Dear Tea friends,
I know a lot of people had mentioned the poor quality of chinese
restaurant tea before, and I was thinking that the fact that I like it
was attributable to the fact that I haven't had a lot of experience
with anything other than Lipton and others of that level.

Our local chinese restaurant uses bagged tea to make their tea and it
is good, so much that I usually have a pot and a half or two when I go
to the restaurant. Recently there was a chinese, Japanese, american
buffet restaurant opened up in our town and I went last night. I've
been there twice before and the food wasn't bad, but I guess I never
ordered tea before. What they brought me had no flavor at all and
only minimal color. the served it in cups with dark interiors so you
couldn't tell, but I poured it out on my plate to see. LOL

If you are going to a chinese restaurant how do you get good tea? do
you send back your free pot of "tea"? or offer to pay for good tea or
bring your own tea. the tea was hot enough to brew some Oolong in, so
I could have actually brewed some if I had thought to bring some tea
bags or loose tea.

Thanks, Kitty

"Kitty" > writes:

> [...]
> If you are going to a chinese restaurant how do you get good tea? do
> you send back your free pot of "tea"? or offer to pay for good tea or
> bring your own tea. the tea was hot enough to brew some Oolong in, so
> I could have actually brewed some if I had thought to bring some tea
> bags or loose tea.

In my experience, there are very few Chinese restaurants offering
diners the choice to drink high-quality tea, even for an added
charge. I think the restaurants believe their customers expect tea
gratis. So I bring my own loose leaves; the restaurants are always
happy to contribute the hot water.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

thanks. that's what I was afraid of. Well, even a tea bag of oolong
is better than what they served me. LOL

I was tempted to tell them it was time for the Weekly tea leaf change
in the tea dispenser, but I didn't want to embarrass the waitress who
was cute and didn't speak english very well.

Kitty

Rarely does one get good tea in any restaurant, Chinese or otherwise.
I actually think the Chinese restaurants do a better job with tea than
the others do. Of course, the only time I drink Oolong tea is when I
go to Chinese restaurants, so I have nothing to compare against.

I can see that I have been spoiled to some extent. the Main Moon was
our only chinese restaurant here for a while. We have had two others
start up and close down, but the Main Moon still continues. I enjoyed
the tea there enough to ask what it was and they brought me a tea bag
of Oolong. So I have been buying Oolong from the grocery and it is
good too.

However, I swear to you, the tea this other restaurant brought was
tasteless, and colorless. I think I am going to stick to the Main
Moon from now on. their food is not as overcooked either. it's
probably that this new restaurant is trying to offer too large a
selection and everything is getting to dry before anyone wants it.

> In my experience, there are very few Chinese restaurants offering
> diners the choice to drink high-quality tea, even for an added
> charge. I think the restaurants believe their customers expect tea
> gratis. So I bring my own loose leaves; the restaurants are always
> happy to contribute the hot water.


I'm in Guangxi right now. It's not the same here in China, in the large
restaurants, you actually have to order and pay for your tea - because
they use good quality leaves. So you have to spend betweeen 50-150 yuan
for a pot of tea - depending on which restaurant you go to. That's
quite pricey in China, but you wouldn't go to those restaurants unless
you had money to burn anyway. The free tea is usually some cold herbal
tea that doesn't taste too good. So it's better to order the good tea
with your meal.

But I seldom eat in restaurants here. I always think my own cooking
tastes much better than what they serve in the restaurants, and I can
brew the tea that I like. So I do my own cooking at home.

I do like my own cooking better but I haven't learned to make General
Tso's Chicken. I can make a decent stirfry, but I didn't have any
rice made up and I had errands to run so I went out.

I do agree with you, restaurants cook to please masses of people and
don't have much individuality. Most anyone can cook as well or better
with a little practice with spices.

I went out for Thai with my mother a couple of weeks ago. The menu had
a selection of teas; I don't remember much of it but it included "Lung
Ching Dragonwell". I ordered "Special Oolong" and it was brought to my
table in a large glass pot with a glass infuser. Was pretty good, too.

(For those local to my area, this was at the Thai restaurant in
Lynnwood/Mill Creek on 164th St. SE near Bothell/Everett Highway. I
don't remember the restaurant name.)

Typically in a restaurant I will order green tea, since American
restaurants are incapable of providing boiling water. Of course, I've
also come to prefer green tea, mostly drinking black only at breakfast
time.


stePH
--
in cup: Chelton "English Royal" Ceylon

I'd like to put in a plug for a Chinese place in Rocklin, California (Sacramento area), but I can't remember the name. They had a number of high-quality loose leaf teas on their menu.

