Australia has diverse landscapes and weather. You can find any type of landform and any sort of weather somewhere in Oz. Where I live, Brisbane, on the east coast of Australia, we have a pretty moderate climate in winter and quite warm in summer. Actually, compared to the southern state, I don’t think you can even call what we have at this time of year, ‘winter’! We have the odd cool day – usually when the sun is hidden behind clouds, but a light jumper or coat usually satisfies. We do have some strong winds that whip around building, especially in the city – and this can be considered wintery! But no matter what the weather, a cuppa, made in Australia, is always a great reward.
Tea drinking etiquette in Australia! To dunk or not to dunk? The act of drinking tea may have its own etiquette, but unlike their traditional British pinkie-lifting counterparts, Australian tea drinkers do not make a career out of. A recent Bushells tea drinking survey revealed just how far Australian tea drinkers have gone to abandon formal British tea drinking rules and Australianised it into a more laid back act of fun. According to traditional British tea drinking etiquette, there is much more to tea drinking than just switching on the kettle. While holding the cup, the thumb and index finger of the right hand should be used to pinch the handle, placing the thumb at 6 o’clock and the index finger at 12 o’clock.
The pinkie should not be raised straight up, but at an angle between 33 and 47 degrees and when raising the cup, one must bring both the saucer and cup towards the mouth, holding the saucer in the left hand. This rule is almost impossible for most Australians to follow because, according to the survey, a massive 76% of Australians drink their tea without a saucer. And if that fact is hard to swallow, the survey also revealed that 50% of Australians enjoyed dunking cake or biscuits into their tea — an unimaginable act in the British tea etiquette set of rules. While the only acceptable way to eat a scone with tea in Britain is to break it into small pieces on a separate plate, Australians’ dunking habit is limited to master the art of removing a biscuit from the tea before it breaks into pieces. To test the results of the tea drinking survey in Mount Gambier, The Border Watch asked a few tea drinkers if they liked to dunk their biscuits.
Michelle Berlin said “of course…I even do it in public.”
“I don’t mind the bits landing in the bottom of my cup either…I swallow it down with the last few sips,” she said.
Her friend Addie Guess agreed.
“The art of dunking is to know how long to keep the biscuit in the tea before you take it out, and besides, it’s only the cheap and nasty ones that break down,” Addie said.
In line with the survey results suggesting that half of the Australian population do not dunk, Ruth Weath said she gave up dunking years ago. “I don’t particularly like the bits in the bottom of my cup…but to be honest, there’s actually another reason,” she said.
“I gave up eating biscuits all together when I started watching my weight.”
Australia's Tea History
Tea arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788. By 1820 tea was the drink of choice, not reserved for the drawing rooms of the privileged but enjoyed by all Australians. In early colonial times, the four imported staples were tea, sugar, wheat and flour-so everyone from servants to officers to convicts were able to sip on their favourite brew.
Early folklore speaks of swagmen roaming the countryside and sharing yarns over cuppas beside remote campfires, and of cherished tea rations during colonial times. Swagmen and soldiers used to carry the leaves in their kit and the sundowner was rarely without his billy as he traipsed well-trodden outback routes.
Throughout Australia's history, tea has continued to be a drink for men and women of all classes and regions. It has inspired much art, poetry and song and features in Australia's un-official national anthem, Banjo Paterson's "Waltzing Matilda" as well as Victorian poet Keighley Goodchild's 1883 ballad "While the Billy Boils".
Tea now evokes a sense of nostalgia, representing for many a time of togetherness and friendship. This was especially true during conflict, with Australian soldiers abroad mailed packets of tea to remind them of home, and as a comforting pick-me-up.
- Australian Fruit Tea Company
- Bushells - Our Cuppa since 1883 Back in 1883, when Alfred 'the Tea Man' Bushell opened his first teashop in Queensland, he knew he was onto something good. His distinctly smooth and full-flavoured tea quickly became an over-the-counter sensation. His rigorous attention to quality and authenticity ensured his success. Through two world wars, floods, droughts, booms and busts, Australia has changed a lot. But it's nice to know some things haven't. For over 125 years, a long line of expert tea tasters have worked hard to maintain "the Tea Man's" highest quality standards, so that we can now, all enjoy the great authentic Bushells cuppa, year after year, generation after generation.
- Chai Tea is a 20 year old, wholly Australian owned company. Located deep in the forest, on a community/land sharing co-operative, we are completely “off the grid”. What this means is that not only is the Chai Tea Co. run exclusively on solar power, but so too are the homes of all the members of our team.
