Yes, you heard right. A tearoom serving of all things Lipton tea bags in pots of tea.
Still, although full of charming gardens and plenty of good walks there aren’t many choices for lunch and a cuppa in Mount Macedon, a one hour drive out of Melbourne.
After a bracing dog walk, and a close encounter with some Fly Agaric mushrooms (I photographed them), a pot of tea and some lunch was needed.
To the tearooms, at the top of the ranges, near the Harbison Picnic Ground near the Memorial Cross car park (they are sign posted).
To be fair the mashed potato was creamy, the peas (probably frozen) tasted good. And the chicken and leek filling in the pie was as it should be. What was curious is that instead of placing a puff pastry crust on top they had simply rumpled sheet of filo, which does not give enough to bite into.
Food Fascist
I’m railing about convenience foods (outside frozen puff pastry). Do I really need a teabag when I have several perfectly good teapots to brew my English breakfast, Early Grey, Lapsang Souchong, peppermint, Moroccan peppermint or Chai? I think not.
And the same should go for a café if it sticks tea in its name.
Sadly the rows of supermarkets are stuffed full of teabags, each month offering fewer cartons of just the leaf. There is a big difference between tea made with a bag and the pure leaf. The bag stuff tends to taste like a paper bag has been soaked in the cup.
I prefer that beverages taste of the original product and not the packaging.
Ditto coffee bags and those weird sweet powdered mixes of stuff that are sweeter than Baileys. Oh, and the tasting of packaging goes for breakfast cereals too.
Become a Facebook fan. Follow me on Twitter. 
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m with you on the teabag front. To save you an extra few minutes you’d use a teabag? Clearly for people who don’t really like tea. They are vile and seem to have a slightly dusty flavour (to me anyway).
As for superflous packaging,why do I need plastic moulded packaging to hold pears or baking potatoes? It seems insane. Why all that plastic which degrades my fruit and vegetables? (I know it makes things easier for the supermarkets to transport but perhaps it should be harder). I wish I had the courage to just rip it all away as I’m bagging up at the supermarket checkout and abandon it then and there. Sadly I’m too much of a wimp. It’s not that I’m worried about the supermarket, it’s the angry people in the queue behind me!
Hi Rachel, you’re right it is dusty like they fill the bags from factory sweepings. And it’s not that much effort to make a pot.
I tend to shop in the local Melbourne markets so don’t have to deal with that supermarket packaging hassle. In one local supermarket (when I was buying bog roll and bleach) I noticed they have this new initiative to present fruit in the boxes as used by suppliers. But I can’t stay in the shop long withourt getting angry (about the teabags).
I love good strong tea but I’m pathetically lazy too. Plus by the time the tea brews, I have to reheat it in the microwave to get it piping hot again (tea must be hot hot hot!).
Coffee bags, now they’re a travesty. Made from used coffee grounds I’m sure.
AG, Sounds like you need a tea cozy. Although I admit to using our very modest micro to heat up tea and coffee.
Rail away with my support comrade. I hate tea bags. I’ve also heard tell that the smaller broken leaves that get smashed up during processing go into the TB’s and the bigger leaves are saved for lose leaf and bigger leaves give better flavour. Tea bags are on par with instant coffee in my books. Leave it for the astronauts.
I just thought of something else – is a Tea Bag Room like a Wine Cask Bar?
DrReb, Nice one.