World PAR-TEA (Online Shop, Australia)

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Shop 22, 35 Merrigal Rd
Port Macquarie, New South Wales 2444
Phone    (02) 6581 4833
Hours:
    Mon - Sat: 10:00 - 04:30

World Par-Tea is an Australian owned and operated business settled in Port Macquairy Qld, that started as a humble tea market stand in NSW in 2004 and has been selling online, retail and wholesale, since 2007. Many shops in Australia distribute their products, but the only two shops doing so in WA are in Geraldton and Mandurah, so I ordered a few things from their online shop. 

WPT has an amazing variety of teas and tisanes: Black, Green, Oolong, Yellow, Blossom, White, and Rooibos teas; Organic Herbal and Aryuvedic Tisanes; Natural Fruit Infusions, Australian and Fair Trade Teas, both plain and blends. They have more than 180 tea varieties! They also have a huge range of beautiful tea ware (canisters, cups, pots, tea sets, infusion tools, and what's not) for sale.

Their website is very pleasing to the eye, simply organised, easy to browse and shop from, and has a great section devoted to brewing tips. You can check out as a registered customer or as a guest, and select standard or express shipping, the later a bit more expensive but traceable. They accept major credit cards and PayPal as payment. Shipping costs are weight-based, but up to a maximum of 15 bucks; this is great, especially if buying tea crockery, which tends to be heavy, and you might end paying a lot if the  shipping costs weren't capped. 

After placing your order, you will receive a receipt email and a confirmation order. They shipped immediately, and my parcel took a natural week, exactly, to get from QLD to Perth. Everything was safely packed and in perfect order.

WPT is, in a way, very similar to T2 regarding what they offer for sale, but its approach to business is completely different. WPT is more family-business style, more Zen and organically driven, less corporate and also less trendy regarding branding and image. To me, they are way better than T2 in several fronts:
- Organic herbal tisanes and Aryuvedic blends. They have a great variety of plain or blend herbal tisanes, some of them difficult to find elsewhere. I especially recommend the Australian Lemon Myrtle tea, which is fantastic in scent, flavour and on your stomach. However, their list of herbal teas is huge and you will certainly find those herbs that you like. 
- Variety of prices. 

• They have different packaging sizes, from the 10 grs sampler (not all varieties, though) to the 250 grs (not all). If you are a fan of any of their products, you can save by ordering a big package. If you want to try something new, just pay for a sample. 
• The sell their teas in bags or tins, the latter being more expensive for the same quantity of product. I buy the packets, which are made of foil and plastic, resealable, and they are great. 
• Their tea ware is way less expensive than T2's, and in many cases way better in quality and prettier, at least for the average items.   
• They have a small selection of tea and high-tea related books.

On the contrary, they have less variety of Oolong teas than T2 has, and a wider range of brewing tools.

Customer service is diligent, and they reply to any query you might have.

The main downsides of the online shop are:
1/ The FAQ area is useless, as it all about tea - the product. They could put that info elsewhere, and introduce here practical information for online shoppers, like:

• Ways of shipping.
• Price of shipping
• International shipping?
• Average delivery period.
• Return policies.

2/ They do not send an email informing of shipping if you check out using standard or express check-out. Even if there is no tracking link to give, customers always want to know when exactly the order was shipped. The Order Status in Your Account area is worthless as shows as "processing" those orders that you have already received.
3/ Some of the photos do not zoom in, that is, you get the same small image you have pre-zooming. 
4/ The wish list is great, but it doesn't show the price of the item, so you have to click on the item and go to its specific page. The web designers could correct this easily. 

***

WPT is a terrific shop for tea lovers, organic herbs nerds, and explorers of the world of infusions, no matter you are just are buying for your own use and household, or a business owner looking for a specific unique blend for your business. They have a huge variety of tea-related products, good prices, a diligent customer service, and fast and safe shipping procedures. A great online shop with great products I am in love with! Still, they need to fix some of the flaws of their online tracking system. 

UPDATE
They do not sell pottery teaware, just those made of iron. What a pity. 

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Utopia Bubble Tea (Perth WA)

71 Barrack St
Perth Western Australia 6000
0430 886 066
Official Website
Facebook Official Australia
Facebook Shop Perth


The place is very functional, clean, cool, and open, perfect for both takeaways and hanging around with mates. It is always full of young Asian people from overseas, especially Koreans, Japanese and Taiwanese, which make me want to enter any place because they are  very cool.

Utopia has  a huge range of bubble tea (milked or not), crushed ice concoctions, smoothies and even Lavazza coffee. The taro milk tea is great, made using fresh taro (not taro paste) -or so I was told- and the taste of the tea is there, present, not hidden by anything. Sweet but just a bit, enough to make the flavours come and wander around your palate. Other flavoured teas I have tried, quite a few, are consistently good. My favourites so far being the mango green milk tea and the coconut milk tea. The only one I find too sweet is the newly added Oolong Cheese Latte.

Some of the sago balls they use are humongous, and very chewy-gummy. I love them, but they can overwhelm some people. If that is your case, go for the jelly or other extras, which are equally yummy but smaller. Their selections of toppings varied in shapes, textures and sizes, so, suit yourself. They have some little tubes with some samples on the counter, so you can see for yourself what they area, and how they look like.

Their sweet cabinets and shelves are really eye-catching even if you are not into sweets, with a beautiful selection of cakes, cake slices, pastries, cookies, and sweet and savoury buns. The pieces I have tried so far (hazelnut chocolate -my fav-, Tiramisu cup, egg tart and Pineapple cake)  are good, although they have different degrees of sweetness. A bit expensive for the sizing, but very fresh, good-looking and well-packaged. On the other hand, they seem to be mass produced; forgive me if I am wrong.

