The wine capital of Australia may seem an unlikely place for a tea business, but Belinda Hellyer has found a way to bring the two worlds together.
The certified tea blender and tea master has been taking parts of horticultural crops from farms that wouldn't usually be used and making tea with them.
"I think it gives producers more scope for using their ingredients, and reaching customers in new ways," she said.
Aside from running her award-winning Adelaide business Brewed By Belinda, Ms Hellyer has been working with other organisations to create custom blends.
Recent collaborations include creating a fig leaf and rose tea for a Riverland-business Singing Magpie Produce, and making a tea from cabernet grape leaves for a Coonawarra winery.
"What really makes me passionate is good quality tea and local partnerships," Ms Hellyer said.
Zero waste
Singing Magpie business owner Sue Heward has a history of creating new products, like quince syrup, out of excess produce from her family's Monash block.
But she needed external expertise to turn fig leaves into tea.
"We literally just picked them off the tree, sun dried them, and then sent them to Belinda and said, 'Do your magic.'"
Ms Hellyer said she was "inspired straight away" to experiment with the leaves.
"I used some of [Ms Heward's] dried oranges initially to play with the blend," she said.
"When we revisited the project, we ended up creating the tea blend that we have today, which I think is a perfect for showcasing the very unique flavour of the fig leaves."
The final blend was a hit with Ms Heward, who said the "refreshing brew" had a coconut and vanilla scent.
After the first run sold out quickly online and won an award at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, Ms Heward said she was keen to make more.
"Actually Belinda won gold in the same award for her other teas," she said.
Ms Heward said fig leaves were also becoming a more popular ingredient with chefs and home cooks.
"If you're baking a cake or pannacotta it really infuses that coconut flavour," she said.
"Some chefs make fig leaf oil and we've done some fig leaf powder, which is divine on ice cream actually.
"But essentially we weren't doing anything with them apart from growing figs on the trees. So it's just another extra opportunity for us to tell the story of figs."
Harnessing creativity
For Ms Hellyer a career change into the tea industry was a way to honour her artistic background after having children.
"I grew up surrounded by tea drinkers," she said.
"So I just loved the ritual of making and drinking tea.
"When everyone else was buying clothes and shoes, I was buying all sorts of teas as a young adult and I had cupboards full of tea."
Ms Hellyer said she sourced her organic ingredients from different wholesalers, as well as international tea growing regions.
But she said she found the most joy in thinking outside the box.
"There's typical parts of herbs and teas that are used for creating blends, but it's always good to think about doing it differently," Ms Hellyer said.
"You can use the stems, the buds, the leaves — you can use all different parts of the tea plant itself.
"Sometimes you're using the tops of the herbs, other times, it's the roots.
"It's good to inform yourself about the benefits of the different parts of the plant and keep an open mind about what's possible and be creative."
