A tea roomfor one tea
Phoenix Dancong onlyZIAH is a twelve-seat tea room in Bangkok's Chinatown that pours one kind of tea: Dancong oolong from Phoenix Mountain in Chaozhou, brewed gongfu-style in a small clay pot and thin white cups.
Say ziah
back
In Teochew you eat tea. The host pours and says ziah, eat; you answer with the same word and take the cup with both hands. In Chaozhou, a round of gongfu tea is how a guest is received. We do the same at one table in Bangkok.
How we pourTeochew kung fu tea being prepared. Photo: James Creegan, CC BY 2.0
The
teas
Prices are per seat for one sitting: one tea, eight pours, about 75 minutes. A flight of three teas is 1,100 THB.
Seven aromas,
one mountain
Every tea on the list is Dancong, the strip-style oolong of Phoenix Mountain. Dancong is known for smelling of flowers and fruit it never touched: orchid, orange blossom, grapefruit, almond, ginger flower. Each is named for the aroma.
See all seven
Eight pours
Pour 01 of 08 · 12 secondsThe same leaves, the same cup
- 01
12 seconds
The first pour after the rinse. Pale gold. The leaves have only started to open and the cup smells stronger than it tastes.
- 02
15 seconds
The leaves open. Fuller, sweeter, and the aroma the tea is named for is clearest now.
- 03
20 seconds
The darkest cup of the night. From here we add a few seconds to every pour.
- 04
25 seconds
The roast comes forward and the flower note starts to thin.
- 05
35 seconds
Softer. Hold it in your mouth for a moment before you swallow.
- 06
45 seconds
Paler again. The leaves now fill the pot to the lid.
- 07
60 seconds
A long steep to draw out what is left.
- 08
90 seconds
The last cup. Then we tip the spent leaves onto a plate so you can see what you drank.
How a sittingworks
Twelve seatsYou sit at one long table. One of us brews in front of you, in a small pot or a gaiwan, and pours for everyone from the same fairness cup.
We warm everything
Pot and cups are rinsed with hot water first, so the tea doesn't cool when it lands.
Eight short pours
The first is 12 seconds. Each pour after it is a little longer.
You see the leaves
At the end the leaves go on a plate: green in the middle, red-brown at the edges.
A seat at
the long table
Book a sitting for one to twelve people. We hold seats for 15 minutes; the pot is already warm when you sit down.
Book a seat- First sitting18:00Wednesday to Sunday, until 19:15
- Second sitting19:45Until 21:00
- Third sitting21:30Until 22:45, when Yaowarat is at its busiest below
- A seat, one tea650–720 THBEight pours from the same leaves
- A flight of three1,100 THBThree teas, three pours each
