Tea in Tassie

Tea in Tassie

I’m not a navigator.  I have a hard time reading maps.  The graphic designer in me is looking at the colors and the fonts, ignoring the purpose of a map altogether.  Family members carefully remove maps from my white-knuckled grip and take over.  This usually puts me behind the wheel when navigation is called for, a solution that pleases me.  I like to drive.  

Not this trip, however.  JJ drove.  She didn’t know what she’d unleashed.  

As we left Launceston, me with map in hand in the navigator’s seat, I carefully directed us right back to where we started.  It’s a bad sign with the navigator gets the giggles and a worse one when the driver does too.  We pulled over, took several snorting deep breaths, righted ourselves and sped south to Hobart to catch our plane. 

We’d planned to stop at Barilla Bay once more to pick up some oysters to take back for a Tassie feast at our home base in Byron Bay.  

We made a morning tea stop at Ross, an historic village about half-way between Launceston and Hobarton the M-1 highway.  Aside from its luxurious parks and four-square European

Ross, TAS

architecture, the best part of Ross was the Ross Village Bakery.  

Their  carefully modulated wood-fired oven produces the most amazingly delicate and flaky rolls and buns.  And an incredible variety of mysterious and aromatic shapes and forms.  The glass case gleamed and the aroma of coffee slithered among the baked bouquet.  Each lit shelf held three of four different choices.  The kid in me wanted one of everything.  

I took my time and purchased a Banbury tart, an English tradition I hadn’t seen before.  What a heavenly combination of flaky crust, chopped raisons and currents, with a crossed dough top.  The Ross Bakery’s version was more fruit than dough — just the right amount of sugar, crunch and chew.  

Three more Banbury tarts went home with me, and I ate them sparingly over 3 days — a testament to self-control.  I really wanted to inhale all 3 at once in a flurry of flaky delight.

The charming owners, who dress in the character of the historic village, let us look at the wood-fired oven and the carefully nurtured coals that keep the oven warm and the next batch baking.  And patiently answered all our questions.

While there are many charming places in Tasmania worthy of a stop, this one’s at the top of my list for tea in Tassie.  You navigate, I’ll drive.  

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Note:  Special thanks to my friend JJ for her generous sharing of the Tasmania she knows so well.  And to my friend AD for translation of all things Aussie.  

For more information:

Ross Village Bakery, Ross, TAS, 03-6381-5246. http://www.rossbakery.com.au/

The bakery and tea room are at street level in an historic building with hotel rooms upstairs.