I've always liked the aspect of having tea at the garden and/or the temple. At Descanso Gardens in LA, you can enjoy a cup of green tea... but it's just a tea bag in a disposable cup. Hmmm not so glamour or exciting. Also, I love the tea garden at Golden Gate Park in SF, but what they serve is actually not that great. (I remember drinking very weak tea served in a large tea pot with some crackers. If I were to compare with the quality of American Coffee... Their tea was like getting coffee at alco gas station. I love the atmosphere they offer there. And yes, I would still go back there if I have a chance just because I love these type of places.) However, this Chinese Tea Garden went beyond my expectation! We really felt like we were in China enjoying tea... :)

As soon as we saw what people were having at the table, my mind was jumping up and down. Once we decided on the tea we wanted to order, the lady came to our table to demonstrate how the tea needs to be brewed in the beginning.

This wasn't the first time for me to experience traditional Chinese Tea. I've gone to places in Japan. So I noticed that the lady didn't explain about the tea or try to serve with perfection as much as the tea expertise in Japan. But, if I can experience this in the U.S, there is nothing more I could ask for!

As you can see in the pictures, each person gets a tall and a short cup. The tall cup is for smelling, and the short one is for drinking. There are always 2 ways to enjoy the Chinese Tea.

Karen & I both tried brewing tea at the table :)
The tea leaf we ended up ordering which I thought was my favorite 鐵觀音 (Tiě Guān Yīn or Ti Kuan Yin) didn't end up tasting like it. The tea we had was rather light tea... and we weren't able to brew with much flavor. I wonder if we received different kind. Anyway, we kept experimenting with adding more tea leaves and brewing a lot longer. But none of it was really working. (By the way, if we did this at one of the Chinese Tea Places I've gone in Japan, the tea expertise would be very upset since they really know how the each tea leaves should be brewed.) But, yes I still liked it.

All the snacks we had were excellent as well :)

This is like the place I've always dreamed of having in my neighborhood.
I haven't found one in LA yet. I know that Huntington Botanic Garden is opening Chinese Tea Garden sometime soon. I'm really hoping they are planning on serving traditional Chinese Tea... That would be cool.