I.

The beginnings of tea industry

Tea, that most quintessential of English drinks, is a relative latecomer to British

shores. Although the custom of drinking tea dates back to the third millennium BC in
China, it was not until the mid 17th century that the beverage first appeared in England.
The use of tea spread slowly from its Asian homeland, reaching Europe by way of Venice
around 1560, although Portuguese trading ships may have made contact with the Chinese
as early as 1515. It was the Portuguese and Dutch traders who first imported tea to
Europe, with regular shipments by 1610. England was a latecomer to the tea trade, as the
East India Company did not capitalize on tea's popularity until the mid-18th century.

Curiously, it was the London coffee houses that were responsible for introducing
tea to England. One of the first coffee house merchants to offer tea was Thomas Garway,
who owned an establishment in Exchange Alley. He sold both liquid and dry tea to the
public as early as 1657. Three years later he issued a broadsheet advertising tea at £6 and
£10 per pounds , touting its virtues at "making the body active and lusty", and
"preserving perfect health until extreme old age". Tea gained popularity quickly in the
coffee houses, and by 1700 over 500 coffee houses sold it. This distressed the tavern
owners, as tea cut their sales of ale and gin, and it was bad news for the government, who
depended upon a steady stream of revenue from taxes on liquor sales. By 1750 tea had
become the favoured drink of Britain's lower classes.

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 I.1. Taxation on Tea

Because of this major success ,Charles II did his bit to counter the growth of tea,
with several acts forbidding its sale in private houses. This measure was designed to
counter sedition, but it was so unpopular that it was impossible to enforce. A 1676 act
taxed tea and required coffee house operators to apply for a license.This was just the start
of government attempts to control, or at least, to profit from the popularity of tea in
Britain. By the mid 18th century the duty on tea had reached an absurd 119%. This heavy
taxation had the effect of creating a whole new industry - tea smuggling.

Ships from Holland and Scandinavia brought tea to the British coast,
coast then stood
offshore while smugglers met them and unloaded the precious cargo in small vessels. The
smugglers, often local fishermen, snuck the tea inland through underground passages and
hidden paths to special hiding places. One of the best hiding places was in the local
parish church! Even smuggled tea was expensive, however, and therefore extremely
profitable, so many smugglers began to adulterate the tea with other substances, such as
willow, licorice, and sloe leaves. Used tea leaves were also redried and added to fresh
leaves. Finally, in 1784 William Pitt the Younger introduced the Commutation Act,
which dropped the tax on tea from 119% to 12.5%, effectively ending smuggling.
Adulteration remained a problem, though, until the Food and Drug Act of 1875 brought
in stiff penalties for the practice.

In the early 1800's ships carrying tea from the Far East to Britain could take over
a year to bring home their precious cargo. When the East India Company was given a
monopoly on the tea trade in 1832, they realized the need to cut the time of this journey.
The Americans actually designed the first "clippers", or streamlined, tall-masted vessels,
but the British were close behind. These clippers sped along at nearly 18 knots by
contemporary accounts - nearly as fast as a modern ocean liner. So great was the race for
speed that an annual competition was begun for clippers to race from the Canton River to
the London Docks. The first ship to unload its cargo won the captain and crew a hefty
bonus. The most famous of the clipper ships was the Cutty Sark, built in 1868. It only

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made the tea run eight times, but for its era it was a remarkable ship. The Cutty Sark is
now on exhibition at Greenwich.

I. 2. The Boston Tea Party

But the tax problem is met also in another context. Victory in the French and
Indian War was costly for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III
and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their
war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial
governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted
by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of actions including the
Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) agitated
the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown's attempt
to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American
Revolution.

The colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming
they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no
representation. In response, Parliament retracted the taxes with the exception of a duty on
tea - a demonstration of Parliament's ability and right to tax the colonies. In May of 1773
Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a
monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the
duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get
their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on
the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was a
staple of colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than
deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.

The colonists were not fooled by Parliament's ploy. When the East India
Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed
to land. In Charleston the tea-laden ships were permitted to dock but their cargo was

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consigned to a warehouse where it remained for three years until it was sold by patriots in
order to help finance the revolution.

