"All tea tells a story.
All tea has something to offer if we listen to what it is saying.
It is my responsibility to listen and not tell. I cannot force a tea into a certain flavor or aroma with craft. This is because true craft starts in the field, not the workshop. Good agricultural craft requires biodiversity, preserving the wildlife and natural forest cover, respecting the natural mountain springs, and keeping chemicals off of my tea and off of my neighbors’ teas.
If craft in the field is done right, craft in the workshop is about listening. It is about helping a tea become what it wants to be.
I have spent my life helping my village of Daping bring honesty and integrity to tea farming and oolong craft. We stand together against the factory farming that weighs so heavily on the Anxi lowlands ecosystems.
We are making Tieguanyin and countless other cultivars the way that they want to be made, in the environment where they want to grow. I invite you to taste our work for yourself and see."
- Zhang Rongde 张荣德
Our Most Popular Teas
Exploring Master Zhang’s Anxi Oolong
This bundle includes five 25g bags of oolong tea for 125g total (25 sessions). Zhang Rongde has devoted his life to creating a sustainable biodiversity[...]
$51.00 $46.13
Rare Varietal Anxi Oolong Tasting Kit
This bundle includes five 25g bags of Anxi oolong tea for 125g total (25 sessions). With one of the highest elevation, most pristine perfectly-situated plots[...]
$37.45 $33.71
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1990 Aged TieguanyinThis limited 1990 harvest of aged Tieguanyin stands out as unique from the others because the leaves were hand-processed by Master Zhang using traditional Oolong Revival style, where one end of leaf is slightly curled and the other is extended. Master Zhang describes the shape as a ‘dragonfly’. These leaves were turned and fluffed three times the normal standard for modern Tieguanyin. The result of this unique processing and the 25 years of age creates a deep shu pu’er-like earthy flavor most similar to the clean fermentation of Xingyang shu pu’ers. We have never tasted anything like this in an oolong. It has the foresty richness of shu pu’er but the sweet caramel aftertaste of oolong. - 2022 Yun Xiang TieguanyinYun is a complex concept. While it can be literally translated as “charm," the yun of a tea is more than simple appeal – yun is what makes the tea powerful and lingering beyond the common concept of aftertaste. Only the finest teas have a perceptible quality that would be described by professional Chinese tasters as yun. While there is no complete agreement on how to put "yun" into words, we notice a light cooling sensation and a tingling almost electrical texture on teas that have yun. This feeling builds up with every sip, making subsequent steepings more and more commanding. Master Zhang creates this through careful charcoal roasting over several long sessions and many days, relying on his experience and senses to get the finish perfectly right.
- 2005 Aged Wulong RevivalThe “Dragonfly” style was the most traditional oolong finishing technique in Anxi before the rolled ball became popular. Master Zhang has been experimenting with this style for years as part of his work as a teacher and community leader for other farmers in Daping. Every year Master Zhang sets aside any interesting standouts for long term aging, which requires re-roasting every year to keep the moisture level as low as possible. The slow process of change brings out deep complexity and dark sweet undertones over many years. Master Zhang is sharing a portion of his personal reserve from early experiments for his revival project, giving us the chance to taste the first truly aged Revival Style Anxi oolong from Daping.
- 2022 Autumn Reserve Traditional TieguanyinMaster Zhang's work has won awards at conferences in Fujian and Guangdong for his incredible craft in traditional Tieguanyin finishing. This autumn, we are excited to once again offer his reserve designation harvest with a traditional finish, undoubtedly Master Zhang's favorite tea to make and share with friends. Master Zhang's award-winning technique brings out the deep fruit and dark florals that don't have a chance to shine in greener, more modern finishes. Instead of simply designating his higher elevation teas as "Reserve," Master Zhang holds back this title to only the very few pickings that meet his criteria of intense aroma, lingering pervasive aftertaste, rich deep florals, light cooling sensations, and creamy texture. The conditions while picking and processing only rarely come together to facilitate a tea that hits every thing that Master Zhang strives for. This limited harvest embraces his award-winning ideals for a stunning brew.
