Verdant Tea

This classic bundled tea + teaware set includes six teas, one travel tea set, and $10 Tea Cash free gift voucher code to use on your next purchase!

Our Tea of the Month Club Subscription box is full of hyper-seasonal teas and fresh, limited harvests. Teas are selected each month by a single farmer to highlight their family’s work, including club-exclusives and first looks, rush-shipped in for club members.

This bundle includes six 25g offerings of single-origin tea for 150g total (30 sessions). Six kinds of tea & six passionate growers - these are the iconic classics that represent what we and our partner growers stand for: true sustainability, transparency, and the taste and aroma that come from the impeccable terroir and craft of the best growers in China.

This tasting kit combines teas from six of our partners, spanning growing regions across China and representing five different styles of tea including one green tea, one Wuyi tea, one Anxi oolong tea, one Dancong tea, and one pu'er. Each tea is sourced directly from the people who grow and finish the teas themselves, for a representative and unblended taste of each family and craftperson's terroir and unique point of view.

Thank you for supporting Verdant Tea's project to connect tea lovers with the real people behind the teas we all love!

This essential gongfu kit includes a gaiwan, pitcher and strainer to kickstart your gongfu tea brewing adventures. Pair with your own favorite cups suited to your style. The simple gaiwan at the heart of this set is a pleasure to hold and use, perfectly sized for tea tasting, while the glass pitcher is a high-quality tempered piece that can double as a brewer for green teas. This kit is designed to be the most accessible entry point into gongfu style brewing possible.

Mr. He’s daughter Qingqing, co-owner of Verdant Tea, pioneered this finishing style with her father. She loves the long delicate twisting technique for the way the leaves dance in a glass pitcher as they unfold yielding a delicate nuanced brew that lasts over multiple steepings. The hand pulled and twisted finish on this early reserve harvest shows off the delicate deep-green buds that the family picks with so much care, cultivating with sustainable chemical free farming, and fed by sweet mountain spring water.

A mild winter and cool spring has made for a beautiful early harvest of shade-grown Reserve Laoshan Green. These sweet and delicates buds and leaves are picked while still under greenhouse protection in the He Family’s ocean-facing plot at the foot of the Laoshan mountains. The early April picking is still intensely sweet and packed with deep minerality.

Mr. He’s daughter Qingqing, co-owner of Verdant Tea, pioneered this finishing style with her father. She loves the long delicate twisting technique for the way the leaves dance in a glass pitcher as they unfold yielding a delicate nuanced brew that lasts over multiple steepings. The hand pulled and twisted finish on this early reserve harvest shows off the delicate deep-green buds that the family picks with so much care, cultivating with sustainable chemical free farming, and fed by sweet mountain spring water.

Mr. He personally hand twists and finished each leaf in this labor-intensive early-spring biluochun style. Laoshan spring comes much later than southern China. At this time of year, before Qing Ming festival, the He Family's Laoshan tea is fully shade-grown, protected by greenhouse coverings to keep back the cold northern air. The nuance of the bilochun processing style brings out the subtle minerality of the Laoshan microclimate. Delicate slow-growing green tea is very limited until the coverings come off in late April - this year's 2023 harvest is limited to less than 5kg

This special sampler features five 25g bags of golden buddy looseleaf tea. There is nothing like tender downy tea buds, hand-picked in cool early-season weather and hand finished by passionate small family growers. Buds have a unique flavor, and an intense sweetness from the stored sugars and the extremely limited sun exposure. In traditionally crafted black tea this flavor translates to honey, sweet potato, toasty bread, and other rich deep caramelized notes with a thick commanding texture. This tasting kit is an exploration of all the ways buds bring flavor and texture to tea from three different regions and three different farmers dedicated to sustainable farming and meticulous craft.

