Prof Wonmug > wrote:
>What type of tea is typically served in
>
> a good Chinese restaurant,

Usually a light oolong. Most common is the Foojoy stuff where you can
get a ten-pound bag for about six dollars. Sometimes you will encounter
a better oolong and SOME really good dim sum places have a pu-ehr available
on request.

> a good Japanese restaurant,

Usually a sencha. Yamamotoyama brand seems to be the most popular that
I see... it's not particularly good but it's not expensive.

> a good Thai restaurant,

They don't drink much hot tea in Thailand. What you will find is "Thai Iced
Tea." If it's the real thing, it's a special grade of tea which is
ground up, usually drip-brewed, and served with huge amounts of sugar.
It may or may not have condensed milk added. The real stuff actually has
a strong anise flavour which comes from the tea leaf itself, and an orange
color.

Just about every restaurant I have seen in the US uses a rather poor grade
thai tea which has got star anise and coloring added to it, but it's still
not bad. The real thing is pretty amazing, though. Vasinee brand is not
the real thing.

A lot of Thai restaurants are serving some kind of hot tea now, but it is
really not traditional there.

> a good Vietnamese restaurant,

Most probably "Saigon tea" which is green jasmine tea. Usually you will
see the cheap yellow box Jasmine from China.

Occasionally you will see "Hue Tea" or "Tra Sen Hue" which is a green
tea flavoured with lotus blossoms. It's a very acquired taste and you
may have to do some convincing to get them to give you some.

> a good Indian restaurant?

Masala tea. The cheapest possible black Assam tea, usually CTC-processed
and mixed with spices. Actual spice mixture will depend on the chef's
taste (although he's apt to just buy a prepackaged tea masala from a
vendor) and could include ginger, clove, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon,
etc. Sometimes you will find South Indian restaurants that use black
cardamom, which gives an almost minty aftertaste.

Usually slathered with huge amounts of milk, but they may offer a "black tea"
without milk on request. The black tea should be made with a different
masala than the regular milk tea but often isn't.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."