Tea House Birthday Celebration

It’s no secret that I love where I live! I love Maryland and living right outside the Nation’s Capital is pretty awesome. BUT, I am sad that there isn’t really a tea culture here. If you want bubble tea, I could point you to endless places. When it comes to gongfu, there is only ONE place that I know of that allows for this type of brewing and it’s nestled in beautiful Georgetown!

While Georgetown isn’t the easiest place to get to, it is totally worth the trek. Georgetown is home to Ching Ching Cha, a Chinese tea house! A little bit about the name, cha means tea. Ching Ching was a bit harder to find a meaning. I found in two different places describe this as celebratory and maybe even equivalent to saying “cheers” which makes total sense!

I had no idea this place existed and for my birthday in 2019, my family surprised me with a visit here. I was stunned. Everything I wished we had in our area, we actually had! Of course when they asked what I wanted to do for my birthday this year I expressed interest in going back to Ching Ching Cha.

The tea house is small, intimate and has a beautiful design. The first thing I notice when walking in is the high ceilings with glass for natural light. The walls are lined with tea, teaware and art.

You have the choice of sitting on a platform at a low table with cushions and shoes off which I love! You also have the option of sitting a table with chairs.

The cool thing about this place is that when you order a tea, they bring you a tray, teapot and pitcher just as I would do at home. Water is boiled over a flame in the middle of the table so you can continually brew your tea.

Ching Ching Cha has a good variety of teas ranging from puer, green, oolong, black, white, tisanes, artisan (blooming teas), and herbal remedies!

I have been here quite a few times and have only tried their oolongs so I decided to branch out and give their pu’er a try. I got an incredibly woodsy shou that was strong and delicious!

My sister had the phoenix oolong which is one that I love and have bought from them and my mom had the oriental beauty. Their oriental beauty tea is phenomenal, my mom and I both bought some to take home.

Did I mention that they also serve food? We got a variety of food but I really enjoyed their cold salad on the right below and their dumplings on the left below. I’ve tried just about everything on the menu and from their salmon to marbled tea eggs, it is all a delightful treat!

We also got some dessert! The sweet on the left is lotus seed in puff pastry! For Persian new year we also put lotus paste on our table so I am familiar and fond of this taste. Both of these are right out of the oven, hot and delicious! Now, the coconut tart on the right stole the show. This tart is one of the most delicious sweets I’ve ever had. My mouth waters as I write this! The coconut comes through very well and It also reminded me of a cream of wheat dessert we get at our local Burmese restaurant so maybe there was some of that in it as well!

The experience was so wonderful as always. The atmosphere is calming, the food is delicious and I get the opportunity to nerd out about tea. I also have been able to introduce my family more into the world of teas they are unfamiliar with. It’s exciting to see them enjoy teas that they wouldn’t never think to drink!

The staff is so kind and informative when showing you how to brew so it’s a great place for anyone from beginner to expert!

Last but not least, they have a ton of teaware to grab your interest which is always a fun way to end a visit to them.

If you’re in a DC, this is a must visit! If you’re interested in ordering tea from them, I highly suggest the oriental beauty or the phoenix oolong which I have tried and bought for myself because I enjoyed it so much!

See you next time, Ching Ching Cha!

Uncle Nearest Whiskey + Peach Infused Oolong

Ok, so I’ve discovered a new whiskey that I LOVE. I found it by chance, it had an incredible story so I decided to give it a try! I got sucked into learning about the greatest whiskey maker the world the never knew. Read about Uncle Nearest here!

So, I broke two of my rules to make this cocktail but I’m not mad about it. A whiskey like Uncle Nearest is not one that I would create a cocktail with. It’s what I would enjoy neat. I also rarely ever drink blended tea or fruity tea but here I’ve infused the oolong with slices of peach. It turned out a lot better than I thought!

The idea I had for this drink was pretty simple. Oolong and whiskey go really well together because of their complimentary taste profiles. Peach is also a flavor that goes well with both oolong and whiskey. Peach also symbolizes the south in so many ways and because Uncle Nearest hails from Tennessee I thought this was fitting.

Cold brewing these two together gave the oolong a slightly sweeter flavor and softened the peaches even more. You could opt to sweeten this brew if you’d like but I personally decided not to as I don’t like super sweet cocktails.

When drinking this cocktail you get the punch of the whiskey that is then softened by the oolong and peach. On it’s own, it’s not very sweet at all but when you take a bite of the peach slice, it’s the perfect amount of sweet. The slice that is muddled at the bottom also has a whiskey kick!

While the pulp of the peach doesn’t make this the most attractive cocktail, I would argue that these three are an incredible mix. I can’t wait to get my hands on some more uncle nearest and make this again!

I think the flavor of uncle nearest goes well with the other flavors but you could use a whiskey of your choice. In terms of oolong, I would go with an unflavored, large leaf oolong for sure and a dancong oolong if you can as that is the type I used.

The container I used to cold brew the tea in took about 5 cups of water and that allowed me to create two glasses! You could split this up more into small glasses and have a more potent drink.

Oolong Granita

Shaved tea!

Granita is a classically Italian ice dessert that is similar to sorbet but made by hand and therefore flakier. The granita I made kinda reminded of the "shaved ice" we use to get as kids but instead of being flavored with artificial sugar color, it's flavored with delicious Shangri-La oolong from Nepal Tea! 

It's summer so the majority of my Sips by teas are going to be turned into some sort of cool treat! 

The Shangri- La oolong is described as "spicy" and full bodied so I decided to add some cardamom pods to intensify the flavor but in a sweeter way. Green cardamom pods are so easy to incorporate into teas. For a stronger flavor, crack open the pods and throw them in the brewing tea. It will get strained anyway so no harm done if seeds sneak out of the pods!

It's important to use a container that is able to go in the freezer without cracking. I bought this glass bread pan from the grocery store and it can handle both hot and cold! I let the tea cool down in this dish. 

I wasn't able to get good photos of the progress but basically if you check on the granita every 20-30 minutes you will see it starting to harden. Make sure to push the edges of the granita into the center every time you check on it. 

What this will do is start creating the flaky type texture you see here. After there is no water left and all of the granita is frozen, scoop it out and enjoy! I missed a few chunks that were larger and they froze but I was able to run a fork along the chunks to shave them down. 

Do you have a favorite summer recipe that you want me to incorporate tea into? Share with me in the comments or contact me!

Wuyi Oolong Lamb

Lamb Tea.

I was super excited to get an oolong tea in my Sips by box. I've been wanting to cook a savory dish with a good oolong tea. I've experimented with chicken, shrimp and tuna. I had some lamb in the freezer and decided to give it a shot! 

First things first, white2Tea has such cool packaging :) The clover patch tea that was in my box is described as having an intense floral fragrance and a mineral mouth feel. Growing up in an Iranian household, lamb is very familiar to me and I like it very much. Lamb is very intense because it's rich and fatty. Although this oolong is also described as intense I thought that the floral fragrance and it being a rock tea would be a great addition to the lamb. 

I went back to my roots a bit and combined some of my favorite flavors for this marinade. Turmeric and dill are central to many Iranian dishes and I love how they taste on meat. 

This tea can be steeped 5x so after my steep for the marinade I decided to steep the leaves a few more times for myself! P.s. this GORGEOUS, hand painted dish is something I scored in Amalfi. It's actually an olive dish but I thought this was a great way to show off it's beautiful design. 

A warning about turmeric which you may or not know: do not overdo it. Turmeric has become really trendy due to it's health benefits but on meat too much can be a bad thing. It has a potent flavor and you don't want it to take over all the other flavors! I used a bit more than a teaspoon in my recipe but I think that's a good amount to use. 

This is a quick rice called "cateh" that I eat with most of my meals. I think I'll share the recipe one day but because I don't do much measuring except with my eyes and nose it's hard to explain how to cook it!. Also, I know this is like the third recipe I've posted with green beans. I don't just eat green beans, I actually love all vegetables it's only a coincidence! :) 

The tea is very subtle in this recipe and If I were to do it again I think I may steep the tea several times and compare the bases! All in all, it was delicious and a simple dinner for any lamb lover!