exhibition, the event attracts teapot fanciers from across the globe. More than 4500 different teapots will be displayed in this year's exhibition, to be held from August 21-31.
In Melbourne, specialist tea shops are springing up in shopping strips and centres in a move back to tea drinking. Most sell dozens of tea varieties as well as tea-making accoutrements, some of them amazing artistic creations.
At The Tea Party, on the fringes of the Queen Victoria Market in West Melbourne, owner Julie Griffiths sells teapots and about 100 varieties of leaf tea. A confirmed loose-leaf drinker, Griffiths believes the quality of tea used for tea bags is often inferior to the loose-leafed variety.
She prefers her leaves brewed in glass: "That way you get the visual pleasure as well as the great taste," she says.
And should the pot always be warmed with hot water to create the perfect brew?
"I think this is a personal preference; it's not essential. What I would say is that people should put in one teaspoon of tea per person - and avoid the traditional 'one for the pot'," Griffiths advises.
T2 owner Maryanne Shearer says tea needs to brew for different lengths of time, according to its variety.
"For standard black tea I would advise no more than two minutes, but some herbal teas need to stand for up to 12 minutes."
T2 has outlets in Fitzroy and Chadstone offering every conceivable blend of tea and tea-making accessory.
Shearer believes Melburnians are embracing a return to the "romance of the tea ceremony" and says teapots are in demand. "Ceramic teapots are the type most often bought, though infusers are also popular."
The Tea Party phone 9329 1149
T2 phone 9417 3722.
Morpeth Weird and Wonderful Novelty Teapot Exhibition, Trevor Richards phone 49331407
Whitehill phone 9381 2777
(Robur teapots are available in Myer, David Jones, Minimax and Matchbox stores and specialty retailers.)
© 2003 The Age
