Food + Beverage
Do hotel guests need help ordering and enjoying tea? A newly opened hotel in Chengdu thinks so. For that reason, a tea sommelier has been employed to offer expect advice on how to order and enjoy teas.
A newly opened hotel in Chengdu, Sichuan, has hired a tea sommelier to help guests order just the right tea – and advise them on the fine art of consuming the celebrated beverage.
Chengdu is most famous for its fiery cuisine and its proximity to the world’s most important panda preserve. Is tea the city’s best kept secret?
The city of Chengdu – a sprawling metropolis of 14 million people – is situated at the epicentre of the birthplace of cultivated tea.
If tea grows wild in the mountains that surround the city, this is also the region that first gave rise to the cultivation of tea.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the city is home to countless tea houses – and that the consumption of tea is taken very seriously in Chengdu.
Tea Sommelier
Lily Zhou has been hired by Niccolo Chengdu – a newly opened 5 star hotel – to serve as the city’s first tea sommelier, offering “an authentic and personalised Tea Ritual experience” for guests at the hotel’s Tea Lounge, which is situated in the lobby at the entrance of the hotel.
When recommending tea, Lily will take the following points into account: the weather, the season, the guest’s gender, and his or her physical appearance. She will explain how to pour tea and make allusions to ancient poetry and stories about tea.
There are currently 36 kinds of tea on offer in the hotel’s lounge. All of them come from free environments.
“The history and culture of tea is nothing short of fascinating and to have a certified tea sommelier available to both perform traditional tea ceremonies as well as offer advice and suggestions on the best types of tea for our guests will be an exciting and educational experience for all our guests,” says Andrew Abram, General Manager of Niccolo Chengdu.
Where
Niccolo by Marco Polo, Chengdu, Tower 3, Chengdu International Finance Square, No. 1, Section 3 Hongxing Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Telephone: (86 28) 8220=8888.
The hotel is located within the International Finance Square. Chengdu Shuangjiu International Airport can be reached by car in 25 minutes.
China is known for the variety of the herbal tea. Nice blog how to enjoy and serve the tea in hotel.