Tea Bone Zen Mind – Afternoon Tea Singapore – Emerald Hill Road

Stephanie

8 years ago

Tea Bone Zen Mind is a tea house on Emerald Hill Road just across from Somerset MRT. Occupying one of the many old shophouses on this road it seems to be of residential use as there is no sign outside and the wooden front doors are always closed.

Not known by many locals it seems and filled mostly with Japanese “ladies of leisure”, it’s almost a secret sanctuary for tea enthusiasts. Introduced to me by a Japanese friend, we had a booking to have tea there last week.

We found the place quite easily, it’s just near the top of Emerald Hill Road and we rang the doorbell and were shown in and asked to change into the slippers provided.

We were then shown to a table in a lovely room on the 1st floor of the house.

The entire house is beautifully decorated with simple furniture, flowers everywhere and interesting pieces of art.

Once we were comfortably settled we were given the first course of our afternoon tea / tea tasting session. This consisted of iced lychee flavoured oolong tea from Taiwan with French rose syrup and a selection of nibbles including dried squid, rice crackers, some squid flavoured corn puffs and wafers that tasted of coconut. We were also given a small amount of rum which we could add to our iced tea. It was all beautifully laid out and was a great start to the tea tasting.

Next we were given some Taiwanese oolong tea and some abalone with apple sauce and wasabi as well as some dried pieces of peach to nibble on. We were a given a big bowl of the tea which we could refill our cups with and we were also given a pot of hot water which we could add to the tea leaves in the bowl.

We were then served some grilled shitake mushrooms with melted butter which was an unusual combination but really yummy!

After this we had soft boiled eggs in what tasted like a tea and soy sauce mixture.

For the last course we were given some very strong lavender earl grey tea and some Lindt chocolate pieces and sugar dusted puff biscuits.

We ended up staying at Tea Bone Zen Mind for nearly 4 hours and by the end of our tea tasting session I was suitably relaxed especially after that huge pot of lavender earl grey tea at the end. All the food we were served was nice and very light and it was paired well with the tea. The amount of food you’re given is just right for tea time and maybe not for lunch as we had done. Although we were given more than enough tea to drink, it would have been nice to taste more tea varieties rather than just three different types. The teas we were served were all lovely though and they have a shop on the ground floor of the house near the entrance where you can buy some to take home.

Service at Tea Bone Zen Mind is polite and friendly and they leave you and give you your own space to enjoy the tea tasting and to soak up the surroundings. It’s a very nice place to spend a leisurely afternoon. The tea tasting session costs $55 per person and Tea Bone Zen Mind is open every day except for Sundays from 11am – 7pm. They take bookings from around 12pm though up until 5pm as they recommend around 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the tea tasting session. Bookings have to made as they don’t accept walk-ins but you’re free to visit their shop any time during opening hours. The menu changes every few months and we apparently had the Chinese New Year menu. They even have a Japanese tatami room which you can reserve to have your afternoon tea in.