Tuesday, October 20, 2009

East/West Tea Tour: House of Cha

Part two of my East/West Tea Tour is up on World Tea News. The trip may have ended, but the reviews go on! Here's an excerpt of the article on House of Cha in Lawrence, Kansas:

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Perhaps it is this combination of college-town surroundings and international influence that resulted in the tea room’s unusual dichotomy of tea: bing cha puer cakes line the walls, shelves are filled with large Chinese-style canisters of oolong from the owner’s in-laws’ tea farm in Taiwan and Yi Xing tea ware adorns the counters, yet bubble tea is heavily featured on the menu and the store signage.

It’s rare that a tea business crosses the line between “serious” and “fun” so boldly, so I inquired about it. Freeman informed me that the claim of “the best bubble tea guaranteed” on the banner outside isn’t just ad-speak. Forget artificially flavored syrups – at House of Cha, they brew fresh tea concentrate for their boba three times a day and cook imported, raw Taiwanese tapioca pearls daily.

Even I was temped to try it (despite having sworn off bubble tea forever after a particularly terrible experience), but I opted instead for some of their directly sourced Snowy Moon Oolong (from the last picking of winter in the Chinese calendar), a bowl of house-made soup and a side of matcha-dusted pumpkin seeds.
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It was a lovely visit. If you're ever in the area, be sure to check them out! In the meantime, you can read the full article on World Tea News.

4 comments:

Steph said...

I, too, had a bad experience with bubble tea. Far too sweet, but still - it's so popular, who am I to judge? :-) I'm really loving this journey. thank you

Vee said...

Haha, I know what you mean! It's like chai from concentrate - I don't usually like it, but it's helped many Americans get into tea, so who's to say it's all bad?

Thanks, Steph. :) Part three is going up this week.

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog, great info. ;)

Vee said...

Thanks, fattony! I look forward to your comments in the future. :)