New York, March 8, 2017—Timed to coincide with Asia Week New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened Tea Drunk at The Met today, a new sit-down café with a Chinese tea house theme.
Tea Drunk at The Met is located on the second-floor balcony overlooking the Museum's majestic Great Hall, with its soaring domes supported by colossal limestone arches and piers. This new café serves a selection of authentic Chinese teas harvested from renowned tea-growing mountains in China, as well as small plates featuring light delicacies. Surrounded by antique Asian ceramics in long wall cases, the café offers guests an opportunity to experience a tea-drinking culture that emerged in medieval China around the eighth century and continues to the present day. All teas—green (Gua Pian), black, white, Pu Er (fermented), and Wu Long—will be provided by Tea Drunk, a popular tea house in New York City’s East Village known for serving artisanal teas.
The highlight of the menu is the Gong Fu-style tea service featuring five different types of teas, including a historic green tea using only leaves ($20) and a roasted Wu Long Tea of supreme quality and rarity ($50). In addition, there is a tea counter where visitors can pick up their own cup of tea ($9) and choose from a selection of Chinese pastries and cookies. Coffee will also be served at the counter. All Gong Fu service will be offered for two guests with a plate of miniature cookies and cakes.
About the Teas
Every spring, the Tea Drunk staff visits China's historic tea-growing mountains in pursuit of the highest-quality tea leaves. They select buds and leaves exclusively from those that are collected from renowned tea mountains during a 10- to 15-day period each year. The teas are meticulously handpicked and handcrafted by skilled "heritage farmers," whose families are known for their long history of tea harvesting.
Tea Drunk at The Met is scheduled to operate daily for three months.
Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (to be replaced on Friday and Saturday evenings by The Met's popular Great Hall Balcony Bar).
Walk-ins only.
Also of note: The exhibition Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220) will open at The Met Fifth Avenue on April 3, 2017.
# # #
March 8, 2017
Chinese Tea House–Themed Pop-Up Café
Opens at The Met Today