- The Daintree Tea Company is located on the Cubbagudta Plantation, situated in the heart of the Daintree Wilderness area in North Queensland. High rainfall of around 4 metres per annum and a temperature range of 25 to 35 degrees, along with granite alluvial red soils, all combine to make the perfect growing environment for a unique tasting tea, free from tannic acid and pesticides residues. Since the Australian growing conditions are environmentally suited, and free from pest infestation, pesticides are not required. These conditions result in a product which provides the discerning tea drinker with a more natural flavoured and environmentally friendly tea. The Cubbagudta Plantation was established in 1978, by the Nicholas family, who still own and operate the business. Their home overlooks the processing plant, down to the tea hedges used to produce the green leaf which is processed and packaged on the property. The name Cubbagudta means "Rainy place" in the language of the local Kuku Yulangi Aboriginal people.The Cassowary shown on the packaging is a large flightless bird, standing from anything to 1.2 to 1.8 metres high, and can reach speeds up to 48 km/h. Their inner toes bear long, straight, knifelike nails which are deadly defence weapons. The large bony crest on top of their heads is useful for pushing through the dense rainforest, which is their preferred home. The male incubates the eggs, and is a determined protector of his young when threatened. The clutch of eggs usually numbers three to six and are dark green in colour. Originally from Northern Australia and New Guinea, the Cassowary now occurs in New Britain, Ceram and the Aru Islands.
- Eumun Tea Daintree tea is grown in the Daintree wilderness area in Far North Queensland. The remoteness and growing environment combine to create a delightful tasting tea, free from tannic acid and pesticide residues. The resultant tea is a more naturally flavoured, less acidic beverage and is uniquely Australian! Eumun-Tea Australian Blends use Daintree tea as a base for delicious combinations of typical Australian flavours like Billy, Ginger, Wattleseed and Lemonmyrtle.
- Koala Tea The rich soils of a plateau between lush old growth rainforests in Northern New South Wales, Australia, is the land of the koalas after whom we named our company. Endless golden beaches of Byron Bay, prehistoric volcanic landforms, idyllic hinterlands - this is the home of the Koala Tea Company.
- Madura Tea The Madura tea plantation is a little piece of Australian paradise, located in the lush surrounds of the sub-tropical Tweed Valley in northern New South Wales. Our delicate ecosystem has been protected and nurtured since the first tea bushes were planted in lush soil in 1978. Today, the Madura estate is a botanical garden rich with meandering streams and prolific wildlife. It provides a home for endangered native Australian plants and rare animals including platypus, tortoises, water hen, wrens, parrots, echidnas, wallabies and koalas. All Madura tea is tasted, blended and packed at our plantation to ensure complete quality control.
- Pine Tea & Coffee , a family company based in Castle Hill, a growing, prosperous leafy suburb in the North West suburbs of Sydney, Australia, is one of the leading Specialty Tea and Coffee importers and manufacturers in Australia servicing a niche category in the specialty retail, gift, tourism and café sectors. Flexible manufacturing techniques, attention to detail, sourcing best quality products and providing dedicated friendly service from management and staff have ensured the continuing success of the specialty range of products.
- Goanna Dreaming was started by two average Aussies and one unusual American who like good coffee! We had access to excellent coffee and located some great tea. We decided to combine our loves, coffee and dreams, to make high quality tea and coffee available to people at a reasonable price and use the profits to fund our bigger dreams. To date we have been able to sponsor a child and community in South America. We are in the process of buying and fitting out a small bus that can be used as a mobile office for the business, but also to assist people living on the streets to access some of the things they need. Long term we have dreams of all people throughout the world having easy access to safe, clean drinking water, and closer to home, having a property where people who need some space and support to make their own dreams reality can find what they need. We have several dreams in between, including to keep providing excellent products to Australia and further afield, with our "Tastes of Australia" gifts for the tourism market. We believe in dreaming big, then creating a means to get there and living in the reality of that dream. Knowing us, from there we will probably go on to dream bigger dreams and find creative ways to live them too. Come on, live the dream with us, even if it is just the dream of waking every morning to the perfect cuppa.
- Nerada Tea
- Alpine Tea Company is a local business, growing Japanese Style Green Tea on the family farm in the upper reaches of the picturesque Kiewa Valley at Tawonga. Alpine Tea Co grows and produces a wholly Australian Green Tea. There is no imported product in our tea and it is processed exclusively in Australia. We have been with the tea every step of its process to you. Our tea has been developed with the Australian Palate in mind; therefore it has a light and refreshing taste to the palate. This means it looks different, (you can actually see the leaves), and more importantly it Tastes Great. The tea could be considered a Sencha (the most widely consumed tea in Japan.), however to ensure no direct comparison to Japanese Sencha (ours is not as strong), we prefer to call it Australian Green Tea.
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