Modern Tea

An impressive cafe on Hayes Street (at Laguna Street). They take tea very, very seriously. Try to get a bar counter seat. As if they are serving a glass of cocktail, "tea bartenders" brew a wide variety of tea (from Assam, Darjeeling, Keemum to Japanese and Chinese green tea) in front of you. For each kind of tea, they have a different way of brewing: what tea pot to be used, the degree of temperature of hot water, the amount of tea leaf. For black tea, you need to brew with absolutely boiling water. They exactly do it. They also heat up tea pots and cups by generously using hot water in front of you as the bar counter table is fitted with a long narrow sink covered by a wooden lid with slits. Finally, they don't serve you a tea pot with tea leaf inside. They remove it so tea does not get too strong by the time you have the second and third cups of tea. Splendid. So splendid that I start up a conversation with a bartender (which is very unusual for me).

Tea drinkers are mistreated by way too many cafes around the world. Tea salons like Modern Tea should be more widely available.