A journey through the world in 18 tea moments

My family comes from Hong Kong, so tea is basically in my DNA. No day passes that I don’t drink tea. Regardless of time of day or season – whether alone or with friends, at home or traveling, in a dry desert or in a green national park.

Top tea moments

• Hong Kong: Tea with my family
• Beijing, China (study abroad): Accompanied by jazz music at my favorite café ,Sculpting in Time, operated by a film director and his wife. Right next to my Tsinghua University and long since torn down.
• Gobi desert, China: First camel ride and tea, but not at the same time 🙂
• Inner Mongolia, China: Steppe landscape. Sleeping in a yurt, watching my fellow students try out Mongolian wrestling, afterwards tea and more Báijiǔ (白酒) = a type of Chinese liquor we drank

• Yangon, Myanmar: Three-week backpacker tour with a friend through Myanmar (formerly Burma). New Year’s Day 2015. We visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the symbol of Myanmar. A local TV program treated us to lunch with tea as their good deed for the year. A very warm ambiance among Buddhists. The new year had a delightful, heartfelt beginning!
• Nyaung Shwe, Myanmar: ViewPoint EcoLodge – thoughtfully designed accommodation. Burmese-French breakfast and gourmet cuisine in the Shan Restaurant near Inle Lake.
• Varanasi, India: Masala chai (black tea, milk, sugar and a mix of spices) with Baba and my Indian brother, Raju (not technically related, but a deep inner connection)

• San Francisco, USA: Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
• NYC, USA: EN Japanese Brasserie (once known as ZEN, which seems to me a better name, and featuring fantastic food, by the way!)

• Iceland: Tea in the middle of nature: Gullfoss waterfall, glaciers, geysers
• Cinque Terre, Italy: Tea by the sea after we walked through all five coastal towns (12 km) in a single day
• Munich: Tushita Teehaus (my latest discovery)
• Paris: Buddha Bar Paris, tea instead of cocktails
• Berlin:
  • Green tea café Mamecha, Kame or macha-macha (relaxing oasis with matcha latte and onigiri)
  • Afternoon tea in Hotel de Rome during the period leading up to Christmas (nearly an annual ritual with a friend)
  • Breakfast with friends from high school at various locations in Berlin
  • Spontaneous tea picnics
• Usedom: In a wicker beach chair with tea from Nepal, facing the Baltic Sea

Tea bucket list

• To drink matcha/sencha during Hanami in Japan
• To visit a tea plantation

Collect tea moments – not objects.