This gaiwan is inspired by traditional architectural wood carving that might adorn a scholar's studio or garden pavilion. The beautiful motif is entirely hand-painted in meticulous and even detail. Hand-thrown and carved, each of the three pieces of this gaiwan need to be fired individually, and have to come together perfectly, even after shrinking 30-40% in firing- a feat of precision. The high-fired porcelain is fully vitrified and non-reactive, amplifying the aroma of your tea. Pouring with a Jingdezhen gaiwan like this is truly special- the pieces have a feeling in the hand, a balance, unlike anything else.

The circular platform with a carved lotus is the centerpiece of this board, serving as a place for a favorite teapot or gaiwan, while the carved channels are perfect for cups and pitchers. This deep, dark, solid board is actually made from dense resin-soaked bamboo that is kiln-fired for deep color. The board can be used with a drain cap for modern gongfu or with a tube in place for traditional draining gongfu tea.

Created by Da Xin Tang, this Honored Path stick incense set is true Vietnamese Hui An Aloeswood. This set of 7cm sticks of incense includes two compact tubes of incense and one small porcelain incense holder.

Bai Mudan, or White Peony tea from the Wu Family represents their most balanced expression of the wild mountain terroir, with both flavorful leaves and tender downy buds for a tea that shows off whiet tea’s iconic sweet smooth texture and a deep wild forest quality. The Wu Family finishes these leaves under a special shaded air circulation process developed by Mr. Wu to lock in the freshest most aromatic flavors possible. This year they pressed a Dragon Pearl individual steeping size Bai Mudan to protect the leaves even better in transit.

This tea is wild-foraged by the Li Family of the Dongsa Cooperative within the Mt Ailao National Forest Preserve. The silvery buds and twisting golden leaves are picked from ancient tea trees between one hundred and eight hundred years old scattered between other evergreens, and wildflowers on the rocky mountainside. This incredibly labor-intensive tea to harvest is actually allowed to sun-roast and oxidize without applying heat in a wok. Because more moisture is retained in the leaf, this black tea is a fantastic candidate for aging like traditional sheng pu’er. Only a high-elevation remote place like Qianjiazhai can count on enough sunlight in the spring for this old but rare finishing technique. The result is a tea with the sweet malt of a black tea but the staggering complexity and herbaceous undertones of a sheng pu’er. The loose Maocha is lightly steamed and then meticulously rolled and shaped one pearl at a time by Master Zhou without the use of molds or machinery to preserve the delicate complexity of the tea.

This lovely personal brew mug from Min Xin Tang features crystal-clear tempered glass to show off the color of your tea and the leaves as they swirl and unfold. The generous brew basket is nearly the size of the mug itself, giving the leaves all the room they need to infuse. The wood handle and matching wooden lid provide a perfect contrast to the golden leaf motif and glass. The lid is lined with stainless steel to act as a saucer for your brew basket between infusions.

This fully hand-thrown, hand shaped tea bowl highlights Master Lin Xi’s research into ancient Song Dynasty style glazing techniques, particularly the famous and sought after Hare’s Fur style of long brown lines against black- an effect Lin Xi is able to capture because he personally excavates his glaze materials from the same sites used by Song Dynasty kilns, and blends the glaze from raw natural minerals. The large bowl is meant for either slow-infusion of white tea to sip from the top, allowing the leaves to settle and keep steeping as it is topped off, or for traditional matcha ceremony.

Master Zhou loves the distinctive flavor of "huang pian" or golden leaves that are normally left out of sheng pu’er cakes for a consistent aesthetic. These leaves have an intense, juicy, fruity flavor unlike anything else, and Master Zhou decided to show off their beauty in a special, fully-oxidized black tea.

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.

Available both as a pressed 100g cake and loose leaf, this tea is picked from the early spring buds of the Camellia Crassicolumna (厚轴茶) tree, a close relative of tea native to Qianjiazhai. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants. Yabao buds are extremely sweet and packed with flavor since they are the early shoots of the plant that would otherwise become new branches. The giant buds picked from this wild-growing tree stock are allowed to gently sun dry without any heat processing to keep the most natural flavor. Wild crassicolumna trees can be anywhere between several hundred and over a thousand years old, and are incredibly tall and difficult to climb to harvest these precious buds, but the rich nuanced flavor and lingering aftertaste is worthwhile.

