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The Czech Tea House phenomenon is “a new movement in Czech Republic that began in the early 1990s as a peaceful revolt against multinational fast food outlets and the smoke-filled alcohol-driven atmosphere of the ubiquitous Czech pub. Dimly lit Czech Tea Houses serve an astonishing array of teas from across the world by silent pro-buddhist / hippy waiters.” (Lonely planet) |
Many Czech tea house are easily accessible, however the one I ended up visiting had several twists that added to the mystery of this “underground” concept.
The tea house’s business hours were clearly displayed on the front door and the place should have been open, but unnervingly the door was locked and when I tried to open it… someone shouted something from inside… in Czech, of course, so I had no clue what they had said. I retreated into the street a little and noticed someone walking up to the door that I just withdrew from. He rang the hanging bell (an actual 3″ high bell with a pull rope next to the door) after which the door was unlock and the man was invited in. This made me cautious. But after double checking my travel guide to ensure this was the place, I was determine to take on this adventure. So, gathering up my courage, I rang the bell. A minute later, I heard the door unlock and a quiet hippy guy with a huge afro and wearing slippers let me in and then promptly locked the door behind me. Gulp!
The place was dimly lit with dusty light and I could hear ambient music playing quietly. Walking into one of the two small side room through the hanging doorway beads, I noticed all the tables — which were very low set at knee level sitting down — were taken. I must have had a strong cup of coffee that morning because I still had some courage left in me. So I went to a table with one of three chairs available and asked if I could join the two others. Though we were all shy at first, we eventually begun talking… in broken German!
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A few minutes later, the hippy guy shuffled in and brought me a menu with a small bell on top. I was to -quietly!- ring the bell when I was ready to order. What a concept!
The menu consisted of twenty pages each with one page covering the origins and flavour of a specialty tea. The only exception was the one page which had mediterranean snacks like Halva and Hummus. After ringing the bell and sharing my order with the waiter (“Tiger Spring” tea ), he took both the menu and bell back with him, which was too bad as I took a liking to that bell and had been considering ordering more just to use it again.
In the center of the table lay a small open box with wax papers inside… I pick one up and realize the marvel of another amazing concept; Paper to put away your bubblegum. It actually said on the paper itself that it was to be used for bubblegum. What will those crazy Czechs think of next??
Eventually my order came and I received a clay teapot with my cup of tea — it was great to see that these guys weren’t cutting corners! Looking around I was impressed when I noticed that every one in the room seemed to have a different style of tea cup and tea pot for their tea. I felt that this added quite a bit of interesting character to the place.
Returning to my recently made friends, I was somehow able to convince them to refer popular Czech music bands to check out later at the local music store. They were very friendly and smiled empathetically when my German was too broken to make my point.
After paying for my tea and just before leaving, the hippy guy gave me a surprisingly delicious tea-flavoured hard candy which left me with a warm feeling about the place… until of course he locked the door behind me as I left.