The Tea Ritual

November — four blends, one for each week

Tea tasting at Impala & Peacock

Welcome to the Tea Ritual. This month, four jars arrive — one for every week — and each weekday morning an episode of Before It Begins is waiting to brew alongside them. Five minutes before the day asks anything of you: the kettle, the leaf, the first warm cup, and a podcast about tea. This page is your companion — how to brew each blend, and the story behind it. Keep it bookmarked. It changes with every box: the month in your cupboard at the top, the month before just below. Put the kettle on. We are glad you are here.

Warmest, Sarah x

Week oneFrom Monday 2 NovemberWattleseed Chai
Week twoFrom Monday 9 NovemberChamomile
Week threeFrom Monday 16 NovemberWhite Tea Antioxidant
Week fourFrom Monday 23 NovemberAlba Hot Springs

A new week of Before It Begins opens each Monday with that week's jar. Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and the first episode will be waiting on Monday morning.

No. 1

Wattleseed Chai

Caffeine Free

  • Leaf1 heaped tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep5 min

In the blendWattleseed, roasted chicory root, ginger, cloves, pink and black peppercorns, native pepperberry, cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, agave. All organic. No caffeine.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure one heaped teaspoon per cup, or three per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for five minutes.
  4. Strain. Add milk if you take it — the blend is made to hold up to it.

There is no black tea in this chai. Wattleseed, a native Australian bush food, takes its place, with roasted chicory root beside it, so the cup is toasted and nutty — closer to hazelnut or coffee than to leaf — and carries no caffeine at all. Eight spices do the rest. Brew it strong, and drink it black or with milk.

No. 2

Chamomile

Caffeine Free

  • Leaf2 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep5 min

In the blendWhole chamomile flowers. Nothing else. Organic.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure two teaspoons of flowers per cup, or four per pot. They are light, so be generous.
  3. Pour, cover, and steep for five minutes.
  4. Strain, pressing the flowers gently to release the last of the cup.

Only the flower heads, dried whole. Most people know the taste of chamomile before they have thought about it — hay, apple skin, a little honey. Whole flowers give a rounder, sweeter cup than the dust in a tea bag, and they open again as they steep. No caffeine, so it belongs to the end of the day.

No. 3

White Tea Antioxidant

Contains Caffeine

  • Leaf1 heaped tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature80°C
  • Steep3 min

In the blendWhite tea buds, Australian rose petals, spearmint. All organic.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a boil, then let it stand five minutes.
  2. Measure one heaped teaspoon per cup, or three per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for three minutes.
  4. Strain. The buds give a second and a third infusion — add a minute each time.

White tea is the least handled tea there is. The buds are picked by hand in a window of about two weeks in early spring, before the leaves open, and are simply dried. It takes around ten thousand of them to make a kilogram. Rose petals and spearmint sit lightly over the top. Keep the water off the boil — the buds are delicate, and boiling water turns them bitter.

No. 4

Alba Hot Springs

Caffeine Free

  • Leaf1 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep4 min +

In the blendLemongrass, pink peppercorns, hibiscus, raspberries.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure one teaspoon per cup, or two heaped teaspoons per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for at least four minutes. Longer gives a deeper, tarter cup.
  4. Strain. The same leaf will give two more infusions.

At Fingal, on the Mornington Peninsula, water rises from an aquifer some 550 metres below the ground, warmed by the earth itself to between 37 and 43 degrees. Alba Thermal Springs fills its pools with it every day. This blend is made for Alba, and for the hour after the water: lemongrass for brightness, hibiscus and raspberry for colour and a tart edge, pink peppercorn for a little warmth at the finish. It pours a deep ruby, and keeps its heat.

The month before

October

Four blends, and a week of mornings for each

A jar from October still in the cupboard, or a morning you missed. Each blend is here with its brewing notes and its full week of Before It Begins, so the month can be finished at your own pace.

