Sunday, February 24, 2013

Thyme Tisane

Last night at dinner, I was at a loss to order tea so I opted for a thyme tisane. You can see it's just a few sprigs of thyme in hot water and it tastes exactly as expected- herby. It could have done with a spoonful of linden or orange blossom honey.


Restaurant tea is bit of a gamble.  When you are a serious tea drinker, it always seems wrong to order tea at restaurants that don't specialize in tea. I really wish that similar to the standard practice of "corkage", restaurants would charge a "brewage" fee and  let patrons bring their own tea.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:33 PM

    Have often thought the same thing. Though this is standard practice in Chinese and Taiwanese tea-houses--pay a water fee. A tea seller in Taipei I once met was adamant about this: "Sure, drink at a teahouse--but always bring your own tea," he told me.

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  2. While being gouged for buying tea at the airport, I complained bitterly to my husband that in China- you can get hot water free at all sorts of public places. To which he wryly replied- "In the United States, you can get safe drinking water in all sorts of public places".

    Probably the "brewage" fee at a restaurant will be more expensive or same as the actual price of the tea they sell.

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  3. Sometimes I bring my own tea to dim sum restaurants and asked them to just give us a pot of hot water... We expect to pay the water fee but it is definitely more enjoyable.

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    1. Oh Ira! I didn't know that was allowed. Is this something dimsum restarants commonly allow in the Bay area? Ahem and how much is this water fee?

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    2. I honestly never pay attention to how much they charge but it is a set fee (all dim sum restaurants do) they add on to the bill, maybe like $1 per person times the total number of guests. You probably never paid attention as it is not much (unless you have a large table with twelve people, for example. ) I actually would ask for two pots of hot water so I can add water to the pot with tea whenever I need to. Plus, it avoids the unfortunate situation of the teapots getting mixed up on its way back to your table ( they sometimes forget which table). I just ask them to fill the pot with no tea leaf. At a non-dim sum place, they do not charge water fee, and you can bring your own tea and just ask for a pot of hot water also. I don't do this all the time but sometimes I just feel like it . :)

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