In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came
to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the
wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that
morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty.
A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of
the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave
without payment of the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass
meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group
of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war
chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and
dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.

Most colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and
vehement. In March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which among other
measures closed the Port of Boston. The fuse that led directly to the explosion of
American independence was lit.

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 II. The tea customs

II.1. Tea customs in Europe

In Europe, afternoon tea may have been started by the French. According to the
monthly newsletter called Tea Muse, in the writings of Madame de Sévigné (1626 to
1696), one of history's greatest letter writers on life in 17th Century France: “It's a little
known fact, but after its introduction to Europe in the 17th century tea was
tremendously popular in France. It first arrived in Paris in 1636 (22 years before it
appeared in England!) and quickly became popular among the aristocracy. . . Tea was
so popular in Paris that Madame de Sévigné, who chronicled the doings of the Sun
King and his cronies in a famous series of gossipy letters to her daughter, often found
herself mentioning tea. "Saw the Princesse de Tarente [de Sévigné wrote]... who takes
12 cups of tea every day... which, she says, cures all her ills. She assured me that
Monsieur de Landgrave drank 40 cups every morning. 'But Madame, perhaps it is
really only 30 or so.' 'No, 40. He was dying, and it brought him back to life before our
eyes.' . . . Madame de Sévigné also reported that it was a Frenchwoman, the Marquise
de la Sablière, who initiated the fashion of adding milk to tea. "Madame de la Sablière
took her tea with milk, as she told me the other day, because it was to her taste."

II.2. Tea customs in Royal Familly

In 1600 - Queen Elizabeth l (1533-1603) granted permission for the charter of

the British East India Company (1600-1858), also known as the John Company,
on December 31, 1600 to establish trade routes, ports, and trading relationships with
the Far East, Southeast Asia, and India. Trade in spices was its original focus, but
later traded in cottons, silks, indigo, saltpeter, and tea. Due to political and other
factors, the tea trade didn’t begin until the late 1670s.

In 1662 - King Charles II (1630-1685) while in exile, married the Portuguese

Infanta Catherine de Braganza (1638–1705). Catherine's dowry was the largest ever
registered in world history. Portugal gave to England two million golden crusados,

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Tangier and Morocco in North Africa, Bombay in India, and also permission for the
British to use all the ports in the Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas,
thus giving England their first direct trading rights to tea. As Charles had grown up in
the Dutch capital, both he and his Portuguese bride were confirmed tea drinkers. When
the monarchy was re-established, they brought this foreign tea tradition to England
with them. Her influence made tea more popular amongst the wealthier classes of
society, as whatever the royals did, everyone else wanted to copy. Soon tea mania
spread swept across England, and it became the beverage of choice in English high
society, replacing ale as the national drink. The reign of Charles II was crucial in
laying the foundations for the growth of the British tea trade. The East India Company
was highly favored by Charles II. Charles confirmed its monopoly, and also extended it
to give the Company unprecedented powers to occupy by military force places with
which they wished to trade (so long as the people there were not Christians).

In 1663 - The poet and politician Edmund Waller (1606-1687) wrote a poem in
honor of Queen Catherine for her birthday crediting her with making tea a fashionable
drink amongst courtiers:

Venus her Myrtle, Phoebus has his bays;

Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of Queens, the best of herbs, we owe
To that bold nation which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise,
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
The Muse's friend, tea does our fancy aid,
Regress those vapours which the head invade,
And keep the palace of the soul serene,
Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen

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 By 1700, tea was on sale by more than 500 coffee houses in London. Tea
drinking became even more popular when Queen Anne (1665–1714) chose tea over ale
as her regular breakfast drink. Anne's character was once portrayed as a tea-drinking,
social nonentity with lesbian tendencies.

During the second half of the Victorian Period, known as the Industrial
Revolution, working families would return home tired and exhausted. The table would
be set with any manner of meats, bread, butter, pickles, cheese and of course tea. None
of the dainty finger sandwiches, scones and pastries of afternoon tea would have been
on the menu. Because it was eaten at a high, dining table rather than the low tea tables,
it was termed "high" tea.

