Teahouse Design

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mikazukiteahouse
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Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:28 am

Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:37 am

hi everyone

my wife and I are opening a very small tea house in the Japanese countryside.

however, we will be serving Chinese tea, gong fu style.

though it is a teahouse, the front room will have a bar like an American bar or a Japanese izakaya. I guess I could call it a tea bar but it just feels a little dirty to do so.

part of the logic behind this design is that Japanese are comfortable with the Izakaya and also it will allow us to prepare tea for people as they're not familiar with gongfu.

anyway, my plan as of now is to have cabinetry built behind The bar that would be reminiscent of Chinese medicine cabinets. several drawers that will be numbered and will coincide with whatever tea. For puerh i'm a little bit stuck as I would like to keep the cakes together although individual shelving could be made. I just don't know if it's the best route to go.

aside from that, there will be a couple electric stoves for boiling water, possibly inlaid into the counter top. And then likely rather than a tacky looking jug of water, we'll have some sort of large earthenware pot to transfer water into kettles for boiling.

We are thinking about installing a cheap dumbwaiter since there will only be one or two of us working at a time. That way customers upstairs can send down their order and we can just send it right up where they will have all of their own kit to make tea.

Any thoughts or ideas on this are very welcome!
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Baisao
Posts: 1397
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:17 pm
Location: ATX

Thu Sep 15, 2022 8:36 pm

I’m sorry that I’m just now seeing this. Here are my thoughts:

While medicine style drawers are aesthetic, they will far from ideal for storing teas unless the teas are in an airtight container. Tea is sensitive to humidity and readily picks up nearby odors.

Alternatives might be earthenware jars for short term storage, replenished frequently from airtight containers stored in your warehouse. This would be aesthetic yet still provide fresh tea.

I’m uncertain how comfortable your guests would feel about heating their own water on stoves. There’s a fire risk and each tea needs a specific temperature. I’d suggest either having electric kettles at each table or a Thermos containing water drawn at the correct temperature needed for the guest’s specific tea. I’ve seen both of these executed successfully. It also reduces the risk of fire.

You can have whole cakes to sell and have broken up cakes for serving. These can be broken up manually or lightly steamed and teased apart.

Good luck!
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