For some reason I’ve been very un-British and never actually visited a single Tea House in China (despite having been here more than a year), but today it was time to break that streak.

After a good night out in Beijing were I lost my shoes, we decided to nurse our hangovers by drinking lots of tea. Being in Beijing, it was obvious we had to visit a tea house. Yi had spotted one she wanted to go to the day before, so we hopped into a taxi and headed out to start our day.

First we went to a shop next door and bought a cheap pair of shoes very common in China (they’re basically like pumps), then we went to the Tea House. After sitting down we ordered ourselves some jasmine tea.

Jasmine is a flower used to brew tea in northern China. You place the closed bulb in a cup and pour hot water over it. As it brews the flower will open up. It tastes really nice, and is good for getting over a hangover if you happened to have gotten a little drunk the night before…

I also ordered some mutton ribs, which were served in the style of Peking Duck. There was plenty of meat and fat to suck off the bone, and a couple of spicy sauces to dip it in. I would have preferred spicier stuff, but was definitely a good way to start the day on a hangover.

We chilled out for a while, slowly drinking our tea and topping it up with more hot water. Eventually I could feel the effects of the previous night wearing off. Eventually, the flavour of the jasmine flower was drained, so we paid our way and went for one last short trip before leaving Beijing.