Nathan has recently organised a number of “Teagustations” with Chef Ben Cooper of St Ali that have proven to be highly popular and successful. The events feature a documentary style video made by Nathan showcasing his recent tea expedition to Sri Lanka and treat attendees to food that creatively showed the versatility of tea as an ingredient in cooking. Reflecting on his recent event held at St Ali, Nathan said “Most of the dishes created by Ben Cooper had tea as an ingredient, whether it has been used for smoking, as a rub or as a base for a stock or syrup. I had one attendee state that the pears poached in golden tips tea with muscat syrup and goats cheese ice cream was the best dessert he had ever tasted”.
Nathan hopes to run Teagustations with a number of acclaimed chefs to showcase teas from each growing region and the unique appeal that each chef can bring with their own signature creation. Later this month Nathan will be running a Teagustation with Adriano Zumbo and Manu Feildel of master chef at L’ Eoile in Sydney. “I’m really excited about what they will create, Adriano is a master in his field and I’m looking forward to how he couples his genius in making pasties with our world class tea”.
Nathan believes the new Chamellia Reserve Selection represents the advent of a new age in Specialty Tea in Australia. Sourced from Award winning estates during their peak flavour seasons and prepared by acclaimed tea masters, the Chamellia Reserve Selection consists of some of the best teas that the world has to offer. The uniqueness of the Reserve Selection is that all batches are sourced direct from tea estates and cupped before being purchased; in this way only the highest quality tea is sourced and consideration is given to the organic nature of tea, a crop whose characteristics is influenced greatly by weather, processing and handling.
The current reserve selection offering includes award winning teas from Sri Lanka, Japan and China. Nathan plans to visit all tea producing nations and continue source and bring to Australia the best he can find. Examples of the calibre of teas currently featured in the reserve selection include:
The Premium Gyokuro, an award winning green tea (First place Japan Tea Fair 2008 - Gyokuro category) sourced from Yame in Southern Japan. This amazing tea is kept under shade for the last 20 days before plucking to increase the levels of umami (touted as the 5th Flavour Sense).
Lumbini Estate FBOPF ex sp, a ceylon tea from the Ruhuna growing region of Sri Lanka, a very tippy tea that won first place in Ceylon category The Speciality Tea Institute of The United States of America.
Huangshan Mao Feng, a special Grade green tea from She County in China that was awarded Gold Prize in the 2007 World Green Tea Contest held in Japan.