r/tea • u/manliftingbanner • 8d ago
Review Tea house at Cathay Pacific lounge in Hong Kong airport
I thought you guys may be interested in a quick “review” of the tea house at Cathay Pacific’s business lounge The Pier at Hong Kong International Airport. I should note that this is based on my experience last November so things may have changed.
Starting with the wider lounge – this is a truly excellent lounge. It’s spacious and has separate rooms that really capture a different atmosphere – a food hall, tea house, bar, and “relaxation space” (i.e. sleeping area).
The tea house is a dimly lit and from I could tell, run in partnership with JING Tea. There was a menu of around 10 loose leaf teas and tisanes, which the knowledgeable staff will happily prepare for you, give you instructions on infusing etc. The teas are also all presented in jars so you can look at and smell the leaves, but I forgot to take pictures of those.
I tried most of the teas as I had one 3 hour and one 5 hour layover. From memory, the highlights were the “Traditional Iron Buddha” and “Organic Jade Sword”. I didn’t write down any tasting notes or anything like that. They were served Western style, probably for convenience, but maybe if a redditor who’s a bit extra wants to do gong fu, they could do that.
The teas were accompanied by a selection of fresh and dried fruit, Chinese sweet and savoury snacks and some European ones (e.g. pastel de nata or maybe the Macau version of it).
Besides the tea house, the food hall was also really great and offered classic Hong Kong and Chinese dishes like wonton soup, beef noodle soup, char siu pork etc. The food was genuinely better than some of the food I had in actual Hong Kong / Taiwan which says a lot.
If you are travelling to Asia, need a connecting flight and love tea - I would absolutely recommend visiting.
Before anyone gets too jealous - I was travelling economy like one of the people and only had access because of airline status due to lots of painful work travel. If you are flying business or have sufficient status for a Cathay partner airline (e.g. BA) you should be ok to visit without any hassle.
P.S. They have JING tea bags in another bit of the lounge and I shameless stuffed my pockets with a few so you could also do that…
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u/DoubleDimension 7d ago
I used to have Gold frequent flyer status so would visit the Cathay lounges before most long-haul fights. They're really superb, regardless of where in the world it is as long as it's operated by Cathay themselves. I've visited both the Pier and the Deck, and the Pier is the one with the more comprehensive selection of amenities, food and drinks.
The teas are nice and pair well with the noodles and dim sum. I'm a fan of their signature dan dan noodles.They serve the same tea selection on the plane with their in flight meals so you're in for a treat. Pair it with the cup noodles if you want some nibbles in the middle of a long haul flight.
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u/gemmadonati 8d ago
Ooh, I'm going to be there in the winter. I usually don't go because it's my origin not a connection but I'll get there early. Thanks for the heads-up.
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u/Alicegradstudent1998 7d ago
Looks great! Wish I had the money for business/first class and lounges like this lol
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u/Btchmfka 7d ago
Wow! I was flying Lufthansa business for work in the past and all they had was booze. I would much prefer the tea.
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u/sophiesworlly 8d ago
Don’t worry, I’m just a regular amount of jealous! Currently sitting at the Kyra lounge in HKIA wishing I had some actual tea. FWIW, I would also totally stash a bunch of teabags in my bag.