Adelaide Visit

I went to Adelaide a few weeks ago with my wife and sons to visit my brother and his wife. While over there I hunted around for some tea shops. I purchased tea from three different vendors.

The first teas I bought were a Dragonwell Green Tea aka Long Jing aka Lung Ching, and a Pu-erh tea.

The second venue was a tea-shop called "Kappy's & Wright Plantation Teas". Visiting this shop was an enjoyable experience. It had a relaxed feel, with friendly staff. The tables tops were made from Indian tea crates and along one wall was an extensive range of teas, covering a large number of varieties. From this shop I purchased two teas, a Margaret's Hope Autumnal Darjeeling and a Monkey Green Tea. The latter is a bud-rich, delicate green with a natural sweetness, making it a very pleasant drink.

The final tea purchase was made only minutes before leaving for the airport back home. It was from a lovely Chinese teahouse and homwares shop called Saldechin. Among the teas available for drinking or purchasing was a Baihou Yinzhen (Silver Needle) tea. Not seeing any on the shelf but having read that they stocked it, I enquired and was informed that some had just arrived but hadn't been packaged yet. Therefore I was able to purchase it in as fresh condition as possible. And upon making my first pot later that day (back in Hobart), I could tell why it was costlier than Pai Mu Tan. Silver Needle tea gets its name from the fact that it is made up completely of closed buds which have a silvery, downy and slightly pointy appearance. A wonderful drink, especially for evenings. The shop also sold cakes of aged pu-erh tea for around $75 each. I must return there some time for this purchase.

So, all in all, I was very happy with my tea-exploration of Adelaide. The Silver Needle (Baihou Yinzhen) and Monkey Green teas are both unavailable in Tasmania (as far as I'm aware) and so they have made fine additions to my tea collection.