Tea Journal is dedicated to Chinese teas.
2017
It’s much like The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar with a heavier focus on unflavoured loose leaf tea and tea wares than tea-flavoured dishes. It is very much one of a kind in Sydney, offering free tea appreciation classes. Teas enjoyed at Tea Journal have their individual posts.
Jars of loose leaf and flowers line its walls, as well as an impressive selection of pu’er cakes.
Tea wares for preparing different types of tea are also on display and for sale.
While the focus is on tea and teaware, they do offer a small selection of tea-flavoured cakes.
This is the Hōjicha Chiffon ($5.00/slice). I’d had my sights set on this after my disappointing experience with the one at Cre Asion in Surry Hills. This one has a deliciously fragrant hōjicha flavour both in its smell and in the taste of the chiffon and the cream. There is no mistaking that this is hōjicha flavoured, while the chiffon and the cream were light and fluffy. It’s an absolute delight.
And this is the Black Tea and Rose Chiffon ($5.00/slice). The chiffon is light and fluffy and very pleasantly infused with the flavour of black tea and rose with the rose petals adding that extra rose note in addition to looking pretty. I’m not usually a fan of cream on my cakes, but here it adds an enjoyable moisture and sweetness to the cake.
Tea Journal is a haven for anyone who’s a fan of Chinese teas with their more buttery, smokey and toasty flavours. My tastes tend more towards the fresher vegetal notes of Japanese green tea, so I’m here for their floral teas and tea-flavoured cakes.
For those unfamiliar with Chatswood, Tea Journal may be a challenge to find being on the quieter side of Chatswood Interchange. After exiting the train station, head right towards McDonald’s, then turn right at the post office and Tea Journal will be opposite.
2021
Cake was always going to be a certainty to celebrate N’s and T’s wedding. It was only ever a question of first, how many cakes, and two, which cakes. Luckily for N, Tea Journal in Chatswood had a limited edition for the month.
This is the Earl Grey and Lychee Rose Cake ($50.00, medium). It’s described as a ‘fragrant and fluffy chiffon base infused with Earl Grey tea, creamed with lychee and rose freshly whipped cream, and topped off with sweet lychees and freeze-dried lychees’.
This beautifully decorated cake tasted every bit as good as it looked. The lychee flavour came through bright in the cream with the rose amplifying the natural floral notes of the lychee, while the canned lychees occupying the centre of the cake brought pops of acidity along with concentrated flavour from the freeze-dried lychees. The Earl Grey chiffon was light and fluffy, but its density provided textural contrast to the cream, while it’s Earl Grey flavour provided an earthier, bolder flavour that grounded the lightness and softness of the lychee and rose elsewhere.
2022
While in Chatswood, we tried our luck in-store at picking up a mini version of their seasonal limited cakes.
The Osmanthus Peach ($15.00) was a limited edition for February ’22. It’s a ‘fluffy peach chiffon with freshly whipped peach cream, topped with sweet fresh white peach and mixed with a fragrant osmanthus syrup’.
The cake was 10 cm in diameter and had a gentle floral and fruity aroma that came through beautifully on tasting. The floral sweetness of a peach with its subtle acidity was infused into the chiffon and the whipped cream, and well complemented and accentuated by the mellow fruitiness of the sweet osmanthus syrup as well as the bolder sweet acidity of the fresh white peach. The cake was an elegant marriage of two delicate flavours in an exquisitely light and airy cake.
Tea Journal released a Chestnut Chiffon ($16.00) as a seasonal limited cake for June ’22.
The cake was ‘a vanilla chiffon, with a light fresh whipped cream, topped with chestnut paste and real chestnuts’. It’s 10 cm in diameter and the top looks pretty as a picture, though I’m dismayed that the boxes they now use for takeaway are the exact width of the mini cakes meaning the cream on either side gets battered around.
The cake didn’t have a distinct chestnut aroma, but the chestnut came through beautifully on tasting. The thicker cream with crushed chestnuts delivered a gentle nuttiness that permeated every bite, while the whipped cream contrasted with a smoother yet still creamy texture. The chestnuts on top delivered that firm bite and bold nuttiness that firmly reminded one of the cooler winter days. The chestnut aspect was the seasonal variation, but the chiffon cake carrying it was just as light and fluffy as we’ve come to expect from Tea Journal. The combination of textures and balanced sweetness made this a favourite.
Tea Journal released a Persimmon and Grapefruit Chiffon ($16.00) as a seasonal limited cake for July ’22.
The cake was a vanilla chiffon with a whipped cream, topped with persimmon and ruby grapefruit. The light, fluffy texture was the highlight of this chiffon. But sadly, the slithers of persimmon flesh had only a mild sweetness and lacked sufficient punchy fruitiness of its own to balance the bitter acidity of the grapefruit flesh, which amplified with every bite and lingered unpleasantly in the finish. Overall, this flavour combination came across as a rather low-effort ‘limited’ flavour from Tea Journal, with the absence of additional persimmon or grapefruit elements in the cream or within the cake not assisting the fruit atop the cake.
2023
The Osmanthus Peach chiffon cake ($16.00), made its return to Tea Journal in February 2023, aligning with the Valentine’s Day festivities. Given our favourable experience with the cake in 2022, we eagerly looked forward to indulging once again.
To our surprise, the cake had undergone a series of modifications. On the downside, the cakes, previously boasting a 10 cm diameter, now occupied a 10 x 10 cm box, leading to some less-than-optimal conditions for the cream along the sides when ordered for takeaway.
On the upside, the cake retained its visual allure when observed from above, with its interior and cream transitioning from off-white to a charming pink hue.
In a manner akin to the 2022 rendition, the cake emitted a gentle blend of floral and fruity fragrances. Notably, the osmanthus syrup had been integrated into the cream itself, departing from the previous drizzled arrangement. This alteration ensured that the floral and apricot-like sweetness of the osmanthus permeated every bite of the chiffon’s light and airy composition. The inclusion of white peach cubes contributed a subtle acidity and provided a pleasing textural contrast against the cake’s softness and the cream’s sweetness. Despite a year’s lapse, this potentially even more aesthetically appealing iteration of the cake retained its status as an elegant fusion of two nuanced flavours. Nevertheless, an incrementally larger takeaway box would be a welcomed enhancement to safeguard the cake’s visual presentation.
Tea Journal is located at Shop 44, Chatswood Interchange, 436 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW 2067.