If you’re a dutifull follower of my blog you might have noticed that I’ve been to a traditional chinese tea ceremony at Chaya Teahouse.We have made our reservation already 1 month before, as I heard it’s a tiny place only offering food for a maximum of 17 people! I’m a tea lover, actually more than my husband does (people from Poland drink far more tea!), and so I thought it’s time to discover so different and new sorts of tea.
Basically if you’ve never been to a traditional chinese teahouse before there are some certain things you should keep in mind:
- you might sit at a lower height than your table
- you are responsible for making tea (1st round is instructed!)
- if you order food eat slowly – a traditional tea ceremony takes around 1-2 hours
- stick to the instructed infusion time otherwise you end up with a very bitter tea!
So when we arrived there for the first time I was overwhelmed by the amazing smell of the various types of tea. We’ve got hand outed small cards with broad selection of white, black and green teas and I decided to go for a nice Autumn blend. My husband chose a tea called the Golden Monkey – a crazy mix of black teas!
After we made our final selection we got all the instruction for the tea ceremony including a story of the teas we chose. Actually I was surprised by the age of teas – he even had one from the 1920s, which was very rare and cost around 4£ for a tiny cup!
We both were fascinated by the stories of our teas and ages, so we couldn’t wait to start.
To keep it short: I totally screwed up the first round and so my tea was very bitter in taste. My infusion time was about 40 sec. and each time it got stronger and more tasteful. Nevertheless I soon figured it out and the last 2 rounds were the best! So whenever you have a tea ceremony in mind have a lot of patience ;)
The experience was unique and definitely worth to do. Whenever I need to calm down on weekends this will be my soothing place.
Have a lovely Tuesday!
xx Bella
