House of Three (or Four Really, Really Delicious) Teas

As Louis mentioned, the beginning of 2010 was a little bit ridiculous in terms of how many different food and drink establishments we managed to visit over the course of a few short weeks. One of the most unique places we visited was the Maison des Trois Thés, near Place Monge in the 5th arrondissement.

You might be able to guess from the outside that this is no ordinary Parisian salon de thé. This tea-lovers Elysium boasts an impressive array of fine mostly-Chinese teas (you won't find Earl Grey behind the counter here). In fact, we learned during our visit that the owner, Madame Tseng, spends at least half the year in Asia, gathering teas to sell in this very shop.

The choices were seemingly endless, but based on the advice of our server, we decided to taste four Wu-long or Oolong teas. A traditional Chinese tea hailing from several different regions (we tasted one from Taiwan and another from Fujian province), oolong tea is semi-fermented (which distinguishes it from green (un-fermented) and black (fermented) teas). A traditional way of drinking oolong tea is via the gōng fu chá dào or gongfu tea ceremony (if you didn't read the Madame Tseng link above, I'll just tell you that she is the only woman on a list of ten gongfu tea ceremony masters, so I think we went to the right place).

Madame Tseng was otherwise occupied, but she sent one of her very competent employees to serve us and demonstrate how to get the very best flavor from our chosen teas.

Louis, JP, Eden, and I each had an opportunity to try our hand at performing the gongfu tea ceremony, a process that involves steeping 5g of tea in almost-boiling water for just less than 30 seconds. First, fill a small pot - let's call it the steeping pot - with your tea of choice. Then, add nearly-boiling water until the pot is just barely overflowing. Finally, seal the lid with another quick pour of hot water. Be careful not to burn your fingers!

Wait no more than 30 seconds. Dry off the bottom of the steeping pot on a beautiful towel placed nearby. Next, deftly and swiftly pour the contents of the steeping pot into the (slightly larger) serving pot. A flip of the wrist will ensure minimal spillage. Wait a few moments while the freshly brewed tea empties. This is a good opportunity to amuse your guests with some witty banter. If serving more than one other person, it will be necessary to brew another batch and add it to the first already in the serving pot. These two infusions will mix and provide enough tasty tea for all your guests. 

From the serving pot, pour the tea into the taller, narrower cup - the sniffer (probably not a technical term). This cup is solely for sniffing. We smelled honey, grains, tobacco, flowers, nuts, and more in our teas. Each tea is unique and must be sniffed and tasted for maximum pleasure. 

Finally, pour the contents of your sniffer cup into your taster cup (the squatter one) and be sure to smell the empty sniffer cup for a strikingly different smell experience. Finally, raise the taster cups to your lips, and enjoy!

We highly recommend this tea house for anyone remotely interested in tea. Before we visited, I had read a review somewhere on the interwebs that said the shop was a little bit intimidating. That may be true (the tea canisters behind the counter are labeled in Chinese, for instance), but the staff were nothing but gracious and helpful and we really enjoyed our experience.