Spring Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

Puerh is a very special tea only from Yunnan, China. It can taste quite different depending if it’s shou (ripe) or sheng (raw) , young or aged.  Most people think of puerh as very dark fermented tea, that is the shou (ripe) puerh. Sheng (raw) puerh looks pretty close to green tea when it is young, and it becomes darker over time as it ages. Younger raw puerh can be a little more aggressive and quite bitter. It usually becomes smoother as it ages.  

We are showcasing you 3 raw puerh teas this season. The 3 raw puerh teas in the box are similar in age but they have very different characteristics. One is a very well-crafted blend from different puerh mountains, and the other two are from two different tea mountains that showcase each mountain’s unique flavors and characters.

2007 Six Famous Mountains Raw Puerh is a special raw puerh that is a blend of teas from the 6 major tea mountains, a very well-crafted blend that creates a very harmonized tea. This tea is very complex and smooth, which makes it so easy to enjoy. Everything seems to balance itself quite well, and we enjoy the weight and warmth of this tea in our stomach. Our bodies also start to relax more after a few cups of this tea. 

Bulang is one of the famous mountains for the production of puerh tea. The teas from this region usually have a strong character. They are usually slightly bitter at first, yet layers of complexity come through and finish with a sweet aftertaste. 2005 Bulang Raw Puerh has a taste of aging, and the years of aging has made the bitterness a lot smoother. It has complex notes of tobacco and leather, sweetened by a mellow aftertaste of jujubes. The feeling of warmth fills the body very soon after sipping the tea and the sweet aftertaste lingers for long.

Nannuo Mountain is known as the number one ancient tea village in Yunnan and is famous for its ancient tea trees. It is rich in ancient tree resources, with an average altitude of 1,400 meters and abundant precipitation throughout the year, which is very suitable for the growth of tea trees. Nannuo Mountain puerh tea leaves are big and thick. The teas are usually nice fragrant, slightly astringent but with long lingering. Nannuo puerh is usually one of the teas that puerh lovers would like to have in their collection. 2006 Nannuo Raw Puerh has developed a rich and thick texture with a layered complexity over the years.  

We hope you enjoy diving into the world of puerh we selected for this season, and remember to check out our T Shop’s puerh tea if you would like to explore more. 

As always, 
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Winter Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

This season’s tea subscription is about yancha. Yancha, also known as Rock Tea or Cliff Tea, is oolong tea from Wuyi mountain in Fujian, China. Due to its geographic location, Yancha has unique characters. Growing at the cliff regions and more rocky soil gives the Yancha a very distinctive mineral finish that other teas don’t have. These 3 yancha may be quite different in taste and yet they all have a very clean mineral finish. 

Floral Da Hong Pao 
Da Hong Pao is one of the most sought-after cliff teas in Wuyi mountain. In this tea club box we included a Floral Da Hong Pao, which is a medium roasted Da Hong Pao. Due to this lighter roasting, this tea is very smooth with nice floral aroma and lingers. The tea is elegant and well balanced, very easy to enjoy and you can still notice the distinctive yancha mineral finish.

Shui Jin Gui
Shui Jin Gui is one of the famous varieties among Wuyi cliff tea. This tea is not as often seen in the market compared to other famous varieties. We’re lucky that we have a little for our own stash. It has a strong smell of toasted chestnut, followed by hints of baked plum and fig. The tea also has developed a nice buttery note over time. An absolutely delicious tea with a lot of clean mineral finish, makes your mouth sweet and watery after you drink the tea. 

Old Bush Shui Xian (Biodynamic) 
Old bush refers to the Shui Xian tea tree that is at least 60 years old. This tea farm was created with the intent to make tea that is grown in a diverse yet harmonious environment. The tea plants grow along with other crops and livestock, and they treat the land with very minimal intervention.  This tea has a nice roast to it but not overpowering. We enjoy this tea’s silky texture along with the clean finish.

