Our philosophy
Tea is not finished when it is picked
Most of what we sell is older than the day we bought it. The same tea can taste like a different thing at one year, at five, at ten, gaining depth and complexity it simply didn't have when it was young. Knowing when a tea has come into its own, and keeping it well until it does, is most of what we do.
On readiness
A tea is sold when it is ready, not before
A freshly made tea is not always a tea at its best. Some teas, like a good longjing, are meant to be drunk young, bright and fresh, and waiting only dulls them. But many of the teas we care about are different, and rock teas are the clearest example.
Rock teas are roasted and baked as part of how they're made. When they're young, that roast sits right on top, covering the more delicate flavours underneath. It takes two to three years for the roast to settle and those flavours to come forward. So we don't sell our zheng yan yancha new. We hold it until the roast has eased and the tea is ready to drink, and we'll tell you when each of our teas is at its best, so you're drinking it at the right time rather than the soonest.
On keeping
Time only helps a tea that is kept well
Left in the wrong conditions, even a fine tea will flatten or sour. Kept well, it keeps becoming. How we store a tea depends on what the tea needs. There is no single method, only the right one for each.
Zheng yan & aged collections
We line our containers with mulberry rice paper, so the leaves never touch metal and never take on a metallic note. Our zheng yan teas rest in top-tier Japanese Kotodo canisters, chosen for the quality of their seal.
Aged teas
Too large in volume for canisters, these are kept in their original packaging within a humidity-controlled environment, tended so they continue to mature rather than degrade.
Everyday collection
Packed into specially curated, food-grade foil, sealed to hold freshness for teas meant to be enjoyed now.
We are glad to pass this on. If you take tea home to keep, we'll talk you through the conditions it wants: the right humidity, the right environment, the small things that let a tea go on improving in your care as it would in ours.
On choosing
We carry only what we would keep for ourselves
Before a tea is ever aged or sold, it has to earn its place. We look for teas grown in their proper place and left to develop their own character, clean, unforced, and true to where they came from. A tea that is honest when young is a tea worth waiting on.
What doesn't meet that mark, we let pass.
The best way to understand any of this is to taste it. A young tea beside an aged one, and the years in between.
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