Under careful airtight conditions, Wuyi teas that are particularly rich and packed with minerality can age into deeper, more complex teas. Li Xiangxi’s personal favorite is to use her old tree Wuyi Gongfu Black, picked from trees approaching one hundred years of age. The Old Tree Wuyi Black gains more foresty notes and deep cooling qualities on the palette that make it thrilling to sip. This is not a yearly release- this is a special must-try one-off from Li Xiangxi. Li Xiangxi has been aging this Old Tree Wuyi Black tea since 2015, and she kindly shared more than half of what is left of her personal reserve.

In 2009 the LI Family decided to set aside a fraction of their reserve-level Fo Shou Wuyi Oolong, and instead of high-firing it to remove all moisture, they allowed it to ferment with natural moisture, essentially making their own shu pu'er. This tea was still finished with yaoqing technique, making it absolutely an oolong, but with all the depth of shu pu'er. Note, this is not similar to standard aged oolong because of the unique moisture conditions. It has aged deep, dark, and foresty- a totally new hybrid style we are excited to share!

Breathtaking detail and precision celebrate Jingdezhen’s iconic blue glazing with this gallery-level teacup depicting the first blossoms of spring in a thatched geometric pattern highlighting fields of lighter blue against deep blue. This cup was fully handmade- from throwing it on the wheel, to carving it down to a translucent, paper-thin form, to painting every detail. The high-firing vitrifies the porcelain, making it fully non-reactive to amplify the true aroma of your tea..

The traditional lotus petal motif that surrounds this cup evokes Buddhist iconography and representation of refinement coming from the earth. Fitting, since this translucent, thin, stunning piece was itself refined from “mud,” the secret mixture of minerals that produce fine porcelain under the right heat. Fully hand-thrown, hand carved and hand-painted, this is a teacup to celebrate the very best teas.

The ewer is a traditional implement originally used for pouring rice wine at banquets and later adopted to tea ceremony. By pouring your boiling water in an ewer first, you can bring the temperature down to a perfect level for delicate green tea, white tea, or even buddy black teas. Plus, pouring from the ewer makes for a stunningly elegant presentation for deliberate gongfu tea ritual.

This 2023 Zun harvest is offered both dragon pearls (25g bags of 4-5 pearls) and in two pressings: 100g cakes and 357g cakes. This is the Zhenyuan Dongsa Cooperative's "Zun" harvest - a designation chosen by the cooperative that means ‘reverence’ of the ancient Qianjiazhai tea trees themselves. "Zun" also points to human collaboration with a living tree that has existed long before us and - hopefully - will continue to exist for generations to come. The Zun harvest uses the first early spring growth from only the old-growth (500-1000 year) wild trees above the Li Family’s home high in the mountains, and accessible only on foot. The wild nature of this tea’s provenance come through as a flavor texture and aroma experience that is both reverent of its source, and worthy of reverence for its commanding beauty, full of honey sweetness and dried fruit with the support of wild mountain herbs and intense textural depth.

Craft and terroir have come together beautifully for this 2023 early autumn harvest from Qianjiazhai's wild tea trees. The Dongsa Cooperative wild-forages buds and tender leaves from tea trees between one hundred and three hundred years of age for this loose sheng pu'er blend. Every hand-picked leaf is withered and sun-dried in bamboo baskets, with little or no heat exposure to lock in the most wild and natural flavor of one of the most remote growing regions in the world.

This loose leaf sheng pu'er is the Zhenyuan Dongsa Cooperative's "Zun" harvest - a designation chosen by the cooperative that means ‘reverence’ of the ancient Qianjiazhai tea trees themselves. "Zun" also points to human collaboration with a living tree that has existed long before us and - hopefully - will continue to exist for generations to come.

