Spice up your breakfast with this simple and easy recipe for some light, fluffy and flavorful pancakes, using our very own Tea Drop Chai Concentrate.

They are simple delicious go on give it a Chai.

What you need:

• 250g all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp Kithul Treacle
• 3 tbsp Chai Concentrate
• 1 egg yolk
• 70g unsalted butter
• 250ml warm milk

How to make:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. Place a heatproof bowl on the stove or in the microwave - add milk and butter and heat.  (just warm enough to melt the butter)
3. Once milk mixture is warm add Chai Concentrate and Kithul Treacle and stir.
4. Add the egg yolk and milk mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk together.
5. Whisk till everything is fully combined together and let the batter sit for about 5 - 10 minutes.
6. Place a skillet over the stove on medium heat and lightly grease with butter.
7. Scoop out and pour in 4tbsp of batter into the skillet.
8. Cook for about 2 minutes - now flip and repeat till pancake is light golden brown.
9. Stack the pancakes on a plate drizzle with a favourite sweetener of your choice.  Maple syrup, Honey, Kithul Treacle, butterscotch or chocolate sauce . We used our own chai infused butterscotch sauce.

Chai infused Butterscotch sauce

What you need:

• 200g brown sugar
• 375 ml thickened cream (heavy cream)
• 2 tbsp Chai Concentrate
• 70g unsalted butter

How to make:

Bring all ingredients to a boil in a small pan. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Time to dig in!

We would love to see your pancake creation – share them on our social pipelines @teadroptea.

 

 

Coffee and tea are amongst the most consumed beverages in the world. People drink tea and coffee for a variety of reasons including the health benefits they provide. Often there have been debates over the two regarding the health benefits of coffee and tea - some arguing that coffee and tea almost score the same while others feel that tea wins the game.

To help determine which of the two has greater health benefits, it is crucial to look at each of them to see how they benefit people. Here, we take a look at what these beverages bring to the table and why in our opinion, tea takes the win.

Tea Benefits

Tea has more antioxidants compared to coffee
Both coffee and tea are loaded with antioxidants, mostly polyphenols that contribute to the distinctive flavour as well as the health-promoting properties of each. However, tea contains more of these antioxidants that help protect an individual’s body against damage arising from free radicals. Antioxidants can help avoid the development of some chronic diseases. Drinking green tea is going to provide you with antioxidants that help prevent inflammation.

Tea helps keep the immune system strong
To help protect the body from diseases, people need to have strong immune systems. Tea is among the beverages that help to keep the immunity strong. Regularly consuming herbal tea is going to allow your body to fight off pathogens and keep you healthy. The increased number of antioxidants also helps ensure a person has a strong immune system. 

Tea hydrates your body
When you take tea, it helps hydrate your body. Keeping your body hydrated helps with weight loss, increased energy levels, skin complexion, flushing toxins, and cognitive function, and mood elevation. When you regularly drink tea, you are adding more water in your body, helping keep it healthy.

Tea has less caffeine content 
Compared to coffee, tea contains less amount of caffeine. Whilst the caffeine content is likely to vary depending on the time you take to brew your beverage, the serving size, and the method of preparation, coffee can pack up to two times the caffeine you would find in an equal tea serving. A brewed coffee contains about 95 milligrams of caffeine when compared to 74 milligrams found in black tea of the same serving. Caffeine, whilst being associated with many health benefits, you should take it in moderation – only about 400 mg in a day. Higher amounts can bring health problems like reduced calcium in the body. If you are looking for alternative caffeine-free tea, you may want to drink something like rooibos tea, a herb that’s native to South Africa or herbal teas.

Additional benefits of tea over coffee
To make a good cup of coffee, you need a coffee maker which is both expensive and time consuming to brew. Instant coffee is quick but the flavour is nowhere the same as the cafe latte your favourite barista makes. But tea, thanks to our Soilon biodegradable tea bags you can get a loose leaf quality brew with no effort or mess. Consistency anywhere in the world at any time of the day.

"Also, did you know that there are 40 different varieties of coffee worldwide?  That’s a lot, but compare that to over 3000 varieties of tea!! Think of all the wonderful flavours there are out there waiting for you to try.
When you look at both tea and coffee, you will find that tea takes the lead when it comes to offering health benefits to your body.
Explore our wide range of teas now.

Tea is the most popular beverage in the world after water. And no matter the season we can always enjoy a cup of warm or iced tea any time of the day.  Tea leaves are made from the plant Camellia sinensis. Black tea, Green tea, White tea, Oolong tea and Pu Erh tea comes from this same plant. The distinctive flavour profiles and colours that come from these tea types are due to the way the plant is processed.

