Tea Leaves.

Tea Leaves is at 29 Olinda-Monbulk Road, in the middle of Olinda, one of the villages of the Dandenong Ranges about an hour east of Melbourne. It is a Melbourne family business, now in its second generation, sourcing and blending tea since 1994, and the Olinda shop is its new, larger home. Alongside the tea it keeps a teapot collection it calls one of the largest around, which is the sort of thing a shop can only do when it has a whole hillside village to be a destination in.

The range runs past 300 teas: organic, white, green, black, oolong, pu-erh, matcha, chai, fruit blends and herbal classics, all priced by the 100 g bag. China Sencha starts the list at A$ 7.60, English Breakfast Supreme is A$ 8.40 and Earl Grey Premium A$ 10.20; a Special Edition Tie Guan Yin is A$ 13.20, rooibos A$ 11.30 and lemon balm A$ 13.85. The company blends its own chests at the warehouse and fills locally manufactured biodegradable pyramid bags with the same signature blends.

The business is retailer, importer, manufacturer and wholesaler at once: it supplies stockists, advises them on the range, and sells teaware, teabags, teapots and coffee over the same counter as the leaf. Online orders ship free across Australia above A$ 75 and go express to more than forty countries. The shop opens daily from 10:00 to 17:00 and closes only on Christmas Day, so a weekend drive through the Dandenongs will always find it open.