ching ching CHA — Restaurant in Washington

Passing by Ching China Cha on a fairly regular basis these last few years, I've always chuckled to myself whenever I read the sign. The name is something left to be desired, really it should be somewhat offensive, but apparently Ching Ching is the name of the founder of this tea house. Offensive name or not, this place is a lovely, quiet place to enjoy some tea.

First off, this place is a legit Chinese tea house. It's very open and lofty. There's plenty of natural sunlight seeping through the place from the overhead skylight. When you first walk in, you see various teas and accessories from teapots, mesh balls, and tea canisters. To the left, there's platform seating with comfy cushions where you sit cross-legged, without shoes. There are also tables and chairs, made of rosewood. Overall, the atmosphere is restful and undisturbed.

They serve over 70 different kinds of teas, from green, black, oolong, tisanes, white, scented (jasmine, strawberry green, Earl Grey), and even pu-erh. Two oz teas range from $4-32, depending on the kind of tea you're ordering. In addition to teas, they also serve dumplings, chicken rolls, soups, sweets like tarts and cookies, and whole entrees like curry chicken, tofu, and miso salmon. They also serve iced teas (grapefruit, apple, grape, jasmine green, hibiscus) for $4.50. I got an apple iced tea (it's actually apple with jasmine green) and it was perfect for the hot weather outside. For $4.50, I got a pretty large glass of iced tea.

As I mentioned, they offer a range of tea accessories, including books, teapots, tean canisters, mesh balls, tea cups, and other teaware. This tea house is a great place to go if you're in the mood for traditional tea or want to sit serenely and enjoy tea/snacks. I certainly wouldn't mind popping back here for some traditional...

This place use to be an authentic amazing tranquil tea place a few years ago. It was a gem hidden amongst the busy streets of Georgetown. It was lovely and so peaceful. After the place was renovated a new manager took over; she is very rude and rushing, always snatching the tab and slamming things. She is very rude and not fit for a tea place. She should run a liquor store instead of a tea place, she would fit in much better. I truly miss the atmosphere the original place held. I went to visit April 12 around 2pm, the set up has 2 sitting areas were you can sit on the floor and 4 tables when you enter and 3 tables towards the back. She cut off the sitting area where you could sit on the floor she wasn’t allowing people to sit there there were 2 tables occupied where the four tables are located and she occupied one of the tables with her laptop and a few other office items towards the back to out of the three tables were occupied I asked if I could sit somewhere and she told me that the place was full and there’s nowhere I can sit and she rushed away from me she didn’t offer me a time of when any of the tables will be available she didn’t allow me to really ask her because she was rushing me off and she seemed like she was angry because I asked her a question. Honestly tired of the place you used to be one of my favorite spots but because of her attitude I no longer really want to be there it just makes me feel sad and like my service that I want to offer is useless to her it seem like she doesn’t really want any customers she just wants to occupy the...

Ching ching cha is a pretty cool tea place! I wish I could have spent more time here, but as my 3rd tea visit for the day, I didn't want to make my family wait on me too long ^^'. Get past the tisanes in the entrance and you'll see the real teas that the shop sells. I have been looking for an Oriental Beauty oolong tea to buy for myself, and I was excited to see it here! It's an especially fragrant tea because of the way they grow the tea plants, but I'm told its quality can be hit or miss. It wasn't on the menu, so I just asked the lady if I could get it to go, and they gladly obliged :D

The fragrance of the drink was lovely. I believe they gave me the drink with the tea leaves in a sachet, so I needed to take out the leaves at some point to prevent it from overbrewing, but unfortunately I didn't have a good place to store them for later as I walked around Georgetown. As a result I overbrewed the tea; otherwise I think I would have greatly enjoyed it.

You can see they have a lot of teaware available and unfortunately, looking back, I might have bought a kyusu from them if I had noticed it! Looking around, it did look like they used traditional teaware like Yixing teapots (though I didn't verify if it was Yixing clay), gong dao bei, and flute brewers (idk if there's another name for this). I didn't see any gaiwans used, but they were definitely around.

Real Chinese tea places are...