Travel Trends: Hotels Offer Tea Sommeliers & Tea Tasting Menus

The world's Grande Dame hotels have long offered stellar Afternoon Tea services, but now luxury hotels are upping the ante with tea-paired tasting menus inspired by wine tasting menus. The Independent (UK) reports that the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore has "created a Tea & Dine experience at its Chinese restaurant Jiang-Nan Chun, allowing guests to tuck into traditional Cantonese fare accompanied by a perfect range of teas." Each course-- whether stir-fried phoenix prawn or steamed bai ling mushroom and seafood-- is accompanied with its very own tea choice. In this case, a cup of longjing then rain flower tea. Paris' Yam'Tcha restaurant has been making waves for its tea-paired culinary feasts, and other hotels around the world-- from Thailand's Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi to London's Royal Garden Hotel-- have jumped on the bandwagon in offering tea menus. Let's not forget Vegas, where Caesar's Palace has a Tea Sommelier on staff!