Tea&Co opened in Chatswood

Speaking of the new Kinokuniya in the best suburb of Sydney, Tea&Co also opened a branch just off the Victoria Avenue mall. The queues snaked around the block for weeks after their opening, so we ended up walking past. But we managed to catch them when they weren’t so busy over the long weekend (… or so we thought!), so we ventured inside. It’s a cool space, very modern, and the smells were amazing. They use a similar setup to Chicha and other modern tea stores with machines that look (and sound) more like espresso machines than what you’d expect for tea. Each machine releases a short, sharp plume of steam after each high-pressure tea brew, the smell and sound of which adds to the atmosphere. Despite it only being “busy” not “absurd”, we still had to wait forty-five minutes for our drinks. In keeping with modern tea shops, an electronic noticeboard on the wall tracks the orders they’re currently brewing, and which are ready for pickup. I generally prefer to order in-store, but I can…