Mount Maunganui's infamously famous Little Big Markets are all set to begin their first winter season and we've been invited back to brew up our teas — wooohooo, cant wait! The First market is on the 2nd of June, come down and enjoy a nice toasty cup of our new organic chai tea.
Filed Under: little big markets · markets · mount maunganui · winter
This weekend the Informal trio will be re-united. Sam has been off in China and South East Asia on a "business trip" for the last couple of months while Chris and Tim have been holding the fort back home. We'll put together a bit of a mini blog series on his exotic adventures and possibly give you all a sneak peak at some of our exciting tea plans that are bubbling away over in Asia. But for the time being, here's some new New Zealand News.
You'll probably know by now that we're pretty tight with the Little Big Markets. Rachelle and Chris Duffy (who've also just been on some overseas adventures of their own) really do such a great job organising the markets, and the LBMs really have become a force to reckoned with. So it was a bit of a shame to see the end of the summer season a couple of weeks back at Easter. But never fear. The Little Big Market's website is pretty flipping close to launching in both NZ and Australia which is going to be mint. And there are also plans for an indoor winter season in the very near future, fingers cross we'll be invited back to serve up the teas... which leads onto our next piece of news.
We're on the verge of releasing our organic Chai Tea — just in time for winter. There's nothing better than a steaming hot cup of Chai tea on a cold winter's day. Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks!
And speaking of Easter earlier. Tauranga's best new cafe, George Cafe opened up during the break and not only are they stocking the best tea around, they've also got some tasty tasty bites.
Vietnamese Tofu Baguette — Yum!
Halved Brussel Sprouts with roasted Walnuts and Parmesan
Unbeatable poached eggs and bacon on toast
And anyone who knows Claire (who owns George) would expect a supreme range of treats on offer — like these wee meringue's. So go get down there, bring some friends, drink some tea, eat some food and be merry.
George Cafe is at the Omanu beach shops. a.k.a. 91 Ocean Beach Road, Mt Maunganui.
And cheers to Rachel from Love Hate for the George Cafe photos.
Filed Under: cafes · chai · little big markets · new product · news
Yesterday was another stunning day, so Tim hit the road with his sights set for the not so distant lands of Opotiki to catch up with our new suppliers.
Watch this space.
Epic sun, pearla waves, tasty produce. Good times
Seriously good looking Rosemary.
An Opotiki sunset to end another cracker day in the Bay of Plenty.
Filed Under: opotiki · producer · road trip · supplier · sustainability
It's been a busy week at Informal Tea. Not only is it walnut season, but we're just about to burst into 3 cafes and Earth Hour is coming up this weekend which is gonna be chooooice.
Lets start with the most important matters first. Walnut season. It's great! It's a bit like a prequel to Easter except instead of hunting down chocolate eggs, you spend your time hunting the grass for nuts.
Despite last week's wind there's still a few hanging about.
We've got tons of the things now. And although nuts can't be blended with tea, we still think they're worth having. Simply because there aren't many more satisfying things in the world than picking up these expensive little suckers off the ground!
Speaking of tea, we've been doing a bit of experimentation as of late. We got our hands on some of these Chilean Guavas (aka New Zealand Cranberries) this week. They look awesome and taste great too. They have that distinctive Guava taste but with more of a sweet rather than sour tone which we think could go well in our Berries Etc.
Fresh Chilean Guavas above, and dehydrated Guavas ready for tea tasting bellow.
We're also working on getting some local organic lemon into our Lemon-ish to give it that extra oomph. Most lemon green teas rely on 'lemon flavoring' which is just a bunch of chemicals that taste like lemon. What a cop-out. We've been working on these delicious baked lemon bits:
The flavour gets infused throughout skin + rind and taste so good by itself it's almost a crime to put it in tea. But we're ruthless tea moguls and we don't care, we'll use em anyway! Haha
Yeah, so anyway, the new Lemon season is just around the corner which mean we'll be looking to kick the baked lemon bits into production over winter. We'll keep you updated.
We'll also keep you posted on the cafe scene this week. And don't forget about Earth Hour this weekend. If you're in Tauranga, we'd love to see you. If you're not, you should join the cause anyway because earth loves you.
Filed Under: berries etc · Earth Hour · environment · taste test · walnuts
It's been a long time coming, but after many cups of tea, we're proud to announce the release of the official Informal Tea brewing guide.
If you prefer the real world outside, check out our contacts page to find out where our retailers, cafes and markets are.
Our tea is perfect for your cafe, resturant or store, we offer the tastiest selection of organic teas blended to the highest quality.
Never fear, we've sussed out a super simple brewing guide to help you get the most out of your delicious tea.