According to legend, one of Queen Victoria's (1819-1901) ladies-in-waiting,

Anna Maria Stanhope (1783-1857), known as the Duchess of Bedford, is credited as
the creator of afternoon teatime. Because the noon meal had become skimpier, the
Duchess suffered from "a sinking feeling" at about four o'clock in the afternoon. At
first the Duchess had her servants sneak her a pot of tea and a few breadstuffs.
Adopting the European tea service format, she invited friends to join her for an
additional afternoon meal at five o'clock in her rooms at Belvoir Castle. The menu
centered around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, assorted sweets, and, of
course, tea. This summer practice proved so popular, the Duchess continued it when
she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for "tea
and a walking the fields." The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the
afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses.

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III. Tea houses

The tea began so popular that even the gardens of Ranelagh and Vauxhall in
London began serving it around 1730.
Ranelagh Gardens were public pleasure gardens located in Chelsea, then just
outside London, England in the eighteenth century. Ranelegh was considered more
fashionable than its older rival Vauxhall Gardens; the entrance charge was
two shillings and sixpence, compared to a shilling at Vauxhall. Horace Walpole wrote
soon after the gardens opened, "It has totally beat Vauxhall... You can't set your foot
without treading on a Prince, or Duke of Cumberland." Ranelagh Gardens introduced the
masquerade, formerly a private, aristocratic entertainment, to a wider, middle-class
English public, where it was open to commentary by essayists and writers of moral
fiction. The centrepiece of Ranelagh was a rococo rotunda with a diameter of 120 feet (37
metres) which was designed by William Jones, a surveyor to the East India Company.
The central support housed a chimney and fireplaces for use in winter. In 1765, the nine
year old Mozart performed in this showpiece, which figured prominently in views of
Ranelagh Gardens taken from the river. Canaletto painted the gardens, and painted the
interior of the Rotunda twice, for different patrons. There was also a Chinese pavilion,
which was added in 1750, as well as an ornamental lake and several walks. Ranelagh was
a popular venue for romantic assignations. Edward Gibbon wrote that it was, "the most
convenient place for courtships of every kind — the best market we have in England."
An evening of dancing and watching fireworks would be capped by tea. The concept
caught on, and soon Tea Gardens opened all over Britain. Usually the gardens were
opened on Saturday and Sunday, and an afternoon of entertainment and dancing would be
highlighted by serving tea.

Another place where was serving tea, were the Tea Shops. In 1864 the woman
manager of the Aerated Bread Company began the custom of serving food and drink to
her customers. Her best customers were favoured with tea. Soon everyone was asking for
the same treatment. The concept of tea shops spread throughout Britain like wildfire, not

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in the least because tea shops provided a place where an unchaperoned woman could
meet her friends and socialize without damage to her reputation.

A tea house or tearoom is a venue designed for people to gather for the purpose of
drinking tea, often combined with other activities. Their function varies widely
depending on the culture. As teas of different kinds became popular throughout the world
through the centuries, they became not just drinks to accompany meals in homes or
restaurants, but a tea culture emerged which included venues designed specifically
around the serving and drinking of tea.

Thomas Twining opened the first known tea room in 1706, which remains at
216 Strand, London today. In 1787 the company created its logo, still in use today, which
is thought to be the world's oldest commercial logo that has been in continuous use since
its inception. Under Associated British Foods since 1964, Stephen Twining now
represents the company's ten generations. In 2006, Twinings celebrated its 300th
anniversary, with a special tea, and associated tea caddies. Twining's is a Royal
Warrant holder (appointed by The Queen).The form of a tea house or room varies
considerably, just as the occasions upon which tea is served vary both within and across
cultures. From the simple tea and snack at home or as a break from work or shopping, to
the relaxed social gatherings of women, to meetings where business or politics may be
agreed upon, to the formal tea ceremony in Japan, the serving of tea has a multitude of
purposes and styles that span so many aspects of life. Human creativity has used the
various occasions in which tea is served and consumed to construct buildings appropriate
to each of these occasions, buildings which reflect the physical, social, and spiritual
elements that are involved in the activities.

In the U.K., Canada and the U.S.A, a tearoom is a small room or restaurant where
beverages and light meals are served, often catering chiefly to women and having a
sedate or subdued atmosphere. A customer might expect to receive cream
tea or Devonshire tea, often served from a china set, and a scone with jam and clotted
cream – alternatively a High tea may be served. In Scotland teas are usually served with a
variety of scones, pancakes, (Scottish) crumpets and other cakes.