Different types of tea leaves

Green tea leaves and white tea leaves are the least processed and not oxidized and therefore regarded the healthiest. Black tea leaves are fully oxidized, and oolong tea leaves are only partially oxidized. Pu Erh tea leaves are aged and considered a post oxidized tea. These tea types offer a host of health benefits. The caffeine content will vary between these teas depending on the process.

Herbal tea is not officially a tea, as it does not come from the Camellia sinensis plant, but is instead an infusion of leaves, fruits, bark, roots, or flowers of almost any edible, non-tea plant. The most common herbal teas are chamomile tea, hibiscus tea, peppermint tea, ginger, and rooibos tea. Herbal teas have been around for a long time, with our ancestors’ making infusions of the plants, roots, and herbs they saw around them for medicinal use. This practice continues today with the use of herbal teas to support a healthy mind and body.

Why is tea healthy?

Potential health benefits of tea are due to the polyphenol or flavonoids content in the tea leaves. These chemical compounds act as antioxidants, which control the damaging effects of free radicals in the body. The more tea leaves are processed, usually the less polyphenol content. But their antioxidizing power will still be high.

Health benefits of tea

No matter the season, we recommend getting into the natural, immune-boosting habit of drinking tea every day as tea has a myriad of health benefits.

• Keeps You Hydrated - Did you know that drinking 4-6 cups of tea a day is as good for keeping you hydrated as a litre of water. Whether enjoyed as a delicious hot cuppa or served on ice stay hydrated with tea.
• Great Coffee Alternative – Herbal teas are caffeine free, while traditional teas have less amounts of caffeine than typically found in coffee. Therefore, it will help boost energy and you can consume it without the jittery side effects when the caffeine wears off.
• High in Antioxidants – Tea is loaded with antioxidants that help protect your body from free radicals, keeping you healthy mentally and physically.
• May aid in weight loss – The jury is still out on this, but studies have shown that the caffeine and catechins in tea may aid with weight loss. Green tea is a popular choice for weight loss, as it contains amino acids that signal the body to burn stored fat. The caffeine in tea also helps boost energy and is ideal as a pre-workout drink. Teas are calorie free and the ideal drink to have guilt free.
• Aids in digestion – Tea aids with digestion and can treat issues from nausea to an upset stomach. It also contains tannins which has shown to reduce intestinal inflammation, which can help soothe stomach cramps and irritable bowel syndrome. Teas with ginger are a popular choice.
• Boost your mood – Drinking tea is always connected with calming and soothing effects and linked to decreased stress levels and help you unwind after a tough day.
• Boost your immune system - Tea is great for your immune system. Many types of teas have antiviral and antibacterial properties that can aid to prevent you from getting sick. Whether you’re worried about flu season, or just want to improve your overall health, a daily tea schedule will benefit you.

By incorporating tea into your lifestyle, not only is it a refreshing & aromatic treat, but there is also a myriad of benefits designed to elevate your life. So, get ready to enjoy a flavoursome and sensorial tea experience from the very first sip.

Dear Tea Lover,

Twenty-two years ago, I started Tea Drop with a belief and very little else.

For most of those years, I kept this story to myself. Today feels like the right moment to change that.

My grandfather planted rubber in Sri Lanka. Under his guidance, his son made a deliberate choice to transition the land to tea.

That decision became three generations of craft. My uncles tend the plantation and the factory today, reading the land, nurturing the leaf, carrying forward knowledge that no book can teach.

When I began my own journey, I made a different choice. Not to master the harvest, but to find the people who do. And carry their stories to the world.

I have spent twenty-two years immersed in the great tea-growing regions — not as a tourist, but as a student of the leaf. But those stories rarely travel. They stay in the garden. Between the tea master and the person who drinks the cup, the story of where that tea came from quietly disappears.

I founded Tea Drop twenty-two years ago so that it would not.

Twenty-two years does not happen alone.

It happens because a mentor told me to trust what I knew and take the step. I did not forget that.

It happens because customers believed before there was much to believe in. So many of them are still with us today, two decades later. They are not customers. They are the foundation.

It happens because colleagues show up every day with the same conviction. Their passion is what Tea Drop actually is, beyond any cup we pour.

It happens because tea plantations and farmers across the world have shared their craft and trusted Tea Drop to carry what they have spent generations building. Every cup carries their character.

And to my wife, who has been my anchor through every season of this journey: thank you.

This month, Tea Drop turns 22. It is also International Tea Day — a day that feels especially close to the story we are celebrating.

