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Our sourcing · 茶源
“A good pu’er keeps changing for decades. We buy from people who think in decades too.”
We’re a small shop, and we buy like one. Instead of a catalogue of a hundred teas from a wholesaler, we keep a short list from a handful of farms in Yunnan and Fujian, the two provinces whose teas we love most.
Most of the families we work with pick, process and press their own leaf. We visit every spring, taste with them, and buy the days we like best. That means small lots, teas that sell out, and a shelf that changes with the seasons. We think that’s how tea should be.
What we hold to
No auctions, no brokers. We buy from families we know by name, most of them for years, and go back each spring to taste and choose in person.
Every lot is brewed gongfu-style, side by side with the last harvest. If it isn’t better, or at least as good, it doesn’t come home with us.
We agree prices before the harvest and pay on pickup, not on sale. Small farms can’t wait for a shop’s cash flow.
Pu’er goes to our cellar to age at a steady humidity; roasted oolong waits until its fire has settled. We sell tea when it’s ready.
Where it comes from
Pu’er, Dian hong black tea
In the southwest, on the border with Laos and Myanmar, old tea trees grow among the forest on the Menghai and Lincang mountains. Our sheng and shou pu’er come from family workshops here, pressed from single-mountain maocha we choose by the day, and so do the golden-tipped Dian hong black teas.
Rock oolong, Tieguanyin, white tea
On the southeast coast, three valleys and three styles. Rock oolong from the cliffs of the Wuyi mountains, charcoal-roasted by hand; Tieguanyin from Anxi, rolled tight and orchid-sweet; and Bai Mu Dan white tea from Fuding, simply withered and dried in the sun.
The tea year
Mar – May
First flush. We’re in Yunnan and Fujian, tasting maocha and choosing lots.
Jun – Aug
Spring teas arrive. Rock oolong is roasted, then rests.
Sep – Nov
Autumn oolong picking. Last year’s roasts are ready to drink.
Dec – Feb
The farms rest. We taste through the cellar and plan next spring.