THE BIG TEAS : A World of Exotic Brews and Enticing Treats--in Orange County

Next to water and milk, tea is the world’s most popular beverage. It is also the most civilized, surrounded by folklore and social convention like none other.

In England, where the drink is royalty, the expression “what’s for tea?” literally refers to the evening meal. In China and India, countries that together account for nearly 40% of the Earth’s population, tea is consumed with every meal. The Japanese revere it; sado, their tea ceremony, is an unforgettably rigid way to experience a hot cupful of gunpowder green.

Sweet, aromatic teas are consumed in Iran and Arab countries, the standard bearers of legendary hospitality.

Russians prefer to pour strong, spicy teas from huge metal samovars, piping hot glassfuls to stave off the Arctic cold. And then there is Northern California, a stronghold for herbal blends and more, er, eccentric infusions. Anyone for mellow mint?

Orange County is a tea stronghold of sorts, and we’re not just talking orange pekoe. A number of local hotels, restaurants and cafes offer special tea services, making the teas a centerpiece for wonderful and unusual finger foods.

Following are a few places where you can partake, chosen because they are all very different in spirit. Excuse me while I break off for a minute. The kettle’s whistling.

McCharles House: Audrey and Vivian Heredia, mother and daughter entrepreneurs, have made tea their lives. It’s only fitting that we begin our tea tour with them. McCharles House specializes in various afternoon teas, Edwardian, Victorian, Gentlemen’s High Tea, even chocolate tea. But it’s also a place for lunch, dinner and dessert, because, obviously, man cannot live by tea alone. Ladies, bring your hatpins. Gentlemen, wear suspenders.

The restaurant is in a frilly Victorian home that dates from the 19th Century. The minute you enter, you realize you have stepped into a different era. The rooms are showcases of period charm; tasseled lamps, antimacassars, flowered cushions and antiques. Seating is on antique wicker furniture. The walls practically bleed royal purple.

Audrey Heredia is an expert on the subject of tea, so you’d better heed her advice when preparing it yourself. “Use cold, freshly drawn water,” she says, “and bring to a roaring boil. Bring the tea pot to the kettle, not vice versa. And, of course, use the best quality of tea possible.”

She does. Until recently, she served Fortnum and Mason, but she has just gotten her own blends, after nearly seven years of negotiating. Tea here is served in bone china cups, from pots without cloth cozies (Heredia says they keep the tea too hot). Alongside, there are fabulous goodies:heart-shaped scones served with thickened McCharles cream (similar to creme fraiche), delicate sandwiches from cucumber to chicken curry, and raspberry jam, lemon curd, even shepherd’s pie for those desiring a true English supper.

Choose your tea from a wide selection, and don’t miss sumptuous desserts such as homemade chocolate cake, apple crisp and real English trifle. Jams, tins of Heredia’s teas, Victorian rainbow sugar and gift books are sold at the Back Porch Shoppe adjacent to the dining room. During the holiday season, the Heredias prepare egg nog, Christmas cookies and holly-shaped scones.

McCharles House, 335 South C St., Tustin. Lunch and special teas Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; dinners Thursday through Saturday, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. MasterCard and Visa accepted. (714) 731-4063.

Ambala Sweets: Meanwhile, in faraway India, vendors shouting “ Chai! Chai! “ (Hindi for tea ) hawk their wares from large metal containers they carry on their backs, bending over to pour their precious liquid, over their shoulders, into tiny tin cups. The cost? Usually about 1 rupee--8 cents U.S.

Indians drink tea addictively, but it’s often a milk tea boiled up with clove and cardamom. While they are drinking, they nibble constantly on a variety of multicolored sweets in all shapes and sizes made from milk, nuts and spices.

You won’t find the vendors on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, but you will find several sweet shops, most of them jammed with Indian-Americans. Ambala Sweets is just one such shop, the ideal place for a cultural encounter. Owner Ranjit Singh is from Punjab, and his store is a magnet for women in saris, Indian businessmen and schoolchildren, who come for jalebis, burfi and halwa, just a few of the many sweets on hand.

Don’t go looking for luxury. Ambala’s garam tea is served in plastic cups--a concession to his adopted country--and tastes terrific, with rich, musky aftertastes. Burfi are dense squares topped with edible silver and come in cashew, pistachio, almond and coconut flavors. Gulab jamun look like golf balls in syrup, little brown puffs you eat warm. Jalebi are sticky tangles of honey and flour. Ras malai appear to be hockey pucks in a cream sauce, until you experience their meltingly soft texture.

This place is unbelievably inexpensive. Four can have tea and sweets for less than $10. Furthermore, snacks such as spiced noodles, chili cashews and crisp roasted lentils are sold in bulk alongside the sweets, from $3.99 per pound.

Ambala Sweets, 18433 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia. Open daily, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Cash only. (310) 402-0006.

The Library at the Ritz-Carlton: You’d expect to find afternoon tea at the veddy proper Ritz-Carlton, and so you do. Afternoon tea is one of the few times a gentleman need not wear a jacket at this swank hotel, a place where it is possible to feel underdressed in a tux.