The Zun harvest uses the first early spring growth from only the old-growth (500-1000 year) wild trees above the Li Family’s home high in the mountains, and accessible only on foot. The wild nature of this tea’s provenance come through as a flavor texture and aroma experience that is both reverent of its source, and worthy of reverence for its commanding beauty, full of honey sweetness and dried fruit with the support of wild mountain herbs and intense textural depth.

CNNP is China's biggest, oldest and most famous big pu'er brand. This clout gives them access to a huge range of pu'er from across Yunnan for blending. This sheng pu'er exemplifies their range, pulling in a balanced and complex flavor profile with floral jasmine notes, juicy citrus, and deep lingering redwood spice.

This younger sheng from Xingyi workshop is packed with beautiful herbaceous spice and floral notes. With basil, mint, chervil and rose, the first sips are like a Mediterranean garden. As the tea opens up, it reveals a deep juicy cooling mouthwatering quality that hints at incredible complexity that will continue to develop for years to come.

Qianjiazhai Gong Ting Shu Pu'er is still a very new practice, made only by one of Master Zhou's students in the cooperative. Using the giant buds of Qianjiazhai's wild trees between 100 and three hundred years of age, this tea is carefully and slowly pile fermented to bring out a deep rich sweetness unlike any other shu pu'er out there. Master Zhou was so excited by this experiment he is sharing the technique across the cooperative and encourage more members to keep developing the craft.

Liu Bao Hei Cha is a unique relative to pu’er from Guangxi that gets a deep oxidation before classic fermentation technique is applied. The slow oxidation and clean relatively-dry shu pu’er style fermentation yields a deliciously rich, clean and smooth tea with sticky rice aromatics, and cooling woody foresty aftertaste.

Sui Yin Zi (also called "Broken Silver") has swept China in the last few years as a new craze, thanks to the fact that good Sui Yin Zi is impossible to over steep and can be brewed all day without exhausting the leaves. The flavor is sweet, clean, and cozy. Sui Yin Zi is not that different from Lao Cha Tou (shu pu'er nuggets), formed of individual leaf clusters that clump together during fermentation. This Sui Yin Zi is from Wang Yanxin’s longtime partners at Longyuanhao workshop, ready for further aging or drinking now.

Yongming Workshop loves focusing on single origin cakes, highlighting what makes a region iconic, leaning on their decades of sourcing connections for access to leaf material like this- hand-picked from trees up to five hundred years old, growing wild in the prized Banzhang region. For pile fermentation, Yongming brings in specially selected spring water to add moisture and encourage deep dark flavor for this cake in a way that complements the tea's natural aroma. Picked in 2017, this tea was pressed in 2022 after aging loose for an even rich complexity.

This is part of master potter Lai Xiahong’s “Back to Nature” Forest Series, drawing inspiration from the natural landscape of mountains and forest surrounding her home in Yixing. Her work scouting and personally excavating her clays from the hillsides brings her deep into nature, which comes through in Lai Xiahong’s hand-sculpted forms like this unique cup, one of Lai Xiahong’s first ‘non-teapot’ pieces she has ever made available. The cup evokes a tree stump, or hollowed out gourd, surrounded by roots- a nod to the bounty of nature as the cup is filled. The warmth of the Duan Ni clay will continue to grow deeper over years of use.

This beautiful and warm golden duan ni teapot by award-winning master potter Lai Xiaohong exemplifies a classic old-school sculptural form - gracefully-balanced between handle and spout, and adorned with gestural purple clay to contrast against the mottled lustrous duan ni. Lai Xiaohong is best known for classic pieces like this that elevate traditional forms with new life and energy.

This is part of master potter Lai Xiahong’s “Back to Nature” Forest Series, drawing inspiration from the natural landscape of mountains and forest surrounding her home in Yixing. Her work scouting and personally excavating her clays from the hillsides brings her deep into nature, which comes through in Lai Xiahong’s hand-sculpted forms like this unique cup, one of Lai Xiahong’s first ‘non-teapot’ pieces she has ever made available. The cup evokes a tree stump, or hollowed out gourd, surrounded by roots- a nod to the bounty of nature as the cup is filled. The warmth of the Duan Ni clay will continue to grow deeper over years of use.

