I had a bad cup of tea on a plane yesterday; the same venue offered that abomination against nature known as “creamer” to Lady Devotea as they offered no milk, and later at an airport, an offshoot one of the […]

There’s a thing in Australia called the Cultural Cringe, and if you’ve not heard about it, it’s kind of a national chip on our shoulder; an inbuilt inferiority complex when compared to selected foreign […]

ACT 1: IN WHICH ONE RESPONDS TO SOGGY DESPERATION

In one long dark teatime of the soul*, I stared into the abyss, pondered the hell hole that was my surroundings, and wondered at the inhumanity of it […]

In the last month or so, Lady Devotea and I have once again introduced a device to our household that has been absent for a couple of decades: a record player.

That’s right, we are listening to vinyl again. […]

Whether one is designing and building a new mansion, retiring to a caravan**, renovating, downsizing, evicting your adult children or moving into a yurt, a pivotal question is: “how much of my space needs to be r […]

I’ve pinched the title of today’s blog from a favourite David Bowie track. But only the title – the festival we attended yesterday wasn’t free. Not in money terms, although it was free from many of the things in […]

Well, folks, the week has been a bit chaotic. I’ve (a) not been well, and (b) swamped with each and every kind of work I do and (c) Lady Devotea has been flat out as well.
The Friday night climax of that busy […]

Today, I break my self imposed rule against not reviewing teas that are available in markets where they compete with our own, using Douglas Adam’s escape clause in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, where writers for […]

A weekend in Sydney is often fun, particularly if you mix business with pleasure. And in the tea business, business IS pleasure.

We flew to Sydney last week to catch up with our friend Julia.

At World Tea […]

I read a lot, when I can. And I often read fiction. And I often read non-fiction. And often, that’s history.

When it comes to history, generally, I like Stone Age through to about 1799.

Why 1799? Well I was […]

I am bewildered.

In the next little while, we will be travelling 1384 kilometres to Sydney, and while we are there, amongst other things, we will have some tea.

We will be having that tea with a dear friend […]

Dear Fresh Cup

I’m sorry to read your news.

Now, I don’t know you. I understand that you are a long standing magazine about tea and coffee. Or rather, based on the ten most recent articles when I perused […]