Nothing hits the spot like a hot glass of strong Persian tea after a rich plate of chelow kebab. The steam curls upward from a slim-waisted glass in front of me, its amber colour glowing under the dim lights of one of Tehran’s few surviving traditional tea houses, Azari Teahouse.
Finding this place wasn’t easy. Unlike around two decades ago, teahouses are no longer ubiquitous. Instead, as Persians say, as long as your eyes work, you can see cafes. For a country known for its ‘chai,’ this shift is not just striking, it’s worrying to teahouse owners like Hadi Azari, who runs Azari Teahouse. “Once you could see one street with several tea houses,” Azari shares. “People would drop in three times a day to catch up. Now, I feel like I’m curating a museum.”
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