This piece is tribute to the classic Song Dynasty scholar’s studio and the movement of finding natural objects of contemplation and inspiration to set against fine calligraphy and intricate carvings. As an intersection point between the meticulous, deliberate and masterful and the spontaneous natural, this pot shows off Lai Xioahong’s lifelong inspiration drawn from the mountains around her home in Yixing. The pot body evokes a worn stone, while the handle and spout are like twisted roots. Perched on top is a playful frog. This duan ni is ready to take on natural luster over years of use.

This beautiful and warm golden duan ni teapot by award-winning master potter Lai Xiaohong exemplifies a classic old-school sculptural form - gracefully-balanced between handle and spout, and adorned with gestural purple clay to contrast against the mottled lustrous duan ni. Lai Xiaohong is best known for classic pieces like this that elevate traditional forms with new life and energy.

This beautifully-small Yixing teapot from master potter Lai Xiaohong was hand-made and hand-finished in the traditional Han Xiang form. It is all too rare these days to find teapots in the 100ml-150ml size since they are harder to make than larger pots, but it is so rewarding to use a pot like this and be able to steep through the same leaves over a dozen times with a single kettle of water and really see the flavor and aftertaste develop. Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

This stunning piece shows off award-winning master potter Lai Xiahong’s skill through the addition of a clay lid handle ring fired into the pot in contrasting golden Duan Ni against the deep mottled Zi Ni of the pot body. The sweeping spout and handle show off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and the modern fluid sensibility in her art. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use. The whole piece is adorned with golden painted medallions for a beautiful contrast.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. This meticulously hand-built "Shu Gen" or "Tree Branch" form is carefully sculpted with fine detail to evoke gnarled tree branches growing from the lid, with playful contrast between the smooth body of the pot against the twisting details. The warm mottled Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. This deceptively simple pot shows off Lai Xiaohong’s traditional grounding and her modern fluid sensibility in her art, featuring a surprising scholar's studio stone carving on the wide pot lid, paired with the characters "ben shi" - a gathering of stones.  The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

This is part of master potter Lai Xiahong’s “Back to Nature” Series, drawing inspiration from the natural landscape of mountains and forest surrounding her home in Yixing. Her work scouting and personally excavating her clays from the hillsides brings her deep into nature, which comes through in Lai Xiahong’s hand-sculpted forms like this masterwork, a celebration of the curves, burls and irregularities of old growth trees and fallen logs. The warmth of the Di Cao Qing clay comes through with subtle mottling and depth, ready to take on luster over a lifetime of use.

This piece is tribute to the classic Song Dynasty scholar’s studio and the movement of finding natural objects of contemplation and inspiration to set against fine calligraphy and intricate carvings. As an intersection point between the meticulous, deliberate and masterful and the spontaneous natural, this pot shows off Lai Xioahong’s lifelong inspiration drawn from the mountains around her home in Yixing. The pot body evokes a worn stone, while the handle and spout are like twisted roots. Perched on top is a playful frog. This duan ni is ready to take on natural luster over years of use.

Award-winning master potter Lai Xiahong loves drawing inspiration from traditions outside of pottery, particularly arts like weaving where formal aesthetics grew out of functional need. This tribute to rattan weaving celebrates the shared heritage of potters and weavers as makers of everyday and sacred vessels.  The detailed sculpting shows off Lai Xiahong’s tremendous skill as a potter, while the rare Lv Ni (naturally-green clay) shows of her blending and sourcing work in the subtle warm mottling.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay - a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. The warm Di Cao Qing clay has been carefully swirled with golden Duan Ni for a beautiful fluid effect on the on the lid, carefully sculpted to evoke a natural rock formation. The smooth body is gilded stastefully with gold, evoking constellations. The whole piece is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

Award-winning artist Lai Xiaohong is famous for her hand-excavated and blended Di Cao Qing clay, a rich, dense and mottled clay that Lai Xiahong blends from minerals settled in her trough after months of careful aging. This meticulously hand-built Yi Li Zhu or "pearl" form is adorned with gilded gold leaf "fu" seals, evoking abundance. The warm Di Cao Qing clay is ready to take on more depth and luster over a lifetime of use.