We hope you enjoy the Wuyi cliff teas we selected for this season, and remember to check out our T Shop’s tea if you would like to explore more.

As always, 
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Fall Seasons's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,
Fall is around the corner. As the weather changes, we crave for teas that are slightly darker but smooth; something that will warm and nourish our body. Therefore, this season we are introducing a few black teas for you to enjoy.

Boseong Black Tea
Oftentimes black teas can be easily overlooked by tea drinkers, but when it comes to the good quality ones, they’re very enjoyable as well! Boseong Black Tea is from one of our favorite Korean tea farmers who also made our Boseong Green Tea. This tea is using the same leaves that are used for Boseong Green Tea but picked slightly later (about 7-10 days after our green tea is picked). It is very unusual that a farmer would use early spring picking for black tea, we are very grateful that this farmer is willing to work with us on this high quality black tea. This black tea is very elegantly floral and soft on the tongue. This is definitely one of the most delicate and beautiful black tea we have tried.

Lishan Black tea
This Taiwanese black tea is produced using high mountain tea leaves (Qing Xin Oolong cultivar) from Lishan, fully oxidized to make into black tea. The tea growing region of this Lishan Black tea has an elevation of about 2000m. With the alpine growing conditions, teas usually are sweeter and less astringency. This tea has a rich fruity honey aroma that also balances the taste. Take a sip and feel like you are surrounded by the breeze. The aftertaste is soft and sweet, with endless charm. This black tea is very easy to drink and can be enjoyed at any time.

Fei Zi Xiao Black tea
Fei Zi Xiao is a new style of black tea made from high quality souchong in Tongmuguan, Wuyi, Fujian. It is a relatively popular tea variety in recent years. Feizixiao Black tea's taste and aroma are reminiscent of peaches, longan and tropical fruits, with hints of sweet lychee and honey. The taste is soft and sticky, with a thick undertone, long-lasting sweetness, and a lingering fragrance at the bottom of the cup. You can enjoy the aftertaste deep in your throat when you drink it.

We hope you enjoy the black tea we selected for this season, and remember to check out our T Shop’s tea if you would like to explore more.

As always,
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Summer Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

Every spring is always an exciting time for us especially when the new harvests from Yunnan, China, arrive. We have been getting new raw puerhs from the same regions (Yiwu and Manzhuan) every spring.  We love to compare them with the previous batches and taste along from time to time to see how aging does to the raw puerh.

Puerh is a very special tea only from Yunnan, China. It can taste quite different depending if it’s shou (ripe) or sheng (raw), young or aged.  Most people think of puerh as very dark fermented tea, that is the shou (ripe) puerh.  Sheng (raw) puerh  looks pretty close to green tea when it is young, and it becomes darker over time as it ages.  In the past, people usually didn't enjoy young raw puerh until it was aged. Younger raw puerh can be a little more aggressive and quite bitter. It usually becomes smoother as it ages. Nowadays some raw puerh are produced with very high quality material so that they are very enjoyable even at this young age.  Our Yiwu and Manzhuan Raw Puerh are easy to enjoy even when they are young, and each also has very distinctive characters from the represented regions.  

Another tea that we’ve been getting from Yunnan every spring is our Yunnan Silver Needle.  White tea lovers are usually familiar with Silver Needle, which is a very delicate white tea made with only young buds. Our Silver Needle is from Yunnan and made using only young buds from old trees, which makes the tea delicate and yet bolder than other Silver Needle teas.

This season we are sending Yunnan Silver Needle, Yiwu Raw Puerh, and Manzhuan Raw Puerh. You will find that we include both the harvest of 2023 and 2024, so that you can enjoy the newest harvest and compare with last year’s (which is now 1 year aged).  Some people enjoy when the teas are fresh, yet I usually found myself enjoying more when the teas are slightly aged. Hope you will have fun tasting and comparing them.

