Tea in Jakarta

I didn't get a chance to visit two tea houses as I originally planned, but I still managed to drink some good teas while I was in Jakarta last week as two tins of matcha and some oolongs from Floating Tea Leaves were traveling with me on this trip. 

At the hotel we're staying, my mother and I enjoyed our non-creamy and un-frothy matcha every morning at breakfast. I had all the tools with me; chawan, matcha shifter, chasaku and chasen. But after preparing matcha (Aiya organic ceremonial) with all those tools on the first day and didn't get a good result (but  got a lot of questions about the tools from the hotel waitstaff), I decided to just use regular teacup and spoon. Of course it didn't produce a fine and creamy drink, but the taste was good and we liked it. That's all the matters, right? 

Breakfast View from the hotel

At my parents house, my mother and I enjoyed our morning matcha in D. Michael Coffee's chawan prepared using more "appropriate" tools, and Alishan Oolong from Floating Tea Leaves in the afternoon. 

A day before I went back to the states, my sister, my mother and I decided to visit two tea plantations in Puncak.  Growing up, my parents often took us to different tea plantations near where we lived for a picnic lunch on the tea fields. During my college years, my friends and I often went to Malabar Tea Plantation in Pengalengan for the weekend just to breath the fresh air and walk around tea plants. I am always fascinated by the beauty of the tea fields. And I wanted to see it again this time. 

It was raining really hard when we reached the first plantation "Perkebunan Teh Ciliwung", so we just enjoyed the tea fields from the car. Fortunately the rain stopped when we got to "Perkebunan Teh Gunung Mas", a government-owned tea plantation about 87 km south of Jakarta. We went straight to the cafe inside the plantation to warm ourselves up with a pot of hot tea, fried banana and yummy grilled banana. We were the only customers at that time. Ah.. what a peaceful place... so calm, so quite, and so green.

Perkebunan Teh Ciliwung

"Agrowisat Ciliwung" seberang Cagar Alam Cibulao

Kecamatan Tugu, Cisarua

Perkebunan Teh Gunung Mas

Jl. Raya Puncak, Bogor

(0251) 25 2501

Tea with a view

The view from Les Remparts

During our trip to France, we visited several beautiful small towns in the Cote d'Azur aka the French Riviera. One of them was Eze-Village, a small medieval village located between Nice and Monte Carlo, sits on a narrow rocky tip overlooking the Mediterranean sea and St jean Cap Ferrat. 

Darjeeling from Dammann Freres  

The tea above was enjoyed at Les Remparts of Château de La Chèvre d’Or. 


The site was pretty spectacular where souvenir shops, galleries, cafes were carved into the stonewall. There were no crowds when we were there. So it was really nice to leisurely walked around the site without having to bump into other tourists. Strolling the narrow lanes made me feel like I was wandering around a fairy tale village. 

Eze-Village

Tea in Paris

Pictures of our tea moments in Paris early this month. 

Darjeeling Oolong Fancy at Mariage Freres Tea Salon

Castleton, SFTGFOP 1

Mariage Freres Store

Tea Menu at Mariage Freres Tea Salon

I was pleased to find the hotels we stayed in served good Japanese teas. So glad to be able to enjoy those greens at breakfast.  

Genmaicha, my breakfast tea at Park Hyatt Vendome

Sencha, breakfast tea at Hyatt Regency Madeleine - loved the pot!

We found salon de thé everywhere in Paris. A decent pot of tea we had in a cafe across from Museum D'Orsay.

Tea at Le Royal Orsay Cafe

Had a wonderful time in Chajin, a cute Japanese tea room near our hotel in Madeleine. The owner, Carol Negiar used to be an Angelino as well. It was nice to chat about familiar places and sites.

Sencha at Chajin

Gyokuro at Chajin

My husband and I had a perfect experience at Mariage Freres tea market and salon on our first day in Paris that we decided to repeat the experience again before we left the city a week later.

Jungpana SFTGFOP1

Marco Polo White Tea

Mariage Freres Tea Museum

Tea in Seattle

Teas we had while in Seattle last weekend:
Sencha Fukujyu at Wild Ginger Restaurant

The first cup of this sencha (green spider leg from Shizuoka) was actually tasty. It had good balance of sweet, vegetal, astringent and slightly bitterness. But since the tea was served in a pot and left brewed, the second and the third cups became very bitter. Someone needs to tell the restaurant not to cook this tea please! 

Vietnamese tea at Green Leaf Restaurant
It was a free flow drink that was served with our meals. Didn't know what it was and was not able to ask the waitstaff either (the restaurant was very busy at that time). The tea tasted a little bit like Bori Cha (Barley Tea) served in Korean restaurants. 

Delicious 2010 Spring and Aged Taiwanese Oolong at Floating Tea Leaves
Without doubt the teas we tried at FLT were the best teas we had in Seattle and they were all free! Shiuwen brewed the newly arrived Spring teas and an aged Baozhong for us to drink together. The 13 years old Baozhong was from Chin Hsin varieatal from Pinglin. The 2010 Spring teas were Farmer's Choice Baozhong and   Alishan. All was delicious.  

