Toasties, Fruities and Flamingos

Flamingos have become a regular sight around Central and TST, the pink inflatable birds adding a highly visible flourish to Flamingo Bloom’s floral and fruity tea drinks.

The two outlet chain has expanded it’s range of drinks this month adding “Naked Zero” beverages ($43) that have no added sugar, use antioxidant and vitamin packed fruits such as mulberries, strawberries, mangoes paired with almond milk for lactose intolerant customers.

bc sampled ‘v!olet’ the mulberry and grape mix, which looks a lot like a fruit smoothie but lacks a smoothie’s dense consistency and texture. Taken as a drink it’s pretty good. The almond milk giving the drink very little consistency and from it’s appearance my brain was expecting something more smoothie like.

FB are also offering a number of toasties – grilled sandwiches – including smashed tomatoes served with soft cooked egg, grilled cheese corn-beef, and smashed avocado with tomatoes sprinkle with herbs. The sandwiches cost $43 ($33 if purchased with any drink).

All the toasties use a big slices of bread, maybe 5 inches square and medium thick cut slices. The cheese and corn beef has a nice melted cheese taste and texture although some of the edges were a little lacking in cheese and there wasn’t much flavour from the corn beef. But it’s pretty good toasted cheese sandwich. The avocado is an open top style sandwich with (according to the staff) a full avocado smashed across it.

Unlike some sandwich places where the filling is all in the section facing you both the samples we tried had plenty of ingredients and will make solid options if you’re in the area and looking for  sandwich.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Naked-Zero-Flamingo-Bloom-12-January-2018/i-Dq9Pg4t

Crafted Tea Salon – Flamingo Bloom

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Crafted-Teas-Flamingo-Bloom-5-July-2017/i-dW8H4Qd/A

Coffee has been flavour of the month locally for years now with numerous coffee chains and single shops offering from an averagely awful to a boutique cup of java. Flamingo Bloom a new tea salon in Central obviously aspires to establish a chain of outlets offering floral teas.

The owners creative branding of flamingos and pink ‘n’ blue colours is targeted heavily towards the ladies but it’s all done quite nicely and makes a welcome change to the drab browns of our local java outlets.

What about the tea? Flamingo Bloom uses four base tea flavours Jasmine Tips Green, Honey Orchid Black, Highland Oolong and Chrysanthemum Pu’er and brews using full leaves to get a better flavour and they’re pretty solid beverages. Everyone has a different preference for how long they like their tea to steep, but the flavours here are good.

On top of the basic teas you can add a wide range of flavours including fresh fruits, salted milk cap – a mix of fresh milk, whipped cream, cheese powder and sea salt – and boba pearls. With most available in hot (500ml) and cold (650ml) options. The choice is wide and prices range from $23 upwards and likely it’ll take a few visits or sharing with friends to find your favourite.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Crafted-Teas-Flamingo-Bloom-5-July-2017/i-k29xf5h

Each drink is prepared to order and the back area resembles a cocktail bar with servers blending and shaking. A lot of thought has obviously gone into the drinks and there are some nice little touches: the ice is blended into the drink so with a cold drink you get a consistent taste rather than a continually diluted one as the ice melts. A little beetroot has been added to the milk to give a pink colour.

Iced Drink Update: this was during the first week and how their tea crafter explained it to bc, but on recent visits the drinks are just like normal iced drinks with ice-cubes – which is a shame.

All good so far, but there are a few niggles. Flamingo Bloom’s is looking for a healthy and refreshing image, unfortunately what’s not made clear on the menu and in the drink ingredients list is that unless you specifically ask for no sugar, each drink has a large, and we mean large, amount of sugar syrup added to it. Most of the flavour combinations shouldn’t need it – but the sugar hit as with fizzy and sports drinks is the unseen addictive hit.

The owners have carefully thought about drink presentation, yet have gone with a thick opaque plastic cup which hides the attractiveness of the drink. And with all the plastic and straws being handed out it would be nice to see FB aggressively pushing recycling.

Flamingo Bloom is a vibrant new tea salon with lots of tasty teas – our current favourite is the salted milk cap Pu’er – remember to hold the sugar if you want a healthy drink. Just because a drink comes with a straw doesn’t mean it’s best enjoyed through the straw. Many of FB’s drinks are best enjoyed from the top down, rather than bottom up.

Flamingo Bloom
50B Stanley Street, Central. Tel: 2483 1778. 11am-9pm
www.flamingo-bloom.com

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Crafted-Teas-Flamingo-Bloom-5-July-2017/i-R38kzhk