Peppermint, Brunetti, Carlton

I was going to write:

'As a tea drinker, you often find that Italian coffee hotspots in Melbourne may produce a fine short black (as my parents did 28 years ago...!) but don't really care about serving tea. Marios, Tiamo and Pellegrinnis come to mind (the latter don't even know what tea they have. I'm pretty sure my last black tea there was actually some lint wrapped in a serviette immersed in hot water). The one exception to this is Brunetti in Carlton. They offer a limited range of loose leaf tea (about 5 varieties) but the care they put into making a take away tea rivals the care my grandmother put into making Christmas cake (I won't go into details, but there's lot of overnight soaking involved)."

However:

Brunetti have since done away with the loose leaf teas and started buying T2 teabags! I'm not sure how I feel about this and may well take a few months and some counselling to figure this one out. While they still 'make their teas with love' (the terms 'tea', 'love' and 'making' will be the focus of an upcoming blog, I promise!) and use large take away cups, I was a big fan of the loose leaf.

I was even going to start the 'Loose Leaf Challenge' where Brunetti patrons are challenged to time how long it takes their tea-barista to brew their teas (the longer the better).