Chai dan Yerba Mate

Chai 
Saat berada di Monterey pada hari Rabu sampai Jum'at kemaren, kembali kami makan malam di Restoran Ambroisa, restoran India yang cita rasanya cocok dengan selera kami berdua. Secangkir Chai pun saya pesan untuk menemani Baigan Bharta (tandoori baked eggplant), Palak Phaneer, Dal Bukhara (black lentil), Dum Aloo (kentang isi buah aprikot kering dan daun mit), saffron rice, dan garlic naan.
Chai (atau teh dalam bahasa Hindi) identik dengan India atau makanan India dan biasanya selalu tersedia di restoran India. Chai umumnya dibuat dari campuran teh hitam yang kuat, susu kental, campuran beberapa rempah a.l. cardamon, kayu manis, jahe, merica dan cengkeh serta pemanis. Konon Chai mempunyai efek menghangatkan dan menenangkan bagi peminumnya apalagi setelah menikmati makanan India yang serat bumbu dan rempah.
Chai yang saya nikmati malam itu memiliki aroma rempah yang kuat dengan rasa yang kompleks. Konsistensi air seduhan mengingatkan saya akan adonan keramik yang meleleh diantara jemari sang potter saat membentuk karyanya. Hm... untung saya suka rasanya.

Yerba Mate
Jenis minuman yang satu ini bukan berasal dari tanaman teh Camellia sinensis, melainkan dari daun Ilex paraguarensis yang dikeringkan, digerus dan kemudian diseduh seperti teh. YM umumnya dikonsumsi di Argetina, Brasil bagian selatan, Paraguay dan Uruguay. 
Pagi tadi adalah untuk pertamakalinya saya mencoba YM. Hujan deras menyertai kami saat meninggalkan rumah adik ipar di Shell Beach sampai ke Honeymoon Cafe untuk menikmati breakfast sebelum melanjutkan perjalanan pulang. YM yang panas dengan rasa astringent dan sedikit pahit yang sesekali muncul merupakan pilihan yang tepat untuk menghangatkan badan selain menjadi padanan yang pas untukd huevo ranchero yang saya pesan. Yum.

Japanese green tea in the sky

Dalam perjalanan pulang ke Indonesia baru baru ini, rasanya beruntung sekali bisa menikmati teh hijau di pesawat yang rasanya boleh dipujikan. Bravo untuk Cathay Pacific yang menjaga kualitas makanan dan minuman yang disajikan. 
Untuk rute penerbangan dari LA ke Hong Kong dan dari Hong Kong ke Jakarta dan sebaliknya, Cathay Pacific menyediakan teh hijau dari Cina dan Jepang dalam menu minumannya. Saya memilih teh hijau Jepang sebagai pedamping setiap makanan yang disajikan selama perjalanan. 

Green Tea at Kawamatsu Restaurant, Asakusa

Both hubby and I love unagi (eels). While walking around Asakusa in Tokyo last month, we found one restaurant that serves broiled unagi. Once inside, we realized we were the only two customers who are not Japanese! That's a good sign and we're glad to find a restaurant that is not only visited by tourists. The unagi meals was yummy. The ocha served for free was also very delicious. It might be a sencha, but I was not sure and couldn't find out from the wait staff as none of them speaks English. Our Japanese is very limited to ocha, unagi and some greetings which didn't help either. Wish we spoke Japanese! 

Ippodo, Kyoto

While in Kyoto last month, we visited Ippodo Tea Store on Teramachi-dori in the heart of Kyoto. The store was founded in year 1717 at the same exact location as it is now. It's overwhelming to see so many selections of Japanese green tea at the store. While not all the staff speak English, they provide several samples in a small tin for visitors to smell and see the leaves. 

We were hoping to visit their Kaboku Tearoom and enjoy the tea we would brew ourselves. But when we got to the store, their tearoom was already closed. So we just hang out at the store smelling different types of tea before deciding what to get. 

Twinings Tea in the air

I don't remember the last time I had tea from Twinings. So when it was served on the flight from London on our way home from Jordan, I got to try one. Since I am sensitive to caffeine and wanted to be able to fall asleep once we reached home, I tried their camomile. It has a good flavor, nice and light. The color of the liquor was light yellow and looked pretty in person than in the picture below. 

Bedouin Tea in the Jordanian Desert

One of the most memorable moment of our trip to Jordan a few months ago was having a sweet Bedouin tea on one summer afternoon on the rock ledge in the middle of Wadi Rum Desert with our Bedouin friends. The tea was prepared by Salim, one of Obeid's sons, in a tin tea kettle then served in small glass tea cups. The tea was very sweet, soothing and had a minty smell. We liked the taste so much that we drank it every time we had a chance. We were told that it's a simple blend of black tea, Bedouin desert herbs (cardamon pods, dried thyme or sage can be used in place of their herbs) and sugar.  

It looks like every Bedouin home has a tea kettle. One morning when we were climbing up the steep paths behind the Royal tombs in Petra, on one of the cliffs surrounded by the rocks, a young teen offered us some teas from his small place, the only house on that cliff. Hubby and I experienced this kind of gestures every where we went. What a hospitality!

Our tea spot & empty kettle

Tea in Shanghai

During my short visit to Shanghai last month, a group of us went to South Beauty Restaurant in Pudong area for dinner. I ordered white tea and was surprised to find dozens of leaves floating in my cup. That was the first time I was served tea in China. One of my colleagues then explained that was the practice of serving tea in China. The water is boiling anyway, so you wait for a few minutes until the leaves eventually float to the bottom of the cup. But if you don't want to wait, you can use the lid to hold back the leaves being sucked in while sipping your tea. The wait staff then refills your cup throughout your dinner. The tea was delicious. But of course I forgot to ask the name of it :-( 

My cute cup or gaiwan