- 2005 Aged TieguanyinMaster Zhang is making some of the finest Tieguanyin in the world. Based in Daping village at the very highest peaks of Gande, Anxi. His terraced fields are overgrown with wildflowers, and fed by naturally sweet and clear mountain spring water. Master Zhang's slow and subtle roasting and aging process adds deep lingering spice to the Tieguanyin florals. This ten year old harvest is already rich and full of spice.
- 2022 Special Grade Autumn Tieguanyin
Master Zhang takes his Special Grade designation seriously. In order for a batch to be set aside as Special Grade, it has to meet an incredibly high standard of sweetness, a long lingering aftertaste, and thick balanced texture and evocative aroma. It takes the perfect combination of high elevation rocky soil, cool stand-out weather during the growing season and on the picking and finishing days. In the autumn it is even rarer to get these perfect windows, so we are excited to be sharing this harvest for teh first time. This extremely limited special grade Tieguanyin was hand-picked and hand finished over an exhaustive day and a half fluffing and turning process to bring out deep intense florals and creamy texture. The true flavor of the Tieguanyin varietal is preserved with Master Zhang’s expert green finish.
Our Home: Daping Village
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● uniquely-balanced terroir of rock and sand for perfect mineral driven texture
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● high elevation mist and clouds protect tea from sun and insects
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● fully organic zero-impact farming techniques for clean and nuanced tea
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● terraced fields absorb sweet mountain spring water
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● isolated and remote high elevation plot is protected from lowland industrial tea farms’ impact
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● in the process of certification for the intensive “Original Ecological Preserve” designation for true net-zero impact farming in harmony with nature
Our Family
Zhang Rongde was one of the first in Daping village to go to university.
He returned with an advanced degree in agricultural science and helped his community establish responsible chemical-free farming during the commune era. He comes from a long line of tea farmers, picking today plants established by his parents and grandparents.
After the communes were disbanded, Master Zhang was awarded the highest elevation plots in the region for his leadership role in pioneering sustainable, biodiversity-focused agriculture. He has won countless awards for his family’s teas, and still spends every day not only finishing his own teas but helping his neighbors improve their craft by visiting their workshops.
He is most proud not of his awards for quality, but his award for integrity, bestowed by his peers in recognition of his community leadership in transparency and for his work to tie pricing to a set of agreed upon standards of flavor, texture, aroma and aftertaste.
As a pioneer and community leader, Master Zhang is often travelling to far off regions to study other traditions. He has spent time studying and researching in Yiwu, Yunnan learning about old tree management and sun drying techniques, travelling to Japan and Taiwan, and studying in Fenghuang with Master Huang Ruiguang - exchanging Anxi oolong and Fenghuang oolong techniques and continuing to develop his ability to taste and evaluate.
Our Tea & Craft
Tea requires hardship.
You cannot follow a simple protocol and expect to make great tea. You have to be willing to put aside everything to see a batch through to the end.
Often a single batch of oolong means over 40 hours in the workshop without sleep to get it just right, and that does not count the time in the fields.
My job really starts in the field, working actively to strengthen the natural ecosystem through my farming choices and also working to research, revive and propagate rare, new or nearly lost cultivars, all to increase biodiversity and secure a better future for oolong.
I grow dozens of different cultivars, some planted by my grandparents with old, deep rootstock. Each varietal has different picking times and different “ideals” in the field and in the workshop.
Every weather condition not only changes picking times but changes the way I fluff and turn the leaves to bring out their aroma, the way I roast them, the moisture levels I aim for; this all requires flexibility, determination, and humility in the face of nature.
Despite the hardship, I love what I do.
Tea is a collaboration between the skies, the earth and us, the people, that can create humbling beauty and complexity.
Seeking this complexity has inspired me to go beyond current styles in oolong and research lost styles like Original Wulong Revival.
Hear our vision for tea
Too much of the world’s “Tieguanyin” comes from big factory farms that have bought up most of lowland Anxi. These teas are passed off as the real thing because many retailers and importers do not know better.
I want to give anyone who loves tea the education and tools necessary to tell the difference. That is why I work with importer Verdant Tea to tell my story. I hope you’ll take the time to learn about the place I call home and the way I work to craft my teas.