9
 There is a long tradition of tea rooms within London hotels, for example, Browns
hotel which has been serving tea in its tea room for over 170 years.

The popularity of the tearoom rose as an alternative to the pub during

the temperance movement in the 1830s. The form developed in the late 1800s,
as Catherine Cranston opened the first of what became a chain of Miss Cranston's Tea
Rooms in Glasgow, Scotland, and similar establishments became popular throughout
Scotland. In the 1880s fine hotels in both the United States and England began to offer
tea service in tea rooms and tea courts, and by 1910 they had begun to host afternoon tea
dances as dance crazes swept both the U.S. and the UK. Tea rooms of all kinds were
widespread in Britain by the 1950s, but in the following decades cafés became more
fashionable, and tea rooms became less common.

In a related usage, a tearoom may be a room set aside in a workplace for workers
to relax and (specifically) take refreshment during work-breaks. Traditionally a staff
member serving food and beverages in such a tearoom would have been called a tea lady.

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 IV. Five o’clock tea

It is noted that in the English tea traditional practice, the tea is taken between 3
o'clock to 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Along with the English tea traditional practice, a
cup of tea is naturally mandatory in the English tea traditional beliefs. In addition, many
assumed that in an English tea traditional practice, the proper way of making a cup of tea
involved some of the important rules. First, in an English tea traditional practice, the
kettle must be placed on to boil, then clean and warm the tea pot. After this English tea
traditional practice of preparing a cup of tea, you need to place the tea leaves into the pot
which range from 1 teaspoon full per person and then one for the pot. In the English tea
traditional practice, this kind of tea preparation is so normal. Along with the English tea
traditional practice of making a cup of tea, you also need to pour the leaves onto the
water when the water boils. And in an English tea traditional practice, one should note
that the water is boiling vigorously. Then leave it to stand for a couple of minutes and
assuring that a tea cosy is placed to keep the tea hot. In such English tea traditional
practice, the preparation for some delicate cups like the bone china if possible is required
and then it is also important in an English tea traditional practice that milk is placed into
the cups to enjoy the pleasure of a nice cup of tea.
Furthermore, in the English tea traditional practice, the people begin with choices
of very thin sandwiches like cucumber, smoked salmon, and egg mayonnaise and
mustard cress sandwiches. And in the English tea traditional practice, this is heeded by
some scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and choices of cakes.
This English tea traditional practice, being considered as an "English tea
traditional" practice is still applied and kept up in all of the fine hotels in Britain and in
small tea rooms all around England. One of the notable hotels in Britain that still show
the English tea traditional practice is the Ritz Tower in London. The English tea
traditional practice in Ritz Tower in London is considered to be a big event that the
people need to book well in advance for the English tea traditional practices.
In 1606 the first tea chests arrived in Amsterdam, Holland: it was the first cargo
of tea to be officially registered at a Western port. The Netherlands, at this time, had
control over the trade of rare commodities from the Orient, but the English who, a few

11
years later, founded the East India Company in direct competition with the Dutch
company, soon questioned their dominance. The introduction of tea in England took
place in a specific way: the coffee houses were at the time very fashionable. They were
spreading rapidly and were very successful. During the same period Catherine of
Bragance, a Portuguese princess and wife of the young king of England, brought as a
dowry Bombay and the custom of drinking tea at anytime of the day!
From then on, tea became a real craze all over the country. Having been taken up
by the royal court, it was just a question of time before tea won over all levels of society
and quickly became a huge popular success. Today tea is a pillar of British society and
the English drink it throughout the day: starting with an "early morning tea" often taken
in bed with some plain biscuits, followed by the breakfast tea that washes down the large
meal of that name, then comes "elevenses" at 11 o'clock, which will sustain them until it
is time for the traditional "afternoon tea". Finally, a last tea is often taken in the evening
just before bedtime.
"Afternoon tea" in Great Britain is a real tradition. It is a custom that was
established by the seventh Duchess of Bedford in the 19th century. At the time, lunch
was taken very early and supper very late so the duchess made a habit of taking tea in the
afternoon between three and four o'clock together with a light meal. She began inviting
her friends to join her and thus started a fashion that enjoyed immediate and considerable
success.
Today, as in the 19th century, friends or family are invited around for tea. Milk,
sugar and lemon are always provided in order to cater to everyone's tastes. Tea is
prepared following five cardinal rules that are typically British and are most suited to the
type of tea that is drunk in England:
 warm the teapot with boiling water, in order to warm the leaves so that they can
release all their flavour,
 add one teaspoon of tea per person plus one extra for the pot,
 pour simmering, never boiling, water onto the leaves,
 leave to brew for three and five minutes,
 stir once and then serve.

