Question: Why isn't your Tofu Curry Spicier, like a traditional Indian curry?

Answer: Because we want all of our teas to really complement the food, and never be dominated by overly intense  flavors, we opted for a less-than-normal spice level with the curry. Personally I love super-heat with my Indian foods, but, being a tea lounge, and with the chance that a customer orders the curry with a green or white tea...we had to be sure the tea wouldn’t be dwarfed by the spice level.

Q: Your miso soup is not as light and brothy as I am accustomed to in Japanese restaurants. Why?

A: Our miso soup is very different from the miso soup you find in Japanese restaurants. Some customers are surprised  by the sweet potatos and onions in the soup. As a menu philosophy we try to pay homage to the food traditions of tea cultures without becoming too mainstream, ie, we want to be clear that we are international, and not a “Japanese,” “Indian,” or “Turkish,” or “Russian” tea house.

With this in mind, we chose a more robust miso soup based on a traditional Japanese type of “stew-miso soup” famous in the city of Nagoya, Japan. The name of this miso-soup stew is called “Miso-Nikomi,” and it’s delicious, thick, and heartier than the standard  miso soup in a typical Japanese restaurant. A while ago we fielded a lot of customer comments about our food being too delicate and light. To address that, we thought it would be a good idea to make it more robust with a bowl of miso-nikomi.

Q: What's up with pairing green tea and chocolate?

A: Green tea and chocolate? This flavor combination has become a huge hit--amongst staff and customers. With the recent popularity surge of green tea and chocolate in the food world, it’s such a natural fit to put them together. The bittersweetness of  chocolate goes very well with the grassiness of green tea, and you can try these tastes together on our matcha-chocolate brownie, or, our matcha-dusted chocolate almonds.