Tea is served in the hotel’s Library, an uncharacteristically casual room filled with sofas, plush lounge chairs and venerably bound books. Those two giant samovars in the center of the room are filled with boiling water, which you will get plenty of in the next hour or so. You drink your tea from Wedgewood cups, while a jazz pianist plays soft music on a grand piano. It’s all makes a perfect excuse for intimate conversation.

Guests can choose between three basic services, light, full and royal, the difference being the number of courses. The light course is a pot of the tea of your choice (from Harney and Sons, a master blender out of Salisbury, Conn.) and a plateful of bite-size, delightful pastries that can include Dundee bread (an egg-rich fruit bread), lemon meringue tart, petit fours and scones with real Devonshire cream. For the full service, add several delicate finger sandwiches of smoked salmon, egg and chive, ham and asparagus, cucumber, and cream cheese. The royal service tops this off with a third course--strawberries, Devonshire cream and Grand Marnier. It’s almost like being at Wimbledon.

The tea selection is interesting. In addition to perfectly blended traditional teas such as Darjeeling, the bergamot-flavored Earl Grey and light gunpowder green, there are low-caffeine teas, an exhilarating hot cinnamon spice and even raspberry hibiscus, blended with peppermint and orange peel.

The Library at the Ritz-Carlton, 33533 Ritz-Carlton Drive, Dana Point. Afternoon tea served Monday through Friday, 2:30 to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m. All major credit cards accepted. (714) 240-5008.

Seafood Paradise: This brings us to China, and the phenomenon known as yum cha, literally “drink tea.” In the Chinese culture, yum cha is synonymous with dim sum, wonderful pastries and savories bestowed upon the world by the Cantonese.

Seafood Paradise in Westminster does a land-office business at teatime, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The restaurant serves a huge dim sum selection from rolling steam carts, fry carts, glass-enclosed carts and dessert carts, all pushed relentlessly by a team of women shouting the names of their wares in sing-songy Cantonese.

For the Chinese, eating and socializing go hand in hand. The noise level in this place rarely retreats below a din. But there is an art to eating a dim sum lunch, not to mention considerable rewards.

The first thing is to choose your favorite tea. Many dim sum houses serve their cheapest and least interesting tea, jasmine, to non-Chinese clients. I find jasmine flowery and insipid, but the other teas in this restaurant are terrific.

Oolong is perhaps the best known, a hearty, intense flavored tea found in many premium blends. Gok fa is brewed from chrysanthemum leaves and has a mysterious, medicinal taste. Then there’s bo lei , a slightly bitter, powerfully flavored red tea. My choice is gok bo, a blend of gok fa and bo lei, utterly complex and remarkably soothing.

Some of the dishes are amazingly good too. The glass cart is loaded with such delicacies as marinated jellyfish, crispy pork and barbecued duck, redolent of star anise.

Lo mai gai is chicken and sticky rice wrapped up in a lotus leaf, one of the more filling choices. Ha gow and siu mai are shrimp and pork dumplings respectively, with diaphanous noodle skin wrappers. Ask for cheen cheung fan, rice noodles with chive and dried shrimp fried table-side, then topped with a dark, sticky sauce that will remind you of Worcestershire. Dan tat are little egg custards in a flaky pastry shell.

There must be 50 dim sum choices at Seafood Paradise, which is large and elegant for an Orange County Chinese restaurant. You never run out of tea, either, at a Chinese tea house. Just lift the lid when the pot is empty, and the hot water will be automatically replenished. Along with your spirit.

Seafood Paradise, 8602 Westminster Blvd., Westminster. Dim sum served daily, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. MasterCard and Visa accepted. (714) 893-6066.

Renaissance Cafe: Maybe you don’t want to make such a big event out of all this and just feel like relaxing with an unfurled newspaper and a tea bag. There are hundreds of places that fit the bill, but I like Renaissance Cafe because the water is hot, the jazz is cool and the prices are pretty much rock bottom.

The Tustin Market Place store is small and unpretentious, a long black marble counter, colorfully hip designer stools, free magazines and newspapers from nearby Bookstar. It’s a place where you can sit and while away an afternoon, particularly if, like me, you’re a shopping widower (or widow) on that particular day. Besides, the tea is only $1 a shot.

OK, you don’t get much more than a tea bag in a plastic cup, but it’s a premium one. The teas are from Benchley; good, flavorful teas such as English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Ceylon orange pekoe, raspberry and apricot. Refills on the hot water are free.

You can also have good biscotti, cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory, muffins and pastries from Newport Beach’s C’est Si Bon or some very average pasta salads should tea not be enough. And if you come for tea during the evening, there is live jazz nightly between 8 and 11 p.m. (Sundays 6 to 9 p.m.).

If the tea doesn’t keep you up, the jazz surely will, but there’s one last resort you can always bank on: Renaissance Cafe grinds its own coffees. More to come on that subject in an upcoming story.

Renaissance Cafe, 2959 El Camino Real in the Tustin Market Place, Tustin. Open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to midnight, Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to midnight. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted. (714) 832-2233.