About Our Business - A Moment of Tea

Who We Are

A Moment of Tea is a specialty tea shop and tea bar in Hobart, Tasmania, founded in 2020 by Joanne Gao and Zachary Mao. We source loose-leaf teas from China, Japan, and Tasmania, and run a tea bar at Salamanca Art Centre where visitors can try teas, join Gongfu tea ceremonies, and browse our teaware collection. Our Tasmanian Lavender Puerh won first place at the 2025 Royal Tasmanian Fine Food Awards.

How It Started

We started A Moment of Tea in 2020, during a time when most people were stuck at home feeling a bit lost. Joanne had been sharing tea with friends for years by that point, and it seemed like the right moment to do something with it. So we began hosting small weekly tea gatherings. Nothing formal. Just a few people sitting around a table, trying different teas, talking.

People kept coming back. It turned out that sitting together over a pot of tea gave people something they needed, a quiet hour where they could just be present. That response convinced us to make it official. We registered the business in September 2020 and started doing markets and workshops.

Finding Our Home at Salamanca

In early 2022, we were selected as resident artists at Salamanca Art Centre. That changed things for us. Having a permanent space meant we could set up a proper Tea Bar where people could walk in, sit down, and actually experience tea the way Joanne had learned it in China. The art centre community also shaped how we think about what we do. We're surrounded by people who make things by hand and care about craft, and that fits with how we approach tea.

Later that year we joined Salamanca Market, which runs every Saturday. The market is where a lot of our customers first try our teas. Many of them end up ordering online afterwards. One customer put it well: "A Moment of Tea has been my go-to tea brand since my TAS days. Even after moving to QLD, it's still my top pick."

What We Offer

Our Tea Bar at Salamanca Art Centre is open Tuesday to Sunday. You can walk in without a booking, try different teas, and get recommendations based on what you like. We also run Gongfu tea ceremonies and tea meditation workshops for small groups, where you can learn the traditional Chinese approach to brewing.

Our online shop ships across Australia. We carry over 700 loose-leaf teas and teaware items, from Chinese green teas and aged puerh to Japanese matcha and our own Tasmanian blends.

Joanne handles the tea sourcing and everything that happens at the Tea Bar. Zachary runs the operations side. Between us, we've built something that works both in person and online, though the in-person experience is still where most people fall in love with what we do.

Awards

In 2025, our Tasmanian Lavender Puerh won first place in the blended tea category at the Royal Tasmanian Fine Food Awards. We'd spent a while testing lavender from different Tasmanian farms with puerh from various regions in Yunnan before we found the right combination. The lingering lavender aroma with that mellow, earthy puerh turned out to be worth the effort. It's become one of our most popular teas since then.

Our work has also been covered by The Mercury, ABC, and SBS Chinese for bringing Chinese tea culture to the Tasmanian community.

Visit Us

A Moment of Tea
77 Salamanca Place, Salamanca Art Centre
Battery Point, TAS 7004, Australia

Monday: Closed
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 5pm
Saturday: 10am – 3pm (we're also at Salamanca Market)
Sunday: 11am – 4pm

No reservation needed. Just walk in and we'll put the kettle on. Search "A Moment of Tea" on Google Maps to find us.

Why We Do This

We believe everyone deserves a few quiet minutes in their day. That's what our tagline, Your Daily Pause, is about. Joanne has over 10 years of tea ceremony experience, trained at China's Lian Yu Tea School since 2014, and she brings that care to every cup we serve. Whether you visit us at Salamanca, find us at the market, or order online, we hope the tea gives you a reason to slow down, even just for a few minutes.

Want to know more about Joanne's tea story? Read about our founder here.