Most people nowadays go for soda and alcohol for a drink. But in the old days, a cup of herbal tea was a more popular choice. They would gather at a herbal tea shop to chat with one another while having herbal tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yang Chun Lei, a herbal tea shop in Wan Chai, has been in operation for 105 years. It is one of the few traditional herbal tea houses in Hong Kong. Yang Wen-jia, the third generation owner of the shop, says he inherits the shop from his father and grandfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can say it is our uniqueness, or just\nbeing simple,\u201d Yang laughs as he explains why there is only one item on the\nmenu. Different from other herbal tea stores, Yang Chun Lei only sells \u201c24 Herbs\u201d (\u4e8c\u5341\u56db\u5473). He explains that 24 Herbs is good for health and therefore they\nfocus on producing this kind of herbal tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yang explains the key to enhance herbal\ntea\u2019s effect is to keep it fresh and maintain the temperature. He says at first\ncustomers just walk by his shop and give the herbal tea a try. When they find\nthe tea is really effective, they visit regularly. \u201cSome Westerners are also\nour regular customers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the business has been quite\nsuccessful, Yang says he has never thought of expanding the business scale. He\nsays the major concern is the quality of herbal tea. The preparation of 24\nHerbs now requires manual labour. But if they increase the scale of production,\nhe is afraid that the tea quality might be compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you do not produce the tea yourself and\nrely on factories to manufacture, the tea will no longer be fresh after being\npackaged and then transported here and there,\u201d Yang says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He admits that the herbal tea industry is\nshrinking, but says his store still manages to survive. \u201cWe have the advantage\nof cost since we own the store. We do not have to pay rents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yang says he does not view the recent\nrevitalisation projects in Wan Chai as a threat to his business. \u201cWhen it is\ntime for our community to be redeveloped, we have to leave.\u201d Yang says he will\nstrive to continue the family business. \u201cIt is a family asset passed on through\ngenerations. I have to protect my family\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Want to try the 24 Herbs and stay healthy? Pay a visit to Yang Chun Lei at 29 Spring Garden Lane, Wan Chai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/DSC_0541-1024x683.jpg\")
Edited by Edith Chung<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yang Chun Lei, a century-year-old herbal tea shop struggles to survive in our ever-changing society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1805,18],"tags":[1240],"class_list":["post-14058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-152","category-vchoice","tag-herbal-tea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14058"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14138,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14058\/revisions\/14138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}