This bundle includes five 25g bags of scented + blended floral tea for 125g total (about 25 sessions). This special tasting kit includes hand picked white tea, black tea, green tea, yellow tea and pu'er tea scented traditionally with beautiful jasmine,  osmanthus, orchid and rose flowers. Each tea is scented traditionally - without artifical or added aromas or flavorings - using simply the natural fragrance of the blended flowers. These traditional methods produce teas that are full and rich,  with brews that hold their intense sweetness and natural potency over many steepings. 

This bundle includes five 25g bags of Laoshan tea for 125g total (25 sessions).

The He Family were some of the first to plant tea in Laoshan, one of China’s newest and northernmost tea growing regions. Laoshan is a mountain village on the ocean, subject to cold winters that give the tea a flavor unlike any other on earth. Mr. He has established a cooperative to promote his award-winning vision for sustainable beyond-organic agriculture and rigorous technically demanding craft.

This collection represents the most classic and iconically representative teas the He Family produces. It is an invitation from Mr. He, Qingqing and the whole family to get to know their passion and their unwavering commitment to make Laoshan one of the most famous tea regions in China. 

While every tea in the collection represents a tremendous diversity of flavor, the whole collection circles around the iconic rich malty soybean profile of the region and the rocky texture of the mountain soil.

This green tea sampler is an intro to hand-picked, organic cultivation tea from small family farms, including 5 unique fresh seasonal picks. We believe that green tea should be as fresh as possible. That is why we work Mrs. Li in Dragonwell and the Cheng Family in Anhui 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 spring harvest pre-Qing Ming white tea is traditionally scented and made with Da Bai varietal white tea. This white tea is not sprayed with artificial oils or aromas. Instead, it is dried together with fresh jasmine blossoms scattered among the buds, allowing the natural aroma of the jasmine to absorb over several days into the tea itself. The process of adding fresh wild Yunnan jasmine blossoms is repeated six times over six days to get a full rich and creamy infusion that holds its intense sweetness and natural potency over many steepings. The creamy dessert-like Yunnan silver needle white tea is the perfect delicate pairing with Lincang's local luscious jasmine.

Xiangfu delivers full-on gongfu brewing in the smallest, most portable form factor with this new set. Three cups nest inside a stylish glass and bamboo brewer with a removable porcelain strainer and top. You can control brew time by removing the strainer, and pour from the pitcher into each cup for multi-infusion gongfu. When you are done, pack it up in the durable carbon-fiber case and take it on the go.

This unique teapot from Ming Xin Tang comes with two inserts, a generously-large brew basket to give your leaves plenty of room to infuse as you watch them unfurl, and a bonus steam-percolator glass insert designed to continuously steam your tea leaves and drip down over low heat. The wide spout makes for a fast clean pour, and the ample capacity means you can serve fine tea for a big group.

This bundle includes eight caffeine-free wild-foraged herbal teas for 200g total. The He Family in Laoshan is 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 is dedicated to sustainable agriculture, and meticulous hand-finishing craft in the workshop. This kit is an invitation to see their craft in action, from rich sweet jujube to fruity and creamy huai hua blossoms.

This unique black tea is picked from the early spring leaves and tender buds of the Camellia Crassicolumna tree, a close relative of the tea plant native to Qianjiazhai. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and high in antioxidants. Since Crassicolumna is native to the Qianjiazhai region, there are many examples of staggeringly old Crassicolumna trees. Mr. Li of the cooperative is actually employed by the local government as an environmental protection officer to make sure these ancient trees are protected from poaching, where outsiders would sneak in in the cover of darkness to cut the tall trees and quickly harvest their precious leaves. Mr. Li has found that the best way to protect the trees is to allow sustainable wild foraging by the people living in the protected region in exchange for their help watching over remote Crassicolumna groves. This extremely rare and labor-intensive to harvest offering is allowed to slowly sun-roast to oxidize and finished as a unique black tea with a rich fruity but wild flavor, all without the caffeine you’d see in camellia sinensis. 

