The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar was one of the first ‘tea bars’ in Sydney dedicated to freshly brewed teas when it first opened in Redfern in late 2015. Three years later, with a smaller tea bar opened at Barangaroo in 2016, the Redfern tea bar closed its doors at the end of December in 2018. Luckily, H and I squeezed in one last visit.
This is Vivid, a limited edition tea described as ‘a show-stopping tea that changes colour from purple to pink’. More specifically, it’s a butterfly pea flower tea, a tisane made by infusing the leaves of the Clitoria ternatea plant and dried Lemongrass. This gave the infusion its beautiful cerulean colour, but what makes it most distinctive is that it will change colour when the pH balance changes.
Here, the addition of a slice of lemon increases the acidity of the infusion and turns the tea purple.
As the slice of lemon is left in the infusion, the acidity continues to increase, resulting in a deeper the purple colour that gradually reaches a rich violet (below).
The infusion is stunning, visually, with a gently sweet and crisp aroma. Consumed hot, the infusion has a slight natural sweet lemon flavour (I suspect it may have been sweetened prior to arriving at the table) with a mellow woodiness and earthiness in the background. The woodiness is reminiscent of a pan-fried Chinese green tea without any astringency, while the sweet earthiness has a more restrained vegetal quality than chrysanthemum, much like green rooibos. That said, while it’s palatable, the flavour does not live up to its appearance.
Vivid appeared on The Rabbit Hole Organic Tea Bar menu at Redfern during December 2018.