Monday, September 27, 2010

Prague and its tea



Even though this weekend was mostly a rainy one for central Europe and not at all pleasant for any kind of outdoor activities, I decided to use the opportunity to, after very long time, once again visit probably one of most famous cities in the world - Prague.

Apart from being one of the most densely visited places in Europe...




...and, therefore a growing tourist paradise overfull of hotels, souvenir shops and restaurants of all kinds, Prague is also known for its large variety of teahouses, teashops and, together with smaller and less famous Brno, a center of Czech tea culture.
At this point, it's a pity that I don't know the city itself that much - the main difference from Brno, where I always know what teahouse I'm heading to, is that I've personally experienced only one teahouse in Prague so far.
Still, this place definitely is worth mentioning.




Cha Dao is located right next to the main railway station (and I was able to locate it only thanks to this) and is ran by the same people as online shop Teanet. As they are of Chinese origin, the whole teahouse is decorated in quite a traditional style, giving it unique atmosphere and the advantage of being quite different from all teahouses in my hometown Bratislava, which are generally a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Arabic inspirations with European influence and can often seem quite disparate.




Menu of Cha Dao also comprises mostly traditional Chinese and Taiwanese teas, available in wide range of grades, from average to the top. There are, however, some Japanese teas in their offering as well, though I decided to order this 2010 Huang Jin Gui oolong from Anxi. Expect a post on this tea in the near future.




In the end, here is a question for those of you who know Prague better than I do or have visited in in the past and had some interesting tea-related experience - where to go and what to visit? I want to focus more on Prague's teahouses the next time I visit it, which, I hope, will be soon.



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