Last week I went for my first traditional Chinese tea at the Chinese Tea House. It is situated in Hong Kong Park which is beautiful in itself- testament to this is the fact that it is a popular wedding location, the last time I was here, I saw two brides walking around as well as graduating students and people on some kind of model shoot!
Anyway, today we rushed straight to the tea house from central mtr to catch the end of the tea house's opening hours (that's the good thing about working at a primary school!) and it is such a haven inside! It is beautifully calm and peaceful, decorated in traditional Chinese style.
There was a huge amount of tea on offer however we all opted for the flowering tea, recommended to us by Chris, who had been to the tea house before. So, we opted for 3 flowering teas, which arrive in tall clear glasses and look not too inviting in the glass being brown and spiky looking (for want of a much better description!) However, when boiled water was poured over them, they all opened up in the most lovely ways. My favourite though, had to be Katy's tea which literally grew in front of our eyes as a yellow sort of yellow stem emerged and unfolded from the ball in the bottom of the glass!! It was the Dancing fairy tea and as well as looking quite amazing, it had a beautiful smell and tasted almost as good as it looked - I think it was a kind of Jasmine tea although I am not positive.
However, after we had admired and photographed them from every angle! we had to decant the liquid in to smaller, almost milk jugs to prevent the tea becoming too strong and then from the milk jug it was poured in to cups and drunk. The new water was then poured in to the flowers. The novelty factor of constantly having to change and move around the water lost a little of its charm when we worked out we did not have anywhere for all of this water to go, and after about an hour, and almost a rota for the bathroom stops, we were full to the brim with water and decided we had drunk our fill of Chinese tea and more.
In traditional Chinese style, we had some dim sum in the form of vegetable dumplings with our tea which were delicious too!
It is most definitely worth a trip, being set in a beautiful park, as is the tea museum in the next building along which is eye opening in its variety of teas and the methods and styles to serve and make tea.
Thank you Chris and Katy for such a lovely afternoon and I will be taking all of you on your trips out here!
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