Tea ceremony HK style

 

We did tea ceremony Hong Kong style today. It was a lot of fun improvising, as we were not sitting in a square tatami matt room. We also had a mix of different style of tea ceremony or ryuha. But who cares, it was really fun, and I most loved that our Hong Kong friends were so diligent and kind trying to learn each step. I wore a summer kimono.

 

Indian chai tea

I learned how to make Indian chai tea from my sister who's now learning Indian cooking. It takes some time to make, with all the smashing the spices and cooking the tea with milk for a long time. That's probably why it is an especially nice luxury and a divine way to spend Sunday morning...

Afternoon Tea with Song Fang tea

Late breakfast with the tea cup that my sister gave me from Afternoon Tea, and the most recently purchased aromatic tea Shanghai Dreams. Divine moment.

I like that the tea cup looks a little Japanese imperial family-esque.

Lovely Song Fang fragrance tea from Shanghai

Near the Bund, I randomly went into a tea shop called Song Fang and picked up a tea called Shanghai Dreams, which smelled wonderfully. The super simple decor and concept of this store is really romantic.



Interestingly, the French woman Song Fang who started this company sounds like a combined image of my closest friends. She worked at LVMH and DIOR, graduated from Hitotsubashi and HBS, and loves tea and fragrance. Ring a bell?

Finally weekend, with proper tea

I woke up and made flavored tea named Lupicia, which shop I found in the arcade shopping street in Sanjyo in Kyoto. I bought Orange Chocolat and Damask Rose among many others. I realized now that they have several stores outside of Japan, in the U.S., Australia, and Taiwan. It's a very nicely displayed shop and a very thoughtful variety of teas, so you should visit if you get a chance!

Small teahouse at the Kyoto Imperial Palace

While there are many places to see inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace, I really liked the tea house that belonged to the Kujyo Family back in the day. It looks almost like the Golden Temple except that it's not gold, and there's nobody there, so after a jog around the palace (4km), you can totally relax as if you have been invited by the family. It's in the south west part of the palace and costs only 100 yen, to self invite.

Singaporean TWG tea

This is a well known Singaporean tea, which I found a store at one of the department stores on Orchard Road. They sold tea the way Mariage Frere sells theirs, so I had to buy 3 packages (per 50g). My favorite was POLO Club, which smells like a nice blend of champagne and caramel, blended with green tea. Mmmmm.

Hong Kong tea house

I am spending a few days in Hong Kong for work. Since it is different from my usual vacation of hardcore pre-planning, it is like a mini adventure trying to get around and figuring everything out myself at the spot.

I am probably extremely wrong as one coming from Jakarta, but here it feels like a mixture of Tokyo and NYC. I can figure things out as the layout of the department stores and passages are a little like Tokyo, but it is generally much wilder, faster paced (I swear the escalator moves at twice the speed!) and smells a little like NYC.

Just now, I finally found something serene and "Chinese". It was a little tea shop with many, incredibly imposing cans of tea. I am a tea freak, so I had to resist buying a package for every single friend I can imagine like I do when I go to Mariage Frères in Paris.

I ended up with 4 small packages of tea. One is called White Dragon Pearl (a jasmine green tea), another Tit Koon Yum Tea (an oolong tea but completely green), a flower tea with a big ball of green tea wrapping a flower inside (4 kinds - World Champion, Oriental Beauty, Seven Fairies, and Double Happiness), and some rose buds.

The shop person told me to start with Oriental Beauty. Not a bad move, it sounds. This shop was surprisingly customer friendly (nobody is friendly in HK!), and now I see why - background of the shop. It was very nice feeling to be right in the middle of a busy street but feel protected by the quietude of this tea shop, sipping tea from a teeny tiny Chinese cup.

Ki Chan Tea Co., Ltd.
http://www.kichantea.com/