Pierneef à La Motte is one of the Winelands top restaurants, with its extensive vegetable and herb garden, its Executive Chef Chris Erasmus having recently done a stage at the world’s number one restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, has a chef from leading Dutch restaurant Specktafel working with them until the end of December, and has made the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants Finalist list two years running in its two year history.  Now it has introduced a fine Winelands Tea.

I had seen a sample tray of the Tea treats on a previous visit, and was told then that the Tea was still in its test phase.  Now it has been introduced, and one can sit under the oak trees, or in the side section of the restaurant, to enjoy the Winelands Tea.  I probably was the first customer to order the Tea, and some of the information was not readily available, but the Manager Inge Naude brought extra notes about the teas and asked the Culinary Manager Hetta van Deventer-Terblanche, and I was able to interview the Sous and Pastry Chef Michelle Theron, for further information.

A tray with glass jars of confiture, including watermelon preserve, fig preserve, and honey, was brought to the table, either for adding to the tea, or to one’s sweet or savoury treats.

Inge brought a beautiful presentation box of eight TWG (The Wellness Group) teas to the table, and opened one sachet to show me the cotton bag in which the chunks of caramel and tea leaves are contained. It had a good-enough-to-eat aroma.  She told me that the company is from Singapore, linking back to the Spice Route between the East and Holland via the Cape, and is deemed to be one of the best tea suppliers, according to their research.  They advise that one drink the tea ‘neat’, without adding milk and sugar, to get the best aroma of the tea.  Inge said the water should be boiled at 95°C, and that one should add the tea bag to the water, letting it draw for 2 – 15 minutes. The tea is served in crockery made by Ellalou O’Meara especially for La Motte.  One has a number of other options to drink other than the tea, but Inge emphasised that the La Motte experience is more about the tea than it is about the food. I ordered a cappuccino, but could have substituted it for a number of other options too, including the home-made La Motte fruit cordial, ‘soet sopies’ such as L’Omarins Port, Slanghoek or Graham Beck Muscadel, Monis Sherry, Slanghoek Hanepoot, Pepperment or Van der Hum Liqueur, or Amarula.  A R20 surcharge allows one to have a glass of Vin de Constance or La Motte MCC.

Chef Michelle explained each dish in great detail, giving it a greater appetite appeal, relative to the very scant description in the Tea menu. The Buckwheat Blini is based on a blini recipe in their ‘Cape Winelands Cuisine’ cook book, and was described as a ‘Blini Cake’ by Chef Michelle, layered with salmon, cream cheese and biltong, and a curried apple and peach chutney made to a recipe of Chef Chris’ mother. It was topped with poppy seed and dried capers, and at its back with chopped chives, and was the most unique item.  The menu called this lovely creation a ‘smoked salmon pancake with cream cheese’. A ‘Biltong Soes’ choux pastry contained a cheese and biltong filling too, topped with a slice of their own home-made biltong, from beef which comes from the Weltevrede farm near Kokstad.  The Truffle of the day was a Brandy Valrhona, and could be alternated with peanut mousse, milk tart, or a rose Turkish delight.  The Macaroon was a hazelnut and chocolate one, and alternatives are nougat, rose, lavender, thyme, and lemon.  The Tea Cake had layers of chocolate mousse, with a chocolate butter frosting.   One has a choice of one of three Tea Cakes daily.  Chef Michelle said that she is an ‘all-rounder chef’, responsible for pastries too,  even though officially she is the Sous Chef.

The Pierneef à La Motte Winelands Tea is expensive, especially if one does not have a TWG tea with it, being an expensive part of the offering.  The food treats should be described in greater detail in the Tea Menu, to explain how special they are.  The product knowledge of the staff about the Winelands Tea is not yet perfect.

Winelands Tea,  Pierneef à La Motte, La Motte, R45, Franschhoek.  Tel (021) 876-8000.  www.la-motte.com Twitter: @PierneefLaMotte  R125 per head.  Tuesday – Sunday 10h00 – 16h30.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage