Tea house

"Tearoom" redirects here. For other uses, see Tearoom (disambiguation).

Old Twinings Shop on The Strand, London

A tea house is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. Sometimes the meal is also called "tea". Although its function varies widely depending on the culture, tea houses often serve as centers of social interaction, like coffeehouses.

Some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses of different types, depending on the national tea culture. For example, the British or American tearoom serves afternoon tea with a variety of small cakes.

Asia

Tea House at night in Yu Yuan Garden, Shanghai

A Chaikhaneh (tea house) in Yazd

See also: Chinese tea culture, Hong Kong tea culture, Taiwanese tea culture, Chashitsu, and Ochaya

In China and Nepal, a tea house (茶館 cháguăn or 茶屋 cháwū; Standard Nepali:चिया घर) is traditionally a place which offers tea to its consumers. People gather at tea houses to chat, socialize, and enjoy tea, and young people often meet at tea houses for dates. The Guangdong (Cantonese) style tea house is particularly famous outside of China especially in Nepal's Himalayas. These tea houses, called chálou (茶樓) serve dim sum (點心), and these small plates of food are enjoyed alongside tea.

In Japanese tradition a tea house ordinarily refers to a private structure designed for holding Japanese tea ceremonies. This structure and specifically the room in it where the tea ceremony takes place is called chashitsu (茶室, literally "tea room"). The architectural space called chashitsu was created for aesthetic and intellectual fulfillment.

In Japan during the Edo period, the term "tea house" could also refer to a place of entertainment with geisha or as a place where couples seeking privacy could go. In this case the establishment was referred to as an ochaya (お茶屋), which literally meant "tea house". However, these establishments only served tea incidentally, and were instead dedicated to geisha entertainment or to providing discreet rooms for visitors. This usage is now archaic. Contemporary Japanese go to modern tearooms called kissaten on main streets to drink black or green tea as well as coffee.

In Central Asia the term tea house could refer to Shayhana in Kazakh, Chaykhana in Kyrgyz and Choyxona in Uzbek, which literally means a tea room. In Tajikistan. The largest tea houses are Orient Tea house or Chinese Tea house, Orom Tea house in (Isfara) town. On the 15th anniversary of Independence in Tajikistan, the people of Isfara town presented Isfara Tea house to Kulyab city for its 2700th anniversary on September 2006. Tea houses are present in other parts of Central Asia, notably in Iran and also Turkey. Such tea houses may be referred to, in Persian, as Chay-Khaneh, or in Turkish, çayhane—literally, the "house of tea". These tea houses usually serve several beverages in addition to tea.

In Arab countries such as Egypt, establishments that serve tea, coffee and herbal teas like karkade are referred to as ahwa or maqha (Arabic: مقهى‎‎) and are more commonly translated into English as coffeehouse.

In Pakistan, the prominet Pak Tea House is an intellectual tea–café located in Lahore known as the hub of Progressive Writers' Movement.

Europe

Britain

Main article: Tearoom (UK and US)

See also: Tea in the United Kingdom

Tea drinking is a pastime closely associated with the English. A female manager of London's Aerated Bread Company is credited with creating the bakery's first public tearoom, which became a thriving chain. Tea rooms were part of the growing opportunities for women in the Victorian era.

In the UK today, a tea room is a small room or restaurant where beverages and light meals are served, often having a sedate or subdued atmosphere. The food served can range from a cream tea (also known as Devonshire tea), i.e. a scone with jam and clotted cream; to an elaborate afternoon tea featuring tea sandwiches and small cakes; to a high tea, a savoury meal. In Scotland teas are usually served with a variety of scones, pancakes, crumpets and other cakes. There is a long tradition of tea rooms within London hotels, for example, at Brown's Hotel at 33 Albemarle Street, which has been serving tea in its tea room for over 170 years. Part of the charm of the occasion is an attractive tea set, often decorated china.

In a related usage, a tea room may be a room set aside in a workplace for relaxation and eating during tea breaks. Traditionally this was served by a tea lady, not to be confused with a dinner lady.

Commonwealth

Tea rooms are popular in Commonwealth countries, particularly Canada, with its harsh winters, when afternoon tea is popular. The menu will generally have similar foods to in the UK, but with the addition sometimes of butter tarts or other small desserts like nanaimo bars or pets de sœurs. Tea is commonly consumed in other Commonwealth countries alone or in the British fashion.

Elsewhere

End view of the tea house "belvedere" in Charlottenburg Palace

In France, a tea room is called Salon de thé, and pastries and cakes are also served. It seems having a separate tea house was a culture in many countries in Europe. In Germany, one Teehaus was particularly famous during the Third Reich era where the German Dictator Adolf Hitler used to have his daily walk and tea on Mooslahnerkopf hill near his residence Berghof, in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler's tea house was a cylindrical structure built in the woods.

In the Czech Republic, the tea room culture has been spreading since the Velvet Revolution 1989 and today, there are nearly 400 tea rooms (čajovny) in the country (more than 50 just in Prague), which is according to some sources the largest concentration of tea rooms per capita in Europe.

In Eastern Europe, countries like Latvia are located at the crossroads of trade routes between Western and Eastern Europe, and tea came both from the East and West. One example of mixed tea is a new type of tea room—Club tea culture. For example, a tea club Goija.

Relationship to 19th century temperance movement

The popularity of the tea room rose as an alternative to the pub in the UK and US during the temperance movement in the 1830s. The form developed in the late 19th century, as Catherine Cranston opened the first of what became a chain of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms in Glasgow, Scotland, and similar establishments became popular throughout Scotland. In the 1880s, fine hotels in both the United States and England began to offer tea service in tea rooms and tea courts, and by 1910 they had begun to host afternoon tea dances as dance crazes swept both the U.S. and the UK. Tea rooms of all kinds were widespread in Britain by the 1950s, but in the following decades cafés became more fashionable, and tea rooms became less common.

See also

• Chashitsu
• List of tea houses

Eating establishments

• Cha chaan teng, Hong Kong eating establishments (literally "tea restaurant")
• Coffeehouse
• Dabang (Korea), the Korean word for such establishments
• Nakamal, a traditional meeting place in Vanuatu, where kava is drunk

Other

• Tea garden, see pleasure garden
• Teahouse scam, a type of fraud
• The Teahouse of the August Moon, a novel and works derived from it
• Yum cha, going for dim sum, a sort of Chinese brunch
• Tea ceremony