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 When "afternoon tea" was established, it gave rise to many artefacts, utensils, cakes…
The tea caddies, tea-cosies, tea balls, tea strainers, sugar bowls, milk jugs, teacups,
teapots, scones, cakes, muffins, crumpets, toasts, cream puffs etc., are all creations to
bring out the best in tea, both in its the serving and in its drinking; they all contribute to
the cosiness of taking tea the English way.

High Tea is often a misnomer. Most people refer to afternoon tea as high tea because
they think it sounds regal and lofty, when in all actuality, high tea, or "meat tea" is dinner.
High tea, in Britain, at any rate, tends to be on the heavier side. American hotels and tea
rooms, on the other hand, continue to misunderstand and offer tidbits of fancy pastries
and cakes on delicate china when they offer a "high tea."

Afternoon tea (because it was usually taken in the late afternoon) is also called "low
tea" because it was usually taken in a sitting room or withdrawing room where low tables
(like a coffee table) were placed near sofas or chairs generally in a large withdrawing
room. There are three basic types of Afternoon, or Low Tea:

Cream Tea - Tea, scones, jam and cream

Light Tea - Tea, scones and sweets

Full Tea - Tea, savories, scones, sweets and dessert

In England, the traditional time for tea was four or five o'clock and no one stayed
after seven o'clock. Most tea rooms today serve tea from three to five o'clock. The menu
has also changed from tea, bread, butter and cakes, to include three particular courses
served specifically in this order:

Savories - Tiny sandwiches or appetizers

Scones - Served with jam and Devonshire or clotted cream

Pastries - Cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets

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V. Afternoon tea today

Afternoon tea is not common these days because most adults go out to work.
However, you can still have Afternoon tea at the many tea rooms around England.

Afternoon tea became popular about one hundred and fifty years ago, when rich
ladies invited their friends to their houses for an afternoon cup of tea. They started
offering their visitors sandwiches and cakes too. Soon everyone was enjoying afternoon
tea. The British working population did not have Afternoon Tea. They had a meal about
midday, and a meal after work, between five and seven o'clock. This meal was called

“high tea” or just “tea”. Today, most people refer to the evening meal as dinner or
supper. Traditionally eaten early evening, High tea was a substantial meal that combined
delicious sweet foods, such as scones, cakes, buns or tea breads, with tempting savouries,
such as cheese on toast, toasted crumpets, cold meats and pickles or poached eggs on
toast. This meal is now often replaced with a supper due to people eating their main meal
in the evenings rather than at midday. The tradition of ‘At Home’ has long died out, but
the serving of Afternoon Tea continues (High Tea in Scotland). Many leading hotels
serve Afternoon Tea from about 3:00 pm until 5:00 as well as cafés and tea shops. One
well-known tea room, Bettys in Yorkshire, has a global reputation for serving the meal.

Afternoon tea traditionally starts with savory finger - sized smoked salmon, cucumber, or
egg and mustard cress sandwiches - followed by scones with jam and cream (clotted
cream in Devon), and finally a selection of cakes. Variations through Britain may include
the serving of English Muffins , thinly sliced, hot buttered toast, crumpets, and in
Scotland even a hot main course dish; bacon and eggs or a steak pie as favorites.

Tea is traditionally served from heavy, ornate, silver teapots into delicate bone
china cups. Milk or lemon served with the tea is still a personal preference. The
sandwiches, the scones and the cakes should arrive at table on tired cake stands.