No. 05

Lapsang Souchong

Contains Caffeine

  • Leaf1 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep3 min

In the blendCamellia sinensis. Nothing else.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure one teaspoon of leaf per cup, or two heaped teaspoons per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for three minutes.
  4. Strain. The same leaf will give a second infusion.

Smoke began as a way to save the leaf, and stayed as the reason people reach for it. The leaf is dried over pinewood fire and nothing is added to it — what you taste is resin and woodsmoke carried in the tea itself. Underneath, the black tea is softer than the smoke leads you to expect.

Listen to the weekFive episodes · Mon 5 – Fri 9 October
  1. Monday · The Fire Nobody Chose
  2. Tuesday · Easy to Spoil
  3. Wednesday · Leaves Four and Five
  4. Thursday · What the Rest of the World Asked For
  5. Friday · A Mountain That Became a Word

No. 06

Relaxation Tea

Caffeine Free

  • Leaf1 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep4 min

In the blendRooibos, rose petals, rose buds, lavender, calendula petals. All organic.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure one teaspoon of leaf per cup, or two heaped teaspoons per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for four minutes.
  4. Strain. A second infusion works — give it a minute longer.

Petals and buds steeping side by side. Rooibos gives the cup its body and its deep red colour; almost everything else in the blend is flower — rose petals, whole rose buds, lavender, calendula. No caffeine in any of it, so the hour is yours to choose. The buds open slowly, and the cup keeps changing while you drink it.

Listen to the weekFive episodes · Mon 12 – Fri 16 October
  1. Monday · Everything the Flower Will Ever Be
  2. Tuesday · The Red Is the Bruise
  3. Wednesday · Whoever Gets There First
  4. Thursday · The Armour Everyone Loves
  5. Friday · Poor Man's Saffron

No. 07

Genmaicha Green

Contains Caffeine

  • Leaf1 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature75°C
  • Steep2 min

In the blendCamellia sinensis, brown rice. All organic.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a boil, then let it stand seven to twelve minutes.
  2. Measure one teaspoon of leaf per cup, or two heaped teaspoons per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for two minutes.
  4. Strain. A second infusion works — add thirty seconds to a minute.

The legend has a servant called Genmai losing his head over a few grains of rice fallen into his master’s cup. The likelier story is that farmers added toasted rice to make expensive leaf go further, and found the result was better than thrift required. Grassy from the leaf, nutty and warm from the rice. This one is grown in a boutique garden in Victoria’s alpine region.

Listen to the weekFive episodes · Mon 19 – Fri 23 October
  1. Monday · The People's Tea
  2. Tuesday · Water Can't Make This Flavour
  3. Wednesday · Black Tea Isn't Green Tea Gone Wrong
  4. Thursday · A Forest Asked to Sit Down
  5. Friday · The Leaves Aren't Finished

No. 08 · The Reserve

All For One

Caffeine Free

  • Leaf1 tsp
  • Water200 ml
  • Temperature100°C
  • Steep4 min

In the blendPeppermint, coconut, lemongrass, chamomile, calendula flowers, rose, licorice root.

Method
  1. Bring the water to a full boil.
  2. Measure one teaspoon per cup, or two heaped teaspoons per pot.
  3. Pour, and steep for four minutes.
  4. Strain. This one is made for a single steep.

October’s Reserve, made for All For One, the studios in Yarraville, Hampton East and Kensington. Seven plants, nearly every part a plant can offer, and not one of them a tea bush. Peppermint reaches you first, then hay, honey and apple from the chamomile. Lemongrass lifts the cup, and licorice root and coconut leave a slow, creamy sweetness at the finish. Look closely at the chamomile: what seems a single bloom is a crowd of tiny flowers.

Listen to the weekThis week · Mon 26 – Fri 30 October
  1. Monday · The Crowd Behind the Single Bloom
  2. Tuesday · An Apple Growing on the Ground
  3. Wednesday to Friday arrive one each morning this week, and are added here as they air. Every episode is also on Spotify.
Download October's cards

Next month

December's box leaves the studio on Wednesday 2 December, and its first jar opens on Monday 7 December. This page will change with it.