Their big cakes are stunning-looking, but again their prices are quite high. There are at least two Asian-style bakeries in Perth CBD hat bake daily and offer good quality beautiful whole cakes at cheaper prices. Ditto re the buns. They are not part of any chain. So I would go to those to cater for your big cake needs. Still the ones here are so eye-candy!

Service is fast and friendly - consistently. Day after day. Always with a smile. I love their wall of wishes, which is in tune with the Buddhist tradition you see in temples around South East Asia. They also have charity programs and donations, specials, free top-ups or size upgrades throughout the year, and new seasonal products are regularly added to the menu. They are really good at marketing what they sell, and do well at attracting and keeping their customers. That is what I call a dynamic approach to sale. That explains why the place is always busy and customers are happy.

Awkwardly enough, I do not have much negative to say, beyond what I have said about the cakes, which is not negative at all. I am getting too soft? :O.

Summer is coming, so pop up at Utopia and bubble around a bit.

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T2 Tea (Perth WA)

Shop 4/ 726 Hay St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9226 2429
http://t2tea.com/
Hours:
    Mon-Thu 9:00 - 18:00
    Fri 9:00 - 21:00
    Sat 9:00 - 17:00
    Sun 11:00 - 17:00
 In the Kingdom of Coffee, T2 is a serious contender to the throne. T2 Tea sells anything and everything related to tea in the East and the West. T2 is an Australian brand that succeeds at what it does because there is passion behind the project. Not only that, they have gorgeous shops with clever marketing policies implemented in how things are presented and offered to you. The most important thing is that they sell more than 100 varieties of tea, mostly loose, but also in convenient tea bags. They have certified organic tea, and a great variety of white, green, yellow, Oolong and black teas, plus tisanes, fruit, herbal and floral blend teas, rooibos and honeybush teas, and even vintage tea. Not enough, they have bottled  unsweetened iced tea. Wow! 

I have tried many T2 teas and tisanas, and some of them smell good but taste OK, or at least do not taste as the name of the tea or the smell of the team made you think. Those that deliver, to me, are among the tea bag teas: Gorgeous Geisha (green tea) and the Red Fancy Fruit (rooibos based). Among the flavoursome tisanes I would recommended the Spi Chai  (spicy but delicate), Apple Chunky (mostly dried apple), an the Toasty Nugat (chunky apple, syrup, vanilla and almonds), which are great both cold and hot; the same can be said of Vanilla Slice and Strawberry & Cream (red fruit based). Among the green teas, Sencha Peach and Sencha Sensations are both fabulous in taste and aroma. I find most of the black teas at T2 a bit disappointing or not worth the money, really. Still the Monk Pear has a distinctive aroma and flavour, and it is quite nice for a medium-strength breakfast tea; it might not be your cup of tea. The Oolong teas are quite nice, but nothing wow -at least to me- to pay their high price.  

They sell gorgeous tea sets, cups, saucers, mugs, and jugs from the very simple to the romantic and ethnic, to the vintage; the latter are expensive, but cheaper than in other places. All of this, plus a huge selection of tea storing, brewing, and serving tools.

THE STORE - The Hay St store is quite large but very sleek and cheerful, most of furniture and celled walls in black with a few coloured areas. A perfect place to showcase the beautiful colourful crockery they have. They are very clever at mixing the very well organised and illuminated cells in the wall, with the more street-market-like piles of stuff in the stand-alone tables and shelves, which appeals to different sort of customers. The piles always make you enter and wander around, as it gives the shop a casual shop air, while the rest is what the shop is meant to be - a posh tea shop. Every time I enter here, I tell myself that whomever is designing the shops, is doing an awesome job at marketing what is for sale. 

I love the fact that they have three or four pots of brewed tea prepared for customers to taste. A great gesture, and a very clever marketing policy.  

THE NITTY-GRITTY - * The place is pricey for everything, but especially for tea infusers, canisters and for simple organic tisanes (chamomile, peppermint and even simple rooibos), which can be found at your local IGA, Woolies Coles or Chinese store for a fraction of the price. You can find beautiful simple tea sets at bargain prices at Asian Shops, so come to T2 just for the posh ones.
* Many of their teas are weak, so if you are into strong tea, many of them will be too "girly" for you. 
* Many of their teas smell divine, like an otherworldly experience, but then they taste bland. Still, they are a good way of eating with your senses, just using your olfactory senses. Try the  strawberry cream tea, and then you will understand what I am talking about.  
* Service is uneven. Sometimes I am greeted with a big smile on arrival and offered a cup of their brewed teas, while others I am treated matter of fact with a nosey attitude, and others I am left to browse around without being disturbed. The staff can get uptight if you make certain sort of questions. Like, does T2 have sales? Like, Do you recycle the tasting paper cups? There is no need to look at me as I was landing from Pluto, I am just asking. 
 * Although this affects the whole brand, I find shocking that they do no use recyclable tasting cups, as the ones they have cannot be recycled after use. Are we in the 21st century yet?
* They rarely have sales. So uncool. If something is too expense and/or I can find it cheaper elsewhere I will go elsewhere, unless you are selling ambrosia. 

***

If you are not a tea drinker, I invite you to visit T2 shop in Hay St, taste some of their varieties of tea, and then tell me that you cannot find anything that suits your taste. If you already like tea, this is heaven!  

TIP
 The golden leafed decorated cups and saucers are not microwaveable.

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