Visiting Vivid? Pop into The Tea Cosy first to warm up in The Rocks.
On winter’s arrival, few pursuits restore warmth like wrapping weather-numbed fingers around a china tea cup and sipping a proper leaf brew. Steam rises from the cup. Chilled digits defrost. Calm ensues.
Tea drinking – leaf, bag, whatever your game – is a tiny sea of tranquility. And it is undeniably heightened by twinning it with oven-fresh scones, maybe holding dates or currants; hopefully served with jam and thick cream.
Such things are the mainstay of The Tea Cosy, a two-storey tearoom housed in a butter-yellow 1881 heritage building in the heart of The Rocks.
Some might sniff at the apparent ordinariness of a tea room. It’s not a high-end restaurant but try joining the queue at the Country Women’s Association Tea Room at the Royal Easter Show every year. The fervour of that line underlines people’s perennial passion for a nice cup of tea and a fluffy jam-laden scone.
Ash Kinchin opened The Tea Cosy in 2019, and onsite scone-baking throughout the day means tables inside and out are regularly packed. Outside, under white umbrellas decorated with crocheted bees, there are families, tourists and women of all ages knitting from supplied yarn baskets. Inside, rooms are ringed with Victorian furniture, hardback books, fringed lampshades and vintage crockery displays. A wool-lover’s paradise of hand-knitted flowers and cosies surrounds shelves of jam, and tea cups.
Upstairs, two tiny rooms feature a dad pouring tea pots for his three small girls, each chewing finger sandwiches. Meanwhile, a young couple drink cream-topped Irish coffees and watches their sleeping baby in a pram. Coming here is a treat.
We are outside draped in supplied knee rugs staring at The Tea Cosy’s most popular item, The Grandstand. Tall and queenly, its three metal tiers carry plain and currant scones (Earl Grey and lavender is also an option), grapes, mixed finger sandwiches and pots of house-made lemon curd, rhubarb, vanilla and raspberry jam plus double-thick cream. Will this ease our chilblains? Too right it will.
The scones – two each – are lofty, light and warm. The jam is good, the curd even better and the cream holds its shape in fat peaks. The crustless sandwiches –curried egg and lettuce; smoked salmon with cream cheese and dill – are pillowy daintiness. And the pots of Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast poured into wide floral cups, are, well, really lovely cuppas.
Kinchin, whose previous venue was Tara Tea Room up the road on George Street, created The Tea Cosy in honour of her Irish nan, whose kitchen in County Mead, Ireland, was a hive of scones. It’s why Irish brand Barry’s Tea is stocked here alongside traditional black and herbal varieties and special brews including London Fog (Earl Grey with vanilla extract) and Turkish Delight (vanilla and rose).
The three-tier high tea stand isn’t compulsory. There are smaller Devonshire tea sets, cakes and croissants, and the drinks menu extends to milkshakes, bellinis and prosecco. There’s even conventional coffee – flat whites to piccolos – which feels like an interloper in such a nerve centre of tea culture.
A small army of Australian and overseas knitters keep the tea cosies and knitted goods supplies going, says Kinchin, who is also readying a Harry Potter-style “butterbeer” for the winter months. We leave feeling full and fortified by copious cups of warming tea, entirely satisfied by the ceremony of the occasion.
Three more spots for tea and scones
Country Women’s Association Tea Room
Scones, tea and cordial by the glass, the only CWA Tea Room in Sydney offers refreshments, handmade jams, pickles and knitwear. Prices start at $3.50 for two scones with jam and cream or $6 for a Devonshire tea.
Women’s Rest Centre, Corner of Hillview Road and West Parade, Eastwood
Flour and Stone
Sydney baking queen Nadine Ingram’s buttermilk scones, interspersed with blueberries and served with cream and house-made jam, are indeed the jam. Pre-order a box-load or snaffle one into Flour and Stone’s cafe to have with a cup of tea.
53 Riley Street, Woolloomooloo, flourandstone.com.au
Sandy Bake Shop
Janelle Barnes has declared that every day is scone day during winter at her bakery and cafe. Cakes, slices and biscuits abound, tea comes in pots with cosies, and Barnes does terrific cheese scone, too.
7/332 Darling Street, Balmain, sandybakeshop.com.au
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