Storm in a Teacup is a bijou teashop and bar bursting with knowledge, flavor and passion. Forget delicate china cups and chintzy floral plates; this is not your typical teahouse. It’s a world for both the young and old, where a mainstream tea scene meets steeped tradition.
The establishmentis a retail space that invites everyone to make specialty tea a part of their daily ritual, while, at the same time, revealing the secret to brewing the perfect cup. Offering a delicious lunch menu, house-baked cakes and a variety of tea ephemera during the day, Storm in a Teacup transitions into a fully licensed bar by evening, encompassing tea cocktails, tasty morsels like Persian love cake and an organic wine list.
You’ll find that the shopis a delicious mix of home-away-from-home and serves as an adventurous escape for tea lovers and the tea curious. Owner Hannah Dupree spills the specifics: “Leaf tea, when brewed to a calculated time at the perfect temperature, emulates the experience and approach of drinking fine wine. Each tea, within its varietal, has an individual experience of aroma, mouth feel, tannins and lingering subtleties. We ensure that every tea purchase comes with an insight into the best brewing methods for that particular tea, and for the truly dedicated, we even hold education classes.”
The quaint boutiqueis all about tea: black tea, white tea, oolong and a host of single origin and herbaceous flavors from all corners of the globe. Dupree’s tight-knit tea community, which includes Storm in a Teacup’s tea sommelier Sarah Cowell (formally of Vue de Monde), has traveled to Sri Lanka, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa and Northern Victoria to experience tea at the front line. More than 40 quality teas such as the unwilted and unoxidised green tea have been sourced to date, primarily through direct trade with modest farmers and larger producers’ micro-lots, from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Hawaii, Kenya, India and Sri Lanka. Dupree believes in developing relationships with her tea producers as well as her tea drinkers, thus opening the channels of communication. The result is a crafted tea menu, designed to offer a broad cross section of the almost infinite world of tea.
Taking home a big bag of the store’s exquisite range of teas is as tempting as sitting and watching the world go by with a cup in your hand. Both honoring and complementing the quality of the tea, the shop offers irresistible hand selected — and sometimes cheeky — tea wares from local and international artists, too, making a trip to Storm in a Teacup essential for anyone thirsty for a new midday experience.
Photos Courtesy of iStock-4kodiak