If you have been part of this journey in any way — as a customer, a partner, or someone who simply loves tea — this anniversary belongs to you as much as it does to me.

Thank you for being here.

— Ashok Dias, FOUNDER

The Teas That Tell the Story

To mark the occasion, we have gathered six of our most beloved blends, each in its own collectors tin as a small celebration for every cup you have shared with us.

Six Teas. Six Tins. One Collection to Savour.

From the first quiet cup of the morning to the evening wind-down, curated to move gently through the rituals of the day. 150 pyramid tea bags, six vibrant collectors tins.

• English Breakfast: Bold, full-bodied. Made for the first quiet cup of the morning.
• Honeydew Green: Light and softly sweet. A calm mid-morning pause.
• French Earl Grey: Elegant and floral. Made for slow afternoons and good books.
• Peppermint: Cool, crisp, caffeine-free. A beautiful reset after meals.
• Relax: A soothing herbal infusion for the evening hours.
• Fruits of Eden: Bright, fruity, caffeine-free. Perfect for sharing or serving iced.

Valued at $200 · Yours for $100

Explore the collection

Tea is one of the world's oldest rituals. It outlasts empires, punctuates grief, anchors mornings, and closes the space between strangers. It is the most drunk beverage on earth after water — and yet, in most kitchens, it is still being made too quickly, with too little thought. That gap is the reason Tea Drop exists.

Why May matters — for tea, and for us

May is the month the world pauses to celebrate tea. International Tea Day, designated by the United Nations and observed on 21 May, recognises tea's role in culture, trade, and the livelihoods of millions of farmers worldwide. It is a moment to think beyond the cup: to the hands that picked the leaf, to the communities built around the gardens, to the ancestral knowledge preserved in every harvest.

It is also, not by coincidence, the month Tea Drop was born.

Twenty-two years ago this May, Ashok Dias founded Tea Drop in Melbourne, and the fact that our anniversary falls in the same month the world gathers to honour the leaf has always felt like more than chance. May is, for us, a season of reflection: on where tea comes from, on what it means to do it well, and on why any of this matters.

For Tea Drop, International Tea Day is not ceremonial. Ethical sourcing through the Ethical Tea Partnership has been part of the business model since the beginning, ensuring fair conditions for every picker at the estates we work with. Sustainability runs through the entire supply chain, from FSC-certified packaging to fully biodegradable pyramid bags and soft-plastic-recyclable pouches.

• Plant-based pyramid bags
• Ethical Tea Partnership
• FSC-certified packaging
• Small-batch, seasonal sourcing

On ritual, tradition, and the patience of good tea

There is a particular kind of patience required to make great tea, and an equal patience required to appreciate it. The ritual of boiling water, choosing a blend, watching the pyramid bag bloom in the cup: these are small acts that do something measurable to the pace of a day.

Tea culture has always understood this. High tea traditions across Britain, gong fu ceremony in China, the elaborate preparation of Japanese matcha, the daily chai ritual across the Indian subcontinent — all of them are expressions of the same truth: that the act of making tea is inseparable from the act of drinking it.

"My understanding of tea came from living with it, not studying it. I saw how it moved through daily life, how people gathered around it, and how much attention went into getting it right."

— Ashok Dias, Founder · Tea Drop

That understanding is not learned from books. It comes from proximity, from seasons spent watching how different elevations, different soils, and different harvest timings produce entirely different expressions in the cup. It is craft knowledge, passed between people rather than preserved in manuals, and it takes generations to accumulate.

It is also, increasingly, at risk. As tea production scales and convenience dominates, the quiet artistry of the tea garden gets compressed into commodity. International Tea Day exists in part as a recognition of that tension: a reminder that the alternative still exists, for those who seek it out.

Twenty-two years in Melbourne

Ashok grew up in Sri Lanka, in a family with three generations of tea merchants and farmers behind them. He came to Australia not simply to sell tea, but to reconnect a new audience with the soulful, careful work that precedes every cup. That mission has not changed.

This May, as Tea Drop turns 22 and International Tea Day approaches, the occasion feels less like coincidence and more like purpose.

The 22nd Anniversary Signature Collection

To mark the occasion, we've launched a limited anniversary collection: six signature blends, each in a complementary tin, chosen to accompany every moment of the day: from the first cup of the morning to the last pause before sleep.

Six tins. One hundred and fifty pyramid bags. Free delivery. Valued at $200, available for $100.

The collection is available now, online and in-store at Brew Bar. It will not return once it sells out.

Explore the collection