What is a tea ice room?

Tea ice room is also called ice room, which is used to call cold drinks shop in Guangzhou dialect.

It is a local restaurant in South Guangdong that mainly sells frozen foods such as cold drinks, ice cream and smoothies. It originated in the provincial capital. Popular in Hong Kong 1950 to 1960, it is considered as the predecessor of tea restaurant. In the past, ice cream shops in Guangzhou handled hot drinks such as ice cream, frozen milk, ice water, coffee and milk tea, cakes and bread, while ice cream shops in Hong Kong held a "snack license" due to legal restrictions.

Only drinks, sandwiches, cakes, etc. It can be sold, but staple foods such as fried rice and side dishes cannot be supplied immediately. Later, many Hong Kong ice houses were chartered as restaurants and transformed into tea restaurants. Although they are called "ice rooms", their business model and food supply are no different from those of tea restaurants.

The origin of the name "Tea Ice Room"

The first argument is that in the early years of Hong Kong, the building floors were high, ceiling fans could enjoy the cool, and the food sold was mainly western drinks such as red bean ice, coffee and milk tea, with "drinking ice" as the selling point, hence the name "Tea Ice Room".

Legend has it that a friend of Liang Qichao opened a restaurant in the name of "drinking ice room" study, and the name became the beginning of "tea ice room".