Thanks,
Bill

Tea Guy Speaks
http://wileng.blogspot.com/

Tea Industry News
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teaindustrynews/

Tea Guy wrote:
> I'd like to put in a plug for a Chinese place in Rocklin,
> California (Sacramento area), but I can't remember the name. They
> had a number of high-quality loose leaf teas on their menu.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
....

I'd like to try it.
Please provide a name or address. :-)

> I'd like to put in a plug for a Chinese place in Rocklin, California
> (Sacramento area), but I can't remember the name. They had a number of
> high-quality loose leaf teas on their menu.
>

Actually, some of the nicest tea I've ever had in a restaurant has been in a
rural Indian place that mostly made Pakistani food. They make a wonderful
Chai that takes close to half an hour to boil up on the stove. Leaves any
other "Chai" I've had in Sydney for dead. Not Chinese tea I know.....but a
damn good drink anyway.

Kathy

As Lew mentioned earlier on, bringing your own leaf to
Chinese restaurants here in New York City is welcomed
by nearly all waiters and owners, I suppose because they
do not charge for tea. The usual Chinese restaurant tea
here might be weak cooked Pu'erh, an overfloral Jasmine,
or a weak and low grade Water Sprite from Phoenix
Mountains of Guong Dong Provence. These are brought
to the table in a metal teapot, either with or without
leaves in.

On several occasions I've brought my YiXing teapot
with gong-fu cups into the restaurant. These were in no
way unwelcome. In fact, waiters are quite engaged.

I would not do these things in a resaurant where they
charged for tea, nor would I do the later when the
restaurant is busy.

Michael

Well, then. If you insist, I managed to dredge it from my memory.

Chang Bros Chinese Restaurant
916-771-9838
6160 Stanford Ranch Rd Ste 100
Rocklin, CA 95765

Thanks,
Bill

Tea Guy Speaks
http://wileng.blogspot.com/

Tea Industry News
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teaindustrynews/

thanks for these explainations. That will help. I'm going to have
to start bringing Something with me for times like this. I'd never
get away with bringing a teapot and cups, my husband would melt into a
puddle. But tea bags he's used to, and he'd survive loose tea with
less than a sneer. LOL Kitty

Tea Guy wrote:
> Well, then. If you insist, I managed to dredge it from my memory.
>
> Chang Bros Chinese Restaurant
> 916-771-9838
> 6160 Stanford Ranch Rd Ste 100
> Rocklin, CA 95765
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
> ...

Thanks, Bill!

I've been in a lot of Chinese restaurants, ranging from the garden
variety carryout to restaurants in CHinatown, to Chang's (the
nationwide chain), and Chang's is the only one that--in my
experience--seems to make any special effort in regard to tea. I'm sure
I probably just didn't know how to ask for it in Chinatown, etc.
Usually the default brew in the standard sit-down Chinese restaurant is
some kind of oolong. I'm not a huge fan of oolong--I overdid it when I
first discovered Chinese tea--but it is usually of tolerable quality
and compliments the meal.

Only one time did the restaurant tea actually make me want to spit it
out. In that instance, I could really believe in the weekly tea leaf
replacement someone mentioned. It tasted like something was growing in
there.

On an unrelated point, has anyone tried the new Starbucks Matcha green
tea latte? I tried it because it was the first time I had seen or heard
of matcha being used in any mainstream U.S. context, but I actually
enjoyed it. Not sure yet if it is a guilty pleasure.

Die Spammers wrote:
> Tea Guy wrote:
> > Well, then. If you insist, I managed to dredge it from my memory.
> >
> > Chang Bros Chinese Restaurant
> > 916-771-9838
> > 6160 Stanford Ranch Rd Ste 100
> > Rocklin, CA 95765
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Bill
> > ...
>
> Thanks, Bill!

ah2323 wrote:
>
> On an unrelated point, has anyone tried the new Starbucks Matcha green
> tea latte? I tried it because it was the first time I had seen or heard
> of matcha being used in any mainstream U.S. context, but I actually
> enjoyed it. Not sure yet if it is a guilty pleasure.

Yes, I've tried it. I also enjoyed it, but would have liked to taste
it without the added melon flavor, which overpowered the tea taste.


stePH
--
I'll brew another pot of ambiguity.