City becomes a tea junction

A boutique tea business has made Wanganui its home.

Newly renamed Garden Tea, the business moved into a first floor office in Victoria Ave in mid July, says operations manager Steve Nathan. It also has a storage building in Gonville and a Sri Lankan office with two staff.

It started about three years ago, with a retail store in Feilding, because the Kiwi owner found it hard to get a good cuppa in New Zealand.

"Good tea can be drunk without milk or sugar, because it is never bitter. You don't have to hide the flavours," Mr Nathan says.

The owner has moved Garden Tea to Wanganui because the River City is "central and cheap" and his parents live there.

Garden Tea imports tea from Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and China and sells it either directly or over the internet to New Zealand cafes, delicatessens and grocery stores.

Its top sellers are Darjeeling and Ceylon tea but it also does Nilgiri, English and Irish breakfast, Assam and Chinese teas - 25 types in all. They include organic teas, and white tea made from the youngest leaves of the tea plant and costing nearly $50 for 100g.

One handcrafted tea, Gopaldhara Peony Rosettes, comes in tight little shapes and blooms into a flower when immersed in hot water.

Except for the Chinese ones, which are sourced through Malaysia, all the teas are bought direct from particular gardens rather than through brokers.

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Mr Nathan says only the tenderest leaves and buds are hand plucked - machine plucking takes more - and they are processed and packed in the factories of the tea estates.

Processing is done using the older and slower orthodox method, rather than the new crush, tear and curl method. The teas are not blended.

He says tea is like wine, and leaves from particular places have particular and prized characteristics. "We can pinpoint exactly which garden it comes from."

Tea is a drink for connoisseurs just as much as coffee, he says.

Mr Nathan comes from Malaysia and earlier this year did an internship at a Malaysian tea estate to get to know his product. The company's website is www.gardentea.co.nz.