Thursday TeaDay 6/11/09 Restaurant TEA misadventures?

[xuancheng]

Not me.

I'm sorry to see the pie pan has retired before it ever starred in a teaday picture of the day.

That being said, your new dish looks beautiful, and the blue background sheds an other-worldly glow on the qinghua cup. Nice light on everything. Can I suggest a Teaday Pic of the Day screensaver?

[geeber1]

I voted 'no, not really.' I usually only order iced tea at restaurants. Although last summer in N. Carolina I forgot to specify UNsweet tea, and put sweetener in - so was overwhelmed with sweetness!

Our local Chinese restaurant has decent oolong, though.

Golden Spring in my cup this morning. Yum.

[rabbitsib]

Hello, Tea Lovers

I voted ...no not really.
I'am spoiled about my loose leaf teas.
Most restaurants I go to have only tea bags.
I dont order tea at a restaurant because they dont have loose leaf.
I know there are tea cafe's and restaurants that serve loose leaf, but I have never been to one.
This morning, I'am drinking a nice hot cup of golden spring. The perfect tea to wake you up and get you going in the morning.
yours in tea
woodie

Ok, in fancier restaurants they have good bag teas in those triangle bags or they have loose leaf. I mean I have gone to restaurants that had a box shown to me and made in front of me. But then again I only go to fancier restaurants because those "other" American restaurants have crap food not even fit for a dog. Heck most of those restaurants are pre made food from other companies and come in cans. GRRR...

I like to drink Genmai Cha in the mornings but also have been drinking "Tru Blood Tea" my signature blend at work. I drink tea because it taste good and make me feel good but it also reminds me the history behind it and the labor that it takes.

[Intuit]

>Can I suggest a Teaday Pic of the Day screensaver

If you run Foxfire as your browser, you can dowload the Foxsaver add-on, and set it to use photos stored on your computer as a screensaver. The newest version of Foxsaver also allows it to integrate these same photos into the Google search page, if you use it as your home page.

There is a nice little freeware applet called AWC (automatic wallpaper changer) that will also allow you to use Sals gorgeous tea-themed images as wallpaper on your computer desktop.

Cheers!

[Riene]

What they brought me was a bottle of Lipton's and a glass of ice. Now that wouldn't be too unusual, except it was carbonated! I had never heard of carbonated iced tea before. And no, I didn't really care for it.

Carbonated tea? EWWWW.

The only things we've ever had happen is when instead of regular iced tea, we get "flavored" iced tea...and in weird flavors. It usually tastes like mango-kool-aid dumped into Lipton's. Ack.

[olivierco]

Ippodo shincha and Jun Shan Yin Zhen so far today.

[Victoria]

Just so happy with this delightful cup of LiShan from
Floating Leaves Tea, I wanted to share the visual.
Excuse the quality, I took it with my cell phone.

[leiche]

The tea is always at least decently drinkable at my favorite Chinese and Japanese restaurants, which are really the only places I order tea from while out. I'd rather have a soda than bad tea.

Started my day with a cup of Assam Bargang from SpecialTeas once again. It rarely fails to wake me up.

[tea-guy]

I had some really, really awful "Japanese" green tea, in what is actually a really good restaurant just a couple of days ago! It looked and tasted like really rubbish bancha and was steeped in boiling water! I would definitely go back, but not for tea!

You would be surprised at how lackadaisical people get in food preparation settings when they know their customers largely aren't knowledgeable on what they serve. Tea is a perfect example.


In my cup this afternoon: Organic Black Currant bottled RTD iced tea from Harney & Sons.

[twinofmunin]

Nothing particularly odd... if I order tea at a restaurant I tend to lower my expectations and take whatever happens in stride. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.

No tea yet today; thinking of taking a nap real soon now and then tea afterward. Probably sencha. Maybe genmaicha; haven't had any in a while.

[geeber1]

Just so happy with this delightful cup of LiShan from
Floating Leaves Tea, I wanted to share the visual.
Excuse the quality, I took it with my cell phone.

Wow, Victoria, I love how it's defying gravity!

[spot52]

I did go to a local Chinese joint here in town and ordered tea with my meal. They served what tasted like an "stale" dark oolong. The taste was so strong that I think they steeped it for a mighty long time. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I don't know which is worse, I dollar and some change for a bag of Twining's, Bigelow, or their pot o tea. I would still probably choose their tea.

Drinking some

today. Ain't life grand.

[MASALACHAAAAIIIIII]

Weeeeellllllll sort of. The thai restaurant in town had sencha on their menu, and i went all crazy and ordered it. I made an assumption the tea would be good since the waiter was a little savvy girly mon. As the tea cup was placed in front of me ever so gently, a tea bag was handed afterwards......... flavored water!!!!!!....for 2 plus $. I am spoiled at my local indian and japanese restaurants though, decent sencha and AWESOME masala chai(possibly because of my crazy tipping). I have gone through two huge pots(around 20+ cups) at the japanese place which resulted in hyperactiveness and scaring fellow customers(good thing the owner loves our sushi addicted group). I have never had to pee so much in my life.

I can make the indian place run out of masala chai ta hee hee! I have bothered the owner so much about chai, kinda feel sorry for him. He knows when its me ordering over the phone...hahaha "hey wuts up mannnnn!!!" "gimme a gallon of chai please"

I am known as the "tea guy" at both now (AND MOCHI FANATIC!), they automatically give me some everytime...hahaha

Having a cup of earl grey that a friend gave me a sample of, tea bags...not too bad though. Either more sae midori or some nepalese illam fikkal from camellia sinensis(recommend it when its harvested again) after!

[tea-guy]

I have gone through two huge pots(around 20+ cups) at the japanese place which resulted in hyperactiveness and scaring fellow customers(good thing the owner loves our sushi addicted group). I have never had to pee so much in my life.

I can make the indian place run out of masala chai ta hee hee! I have bothered the owner so much about chai, kinda feel sorry for him. He knows when its me ordering over the phone...hahaha "hey wuts up mannnnn!!!" "gimme a gallon of chai please"

I would LOVE to have you as a customer!

[Chip]

I can think of 2 incidents, the first was at a local Japanese/Chinese restaurant, which means Chinese that serves Japanese as well. Ordered tea which arrived in these HUMONGOUS and HEAVY dollar store mugs some saying coffee or cappacino or Christmas themed in March (they owned an adjoining dollar store). The tea had a rather distinct earthiness to it, not too bad actually.

Upon asking the Chinese female server what kind of tea it was, she replied "HOT." I then restated the question, and she replied "Chinese." I simply replied thank you at this point. I figure it was that cheap pu-erh that comes in red tins ...
................
An "odd" tea was at Iron Chef Morimoto's in Philly on my birthday several years ago. The bill was around $300 for 3 people, and the best tea they could muster was bagged genmaicha. The meal was incredible, like being on Iron Chef, but it was a disappointment that they could not do better in the tea department, especially considering Morimoto even cooks with tea and serves sencha with courses on the show.

Began the TD LATE with Takumi shincha from Zencha with in new cups from Chicago Potter, Chris Chaney, one of our TeawareArtisans. SweeTea waited patiently for her morning brew while Pyrit and Gandalf made an appearance.