Verdant Tea

This Spring Tea Bundle includes all of our fresh-picked green teas - 9 different pickings to try in total for 225g of tea or about 45 brewing sessions.

This black tea sampler includes six 25g loose leaf black tea bags picked, finished and packed on small family farms that make some of the best teas in the world, run with the sustainability and beyond-organic practices that can only come from one generation tending land that they will pass down to their children. The rich deep complexity of the finest black teas comes from stringent picking standards for the ideal tender bud and leaf mix, and from slow careful oxidation to bring out more nuance in small batches. This tasting kit is an introduction to the incredible diversity of flavor that our partners offer with their black teas from malty chocolate-driven Laoshan Black from the north of China to traditional and complex Wuyi black teas. Through craft, varietal, and microclimate, our farmer-partners are proud to represent the best that China has to offer.

This bundle includes seven caffeine-free wild-foraged herbal teas for 175g total (roughly 35 brewing sessions). The He Family and the Lu Family in Laoshan are bringing green tea craft to wild-foraged caffeine-free herbals picked within the Laoshan Ecological Preserve in extremely limited quantities. This kit is an introduction to the way that tea craft brings nuance, depth and complexity to plants beyond camellia sinensis, and offers satisfying diverse and fully caffeine-free flavors perfect for any time of day. The He Family and the Li Family are dedicated to sustainable agriculture, and meticulous hand-finishing craft in the workshop. This kit is an invitation to see their craft in action.

This bundle includes 25g each of four different Wuyi oolong teas for 100g total (20 sessions). Wuyishan is perhaps the most famous tea growing region in the world, and our partner Li Xiangxi and her family cultivate their award-winning oolongs in a perfectly-situated gorge along the Longchuan river within the Wuyishan Ecological Preserve, a pristine environmentally-protected region where biodiversity is key, and tea grows alongside wild bamboo, evergreens, and flowers.

Part of that biodiversity is about encouraging not just the widely known varietals like Rou Gui or Qilan to grow, but also making space for rare and difficult to find varietals not often seen or known outside of Wuyishan. Li Xiangxi believes that each varietal bring its own unique style to the pure expression of Wuyi minerality, and this sampler is a testament to those unique perspectives. Taste through five Wuyi oolong teas - including famous cultivars and less-well-known varietals.

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 for Tieguanyin in the world, it would make perfect sense for Master Zhang to devote every inch of land to this famous and in-demand varietal. Yet, Master Zhang does the opposite. Over the last decade, he has reclaimed the majority of his Daping mountainside for bamboo, evergreens and wildflowers. The precious rocky terraces he has left, carved into steep hills, he devotes not just to the famous Tieguanyin, but to dozens of rare, unknown varietals.

Master Zhang fosters these tiny groves of rare tea to preserve biodiversity and have a local “seed bank” of sorts, allowing hearty individual tea bushes to grow and thrive in Daping so that other farmers and colleagues could grow new plants from cuttings, and study the way their famous terroir changes with each varietal.

The benefit for all of us is getting to dive deep and experience rare out there flavors, textures and aromas- all unique expressions of Master Zhang’s craft and terroir. Every tea in this kit expresses the "core" sweet minerality of Daping, but from unique and incredible perspectives not often tasted in a region so dedicated to Tieguanyin.

This bundle includes three 25g bags of aged oolong tea and one 90 gram cake for 165g total (33 sessions).

Taste through the decades with this selection of hand-picked and hand fired oolongs from Master Zhang in Daping Village and the Li Family in Wuyishan. Our partners have opened their reserves of aged oolongs, including selections decades-old. Fine aged oolongs are carefully re-roasted yearly to control for moisture and maintain optimal conditions for flavor texture and aroma to keep building complexity over time. As Zhang Rongde explains, "Tea may be dried, but it is still living inside. In roasting, you need to have experience. You need to understand the tea, the leaves, the fire. Only then can you make good tea."

This sampler shows off how differently teas can age. You can expect a diverse range of flavors, united by an inexplicable depth and commanding texture only possible through perfect finishing and patient aging.

This bundled "make your own" chai tea kit includes one 25g bag of chai spice and one 25g bag of loose leaf Laoshan Black tea base. 

To make chai concentrate for quick and easy chai at home, boil 2 cups of filtered water and add 3 tablespoons of chai spice. Simmer for 30 minutes uncovered to reduce the liquid. Add 2 tablespoons of base tea and simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to sit for eight minutes. Strain, and stir in two and a half tablespoons of honey.

Use immediately, or chill in the refrigerator. You can even freeze ice cubes of chai for spiced cocktails and mocktails!

This special bundle includes eight 25g loose leaf teas for 200g total (about 40 quarts of iced tea). Make Tea Fun and Easy this summer with our special Iced Tea Tasting Kit! Enjoy our Top Picks for making cold brew iced tea in the summer time. This special tasting kit includes our top picks for making cold brew iced tea in the summer time, along with easy brewing instructions. The tasting kit also includes a FREE GIFT of a sealable glass jar for making easy cold brew iced tea!

This bundle includes three 25g bags of scented + blended floral tea and 5 tuochas for 100g total (about 20 sessions). This special tasting kit includes hand picked white, black, and green teas scented traditionally with beautiful jasmine and osmanthus flowers. Each tea is scented traditionally - without artifical or added aromas or flavorings - using simply the natural fragrance of the blended jasmine or osmanthus flowers. These traditional methods produce teas that are full and rich,  with brews that hold their intense sweetness and natural potency over many steepings. 

We believe that green tea should be as fresh as possible. That is why we work Mrs. Li in Dragonwell and the He Family in Laoshan to buy before the harvest, seal tea in their final bags within days of picking and rush ship each small batch as they are finished. Our partners work hard to manage biodiverse beyond-organic farms, hand pick their tea and carefully hand-finish in small batches to lock in the rich sweet complexity that fine green tea is known for.

This bundle includes two 100g mini cakes and two 25g bag of Crassicolumna tea for 250g total (50 sessions) Crassicolumna is an ancient, wild near-tea relative to the modern camellia sinensis plant, native to the tea forests of Qianjiazhai deep in the mountains. Naturally caffeine-free, Crassicolumna is packed with captivating deep spiced flavor and texture. It has the complexity of pu’er, but a wild flavor all its own.