What a pleasure to have three tea experiences in as many days while visiting a cold wintery New York City for a food- and theater-centric marathon. At least several Manhattan food and beverage professionals know how to do things right when it comes to serving tea. And, as we serious tea drinkers know by now, that is no mean feat and not to 
be taken for granted. The hows and whys behind building a premium tea program at a food service venue are often afterthoughts. Not so at Eleven Madison Park, a thrilling Art Deco-inflected space on lower Madison Avenue, which clearly delivers the goods before, during, and after the meal. They have a tea guy there, Christopher Day, who is passionate and knowledgeable about the leaf, sourcing high-quality teas. From what we tasted, he can also inspire his staff to take the requisite care when serving high-quality teas. I enjoyed three successive and distinct infusions of a beautiful Dayuling high mountain oolong from Taiwan (hand-harvested in Spring 2011 at 2400 meters). Indeed, this experience was a soothing and sweet ending to a leisurely and luxurious tasting menu kind of meal.
But it wasn’t only in a temple of gastronomy that good cuppas (or exquisite pots) were to be had. Bosie Tea Parlor in Greenwich Village has a tightly edited and even a bit idiosyncratic collection of loose-leaf teas for the choosing. I had an aromatic brightly flavored cup of Nuwara Eliya. One tea mate enjoyed a buttery muscatel Darjeeling from the Castleton estate and the other had a single estate Bukhial Assam, each well brewed, using good-quality water heated to the right temperature for the right amount of infusion time. Amazing! This kind of attention to tea brewing restores my faith in the future of spreading the gospel about tea in restaurants and tea shops.
Thirdly, at Boulud Sud (near Lincoln Center), a new sophisticated pan-Mediterranean outpost of Daniel Boulud’s restaurant empire, fresh mint and fresh lemon verbena were each brewed to yield restorative cups at the end of a meal. And did these ever go well with the Levantine-inspired desserts (a sunny, puckery grapefruit sorbet served with cubes of rose-flavored Turkish delight, mascarpone mousse, and sesame halvah, and a chocolate ganache set on a dark cocoa sponge cake spangled with pomegranates, draped with orange blossom cream and an intense dark chocolate sorbet).
When next in New York City, check to see if these places are still doing it right. I am confident that they will be and are hopefully inspiring other restaurants to do the same. A demanding New York audience keeps each of these operations on their toes in a satisfyingly well-choreographed dance of leaves and water.
Nicely written Robert. I bet it was a great experience :) I’m just curious: what did you mean by “good-quality water”? Is there some type of water you would recommend for brewing tea, which would enhance the flavor?
Thank you :)
What exciting news that is Robert. Very encouraging. Can you share the price point for those special tea? Truth is, I wouldn’t mind paying a higher price for high quality tea – relative to a pricey meal. In Portland, Oregon, another foodie environment with wonderful and innovative restaurants, the move has been to Smith Teas in tea bags. Definitely a huge step forward but still the tea bag I’m afraid – although whole leaf teas are used.
So nice at T Ching to read about these places we may never get to ourselves!! Thanks, Chef!
Robert……..what a wonderful story on Tea…..I love tea as well, but have never gone in depth of where they come from and how carefully one needs to brew them…for a proper infusion….I loved reading about all the nuances of flavors…and I am sure there are just as many in color….Thank you for a great learning experience – reading your story was awsome……….
What would you think if you could have tea brewed in a similar manner to the way Absinthe was prepared? I’ve developed an Absinthe Tea and I am working on sort of reverse engineering the beautiful Absinthe Fountain to brew it table-side. The fountain would hold hot water, and stay hot, as opposed to ice water. It would be filled with the water that had already been infused with the seeds. From the fountain it would drip into the glass where the spoon rests. The spoon would hold not only a sugar cube but the remaining leaves of the tea where it would then steep into the glass.
I would like to hit as many senses as possible with this tea experience. So it isn’t just the great taste, but the smell, the visual beauty, the history and mystery of it. If a tea could have a gender, this one would be feminine and very sensual. That’s what I’m hoping to bring. Please take a look: http://kck.st/yR5fT1