Ms. Cattea Tea Bar at Potts Point has 100 varieties to try
The Potts Point shop can be overwhelming with its tea choices, but Lee Tran Lam has a cheat code for first-timers.
Coconut truffle white tea or jasmine pearl? Aged mandarin puer or Rocky Valley oolong? Chinese cinnamon or Aussie sunshine? There are more than 100 ways to enjoy a brew at Ms. Cattea Tea Bar in Potts Point.
You could try a fancy loose leaf (Assam Reserve, say) or something evocative-sounding (Iron Monk, Golden Water Turtle). Some names are so imagination-sparking, they could instantly cure writer’s block (Monkey King’s Pick, Phantom of the Mountainside). Add caffeinated cocktails and a bonus hidden menu, and you’ll either revel in the galaxy of choices or short-circuit from indecision.
Here’s a cheat code: start with the Nine Mountains green tea. The pot will arrive continually warmed by a candle burner – a smart winter-defeating move and a sign of Ms. Cattea Tea Bar’s thoughtful approach to optimising brews. Each sip is mellow, soothing and tells you about Cathy Zhang, the bar’s owner. This green tea is from her home town in Guangdong, China. She recalls harvesting leaves there as a teenager, and remembers rocky car trips to the steep, disorienting mountains (“I was so sick,” she says).
Her earliest memories are also fuelled by this tea, sipped from her grandfather’s cup and fortified by multiple infusions. Zhang’s lifelong connection to these leaves also makes them special. “We’ve known the tea farmers for many years,” she says.
Zhang is tea-science graduate and international tea judge. After two decades of professional pouring and steeping, she opened this bar and shop in 2019. Good Food’s Essential Cafe and Bakeries Guide recently named it one of the best places to enjoy a well-brewed pot.
But that’s not the only attraction. Book ahead for Zhang’s wonton dinners prepared with “Aunty” Manying Li. Dumplings are available stuffed with vegetables, prawns or chicken and flavoured as you like (with nutty sesame sauce, chilli vinegar splashes, or an organic chicken and ginger broth). There’s also tiger salad (a Northern Chinese dish named after the lively strips of raw onion scattered throughout), and noodles tossed with fried peanuts, shallots and a funky fermented bean sauce that evokes Zhang’s birthplace.
Loose leaf isn’t confined to teapots, either. Pork belly is slow-cooked with a tannic charge of lapsang souchong – a recipe from Zhang’s great-grandmother. The fatty meat is also stewed with earthy spices (ginger, star anise, cinnamon), and cold-weather staples (shiitake mushrooms, starchy chestnuts) and becomes rich, soul-warming food. The menu’s tea rice is also hearty and medicinal. White and purple grains are cooked with carrots, sweet potatoes and a different brew each week.
“Sometimes it’s a jasmine green tea, sometimes it’s a black tea, sometimes it’s an oolong,” says Zhang. Wild black honey tea adds depth and a subtle sweetness to my bowl, but by the time you read this, your rice could be tinged green with Japanese sencha.
There’s some boozy fun, too, such as the Jasmine Romance (iced tea infused with vodka and Japanese plum wine) and alcohol-free options (the rose oolong tastes like pink lemonade for adults). Ask for the gyokuro experience, where premium Japanese green tea from Yame is flexed multiple ways, first as a chilled, umami-rich drink. As the leaves are infused with increasingly warmer infusions, the brew becomes stronger and more broth-like.
Finally, the gyokuro is served like a spinach salad, dressed with drizzles of sesame oil and soy sauce. It might redefine how you think tea can be served – and leave you with 99 or so more options to try. Heading to Ms. Cattea Tea Bar is like stepping into a library filled with more books than you can read in your lifetime – happily overwhelming, but still worth visiting.
Three more tea experiences to try
IndoChainese
This Indo-Chinese eatery specialises in tandoor-roasted chai and the resulting cup is ultra-frothy and full of spiced-chocolate intensity. It’s a great anti-freezing agent and one of Sydney’s best chais.
46 Marion Street, Harris Park, indochaineseonline.com.a
Moment Tea
Scan this tea shop’s shelves and you’ll notice intriguing brews such as Blueberry Whispers, Ruby Garden and Strawberry Delight. The cafe menu is also steeped in diverse flavours including iced Turkish apple tea, a non-alcoholic honey blossom “tea beer” and Earl Grey biscuits.
1 Markham Place, Ashfield, moment-tea.com
Midden by Mark Olive
The native high tea at Midden by Mark Olive requires booking ahead, but if you’re just dropping by the Opera House, you can still savour Indigiearth’s brews. The Corroboree Infusion is fortified with Daintree black tea and the Gurạdji-powered green tea is especially soothing.
Western Broadwalk, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, middensydney.com.au
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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