The sweet potato is the most iconic fixture of Shandong province, and grows in every family garden in Laoshan village and up the mountainside. For decades, villagers have harvested semi-wild sweet potato from within the Laoshan National Park between rocky outcroppings and gnarled trees. As Laoshan tea becomes more famous and brings a better standard of living to the region, sweet potato has become a less critical crop, but this tea honors the tradition by applying tea finishing technique to foraged sweet potato leaf. This year's Sweet Potato Leaf tea is a collaboration between the whole neighborhood (the He Family District) and the He Famiy's workshop. Working together, several families picked Laoshan sweet potato leaves, then used the He Family's guidance and technique to oxidize the leaves in the sun, wither and roast, similar to black tea processing. This year, the cooperative had to roast the sweet potato leaf five times just to stop oxidation, making this a notably slow and time consuming tea to produce. Only several kilos were made this year, and we are lucky to offer the majority of the harvest while it lasts.

A member of the Solanaceae family, the caffeine-free Goji berry plant (Lycium barbarum) grows wild across Northern China - including on the slopes of Laoshan in Shandong. Though the plant is most famous for its berries, its dried leaves have been a part of traditional medicine in China for centuries. Early this spring, the He Family foraged young and tender spring goji leaves and carefully finished them with green tea processing and an open leaf style. We are so excited for the opportunity to share this another experimental tea from the He Family!

This bright pink herbal tisane is blended with hibiscus, schisandra berry, goji berry, licorice, coriander, strawberry and rose.

Rocking out to your favorite song with the windows down and nobody around to hear. Dressing up in your finest just for fun.

Ultra Pink - ultra bright. This is a no-holds-barred full on berry blend packed with juicy goodness, and a color to match. 

This bundle includes four 100g mini cakes of Crassicolumna tea for 400g total (80 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.

This tea is sustainably wild-foraged from ancient Camellia Crassicolumna (厚轴茶) tree, a close relative of tea native to Qianjiazhai. This year's tea is available both loose and in 100g cake pressings. Crassicolumna is naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants. The giant leaves and buds picked from this wild-growing tree stock are allowed to gently sun dry without any heat processing to keep the most natural flavor. Wild crassicolumna trees can be anywhere between several hundred and over a thousand years old, and are incredibly tall and difficult to climb to harvest these precious leaves, but the rich nuanced flavor and lingering aftertaste is worth the effort.

This spiced chai herbal tisane is a blend of cinnamon, ginger, black peppercorn, tulsi, dandelion root, cardamom, goji berry, fennel, elderberry, cacao nibs, burdock, galangal, clove, saffron, vanilla, and hinoki cypress oil.

This is chai spice after a fifth voyage around the world, having picked up inspiration at every stop along the way - finally world-weary and ready to set up as a hermit deep in a Hinoki Cypress forest and enjoy the balance it could only pick up with sixteen ingredients acting together in just the right way.

Brew this on its own, or add your favorite tea - a roasted oolong, like a rich Wuyi oolong, or Laoshan black tea. Give the blend even fuller texture with a touch of honey.

This refreshing herbal tisane blended with organic peppermint and spearmint, fennel, burdock and tulsi.

Invigorating to the senses, calming and soothing to the palate - this herbal is inspired by the unique way that tea makes us feel, and has been blended for contemplative time. This blend calls to mind a deep forest on a sunny day, pine trees in the wind, and splashing your face with water from a mountain spring.

Steamy and soothing hot, this tea is summer in a glass when served iced, serve unadorned or add a touch of rich wild honey.