Teahouses fight back against cafes and fast food

ASIA LETTER/MIRIAM DONOHUE: One year in China and I have yet to take to the local tea

ASIA LETTER/MIRIAM DONOHUE: One year in China and I have yet to take to the local tea. For me, a cuppa is still a Barry's teabag dunked in a mug of boiling water, an act of sacrilege as far as the Chinese are concerned.

But, adventurous to the last, I took myself off this week to one of Beijing's most famous teahouses, Lao She, where I was faced with a confusing menu of more than 100 different brews.

The Lao She tearooms, just a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square and named after a famous Chinese author, opened 14 years ago. Here, customers sit in an old world Beijing setting drinking the best teas in China and discussing life while watching traditional Chinese performance art.

A cup of tea in Lao She ranges in price from as little as two euros for a "Dragon Well" or a "Heart Clearing Tea" to 60 euros for a cup of Taiwan Oolong "Shanlinxi" tea. At those prices it didn't take much convincing to stick with a variety at the lower end of the market. I opted for a cup of "Golden Lotus Flower", only because I liked the name, while my Chinese companion went for her favourite, "The Green Silver Needle".

READ MORE

A waitress produced a tall glass filled with boiling water with dried lotus flowers floating on top. No stainless steel pot and mug here. I was told to wait a few minutes to let the flavour develop. It tasted sweet and aromatic.

Every so often a young boy in traditional Chinese dress, carrying an ornate brass pot with a narrow, three foot long spout, made a dramatic display of topping my glass up with water.

Mid-morning tables in this teahouse were packed, mainly with men discussing business. "During the day, most of our customers are business people but in the evening people come for pleasure and to see some Chinese performances," our hostess explained.

Tea drinking is big in China. The entire population, from taxi drivers, to company presidents, to construction workers, to communist party leaders drink pints and pints of "cha" every day. Seeing people carry their own personal glass tea jars wherever they go takes a bit of getting used to.

While everyday tea is simply water sloshed over tealeaves, the teahouses offer something a little more special. Here the preparation and drinking of tea is an art form, known as Cha dao.

China is currently undergoing a teahouse revival after a period when such establishments were threatened with extinction for a number of reasons.

For years, especially in the period after the 1989 Tiananmen massacres, Communist Party officials discouraged the teahouse business, fearing dissent was being brewed among the tealeaves.

Besides, in the last 10 years teahouses in Beijing and other major cities have had to compete with a proliferation of Western style coffee shops and fast food chains.

However, the Chinese love affair with capuccinos and lattes is not all-consuming. When the members of China's new middle class want to relax and discuss matters of the world these days, they often bypass Starbucks and other Western coffee outlets and take to the high elegant chairs of the modern teahouses.

Of the three major beverages of the world - tea, coffee and cocoa - tea is consumed by the largest number of people. China, the homeland of tea, started its cultivation two and a half thousand years ago. The habit of tea drinking spread to Europe and America in the 17th and 18th centuries and tea is now one of the China's most important exports.

While more than 40 countries in the world now grow tea, Asian countries produce 90 per cent of the world's total output and all tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China.

In the trendy new Ji Gu Ge Teahouse in Beijing the owner, Feng Yu Mei, is happily cashing in on the revival of the traditional teahouse.

Her teahouse is on Liulichang Street a street full of shops selling Chinese inks and calligraphy. Many artists find their way to this tea establishment.

"There are now between 300 and 400 teahouses in Beijing. Five years ago there were only 50," she said.

The Chinese nouveaux riches are willing to spend money on their tea. One of the most expensive brews here is the "Orient Beauty" which, at 50 euros a cup, is not far short of the monthly wage of the young waitress serving it.

"We have a good demand for the more exclusive teas," said Yu Mei.

This tea expert enthusiastically explained that Chinese tea is classified into five types - green, black, wulong, compressed and scented. The difference between green tea and black is that green tea is not fermented and keeps its original colour, while black tea is fermented before baking.

Wulong is a variety between green and black teas, while compressed tea is hardened into a shape for ease of storage. Scented teas are made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tealeaves.

However, when all is said and done, I wouldn't swap a Barry's teabag for all the tea in China.

PS: Mother, don't forget to stash a box in your suitcase when you're packing for the big trip next week. I've used the last tea bag while writing this.