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 In 2003, Data monitor reported that regular tea drinking in the United Kingdom
was on the decline. There was a 10¼ percent decline in the purchase of normal teabags in
Britain between 1997 and 2002. Counter-intuitively, it was not coffee that was filling the
gap since the sales of ground coffee also fell during the same period. Britons were
instead filling the warm drinks void with health-oriented beverages like fruit and/or
herbal teas, consumption of which increased 50 percent from 1997 to 2002. A further,
unexpected, statistic is that the sales of decaffeinated tea and coffee fell even faster
during this period than the sale of the regular variety.

V.1 Places to drink tea today

One of the most popular place to drink tea is 5 o’clock which is situated in Blue
City Shopping mall. This shop offers a truly cost , English atmosphere, yet exotic at the
same time. It’s richly decorated, but not too much for it to be overdone or kitschy. It
resembles a wooden cottage prepared for Christmas time in dark green and red. Five
o’clock has about 200 different types of tea and coffee from around the world on the
menu, not to mention a lot of gift sets to choose from, jams, different kinds of sugars and
tea ware. The packaging has been polished to even the very smallest details – pretty tins
wrapped in cellophane with stickers on, bows, shiny green/yellow tea bags with ornament
and labels on. As a tea fanatic I can not stress enough how important a label sticker with
tea name and ingredients is, even is the bag is just a regular brown paper bag. Gift sets of
small samples of more exclusive teas also have a card where the teas are described. Some
tea samples are available on the counter, so you can freely smell the teas.

I have also a list where we can find pubs which offer European or British-style tea
service which includes cream tea (crumpets or scones, pastries, dessert, and tea),
afternoon tea (scones, sandwiches, tea breads, desserts, candies or petit fours, and tea),
and, rarely but increasingly, a high tea menu which usually includes heartier sandwiches,
sometimes scones or crumpets but always savories ( sausage rolls, Cornish pasties, potted
shrimp, and selected cheeses), and a bracing cup of tea.

15
 In Burlingame : Lady Pierrepont Heirlooms & Edibles situated in 1205 Howard
Avenue. This converted Victorian home is the place to visit when in the San Francisco
south bay. It is in the charming carriage-trade town of Burlingame, a mecca for antiques
and gift shoppers. The tea room offers books, gifts, teas, and wonderful accessories that
you can view after sampling one of their three tea menus. Tuesday through Saturday.
Fortnum & Mason Royal Blend is the house tea; other choices available.

Chado. This is the tea shop that revolutionized tea drinking in Los Angeles. Tiny,
serene, elegant, with fine food and an excellent choice of teas from around the world.

In San Francisco we have the Imperial Tea Court at the Ferry Building is an
elegant, traditional Chinese tea shop and salon. In both selection and ambiance it
emulates the original, world-famous Imperial Tea Court on Powell Street in Chinatown
established by owners Grace and Roy Fong in 1993. Both shops are renowned as
exclusive sources for many of the most sought-after teas produced today. The
Marketplace shop carries over 50 teas, including organic teas, and a beautiful selection of
tea pots, many of which are made by masters in China.
The shop entrance features a signature moon gate and dragon sofa made from aged
reclaimed wood from China. Visitors can purchase bulk tea at the stunning black granite
(imported from China) counter - or pause for tea and snacks, comfortably seated at one of
six rosewood tables. Two special tea services are offered. With prior reservations, more
advanced tea classes can also be arranged. Mr. Fong is an ordained Daoist priest, tea
consultant, and author who leads tea-related tours to China.

In Chicago we have The Ritz-Carlton Chicago, a luxurious tea dining in the sky-
lit, carpeted Greenhouse on the lobby level with soothing sounds of a fountain nearby.
And the last but not least, Beverly Hills Hotel which after several years of remodeling,
this venerable hotel to the stars is bringing back its classy, traditional afternoon tea.

The Living Room three levels of tea served daily from 3 to 6 p.m., a sun-splashed
yellow and beige area of silk sofas and gracious table seating areas. We love the feel,
look, and comfort of this lobby; it is pure California. The choices of teas continues to

16
grow, and most are prepared quite well. The royal tea comes with strawberries and a
glass of champagne, both purely American touches, but you have to rest up from Rodeo
Drive shopping somehow.

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VI. Tea cups

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19