As always, 
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Spring Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers, 

This season we are going to continue the journey for oolong tea. As spring is approaching and the weather is getting warmer, we are going to focus on Taiwanese oolong this time. 

Taiwan is famous for their high mountain tea. When we say high mountain, the elevation should be over 1000 meters. High mountain oolongs are usually named according to which mountain the tea is from, and each mountain region has its own characteristic. Also note that teas from the same mountain can vary in the quality depending on the farm and skill of the tea maker as well.  In the box, you have Shan Lin Xi Oolong and Alishan oolong, which both are among the famous high mountain tea regions.  Shan Lin Xi Oolong has an elevation of 1200-1500m. It has a very clean and refreshing aroma. The taste profile is rich with notes of flowers, tropical fruits, and buttery sweet flavor. This tea is brisk and smooth. Alishan oolong is from the farm at above 1600m elevation. It has a bolder flavor and aftertaste than Shan Lin Xi Oolong.  

Red Water Oolong is a very charming and opulent oolong tea that is closer to the style of traditional Taiwanese oolong, which are a little more oxidized and roasted. It requires several infusions to reveal the different layers of aroma and taste. This tea starts with honey aroma, followed by the taste of baked fruits with hints of plum, and finishes with floral and maltose sweetness.  

When oolong teas are well made, they can be aged over time. Formosa Oolong Special Reserve is a wonderfully aged Taiwanese oolong tea from the early 2000’s.  Rich and mellow, the tea tastes strongly of sour plums, wildflower honey, and cloves.  Both warming and gentle, a perfect to have between the seasons.

We hope you enjoy the tea and please remember to check out T Shop’s oolong tea selection if you would like to explore more.

As always, 
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Winter Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

We tend to enjoy roasted teas for cold winter days, so we would like you to enjoy some nice roasted oolongs for the season. This season we are introducing four Wuyi Yancha. Wuyi Yancha, or cliff tea, is a oolong tea that is grown at the cliff regions in Wuyi mountain, located in Fujian province in China. A good Yancha is nicely roasted to enhance the complexity of the tea with a long mineral finish. Yancha is usually picked in late April and the whole production finishes around Fall or sometimes even early winter. It takes months to process the tea mostly because the multiple roasting takes time. Typically it is not the best to enjoy Yancha right after the production, give it a few months to a year or two, you will find the roasting is more balanced and the tea’s flavor is getting thicker. Take your time to enjoy the Yancha, you will find yourself slowing down and lingering on the tea more and more.

Tie Lou Han is traditionally a heavy roasted Yancha. In the box, we put Tie Luo Han and Premium Tie Luo Han to compare. The Tie Luo Han has always been one of our favorite teas in the winter, layers of roasting, dark fruits and mineral finish, a good tea that will make you linger and keep you warm. The Premium Tie Luo Han is from another farmer. We enjoyed his previous batch a lot, so we decided to include his latest production, harvest from this April. This tea might not be the best to enjoy now since it’s so fresh from the roasting, but we believe the tea will shine through and you will find yourself enjoying it more and more over time.

Rou Gui is another popular Yancha and is well known for its fragrance among Yancha. We are sharing two Rou Gui, Rou Gui Bi Shi Yan and Rou Gui Tian Xin Yan, which are made by the same tea maker but from different true cliff regions. Bi Shi Yan is a true cliff region that relatively has more sunlight throughout the day. As a result, we find Rou Gui Bi Shi Yan has a more noticeable and higher notes of aroma. You can enjoy the notes of roasting, nectarine, cinnamon, and more. The tea is rich and slightly milky in the mouth. Tian Xin Yan is one of those most famous true cliff regions. We love its smoothness and the beautiful finish of this Rou Gui Tian Xin Yan. You might see the mineral finish is very long lasting, and it lingers along with slightly sweet floral.

We hope you enjoy these Yancha, and please remember to check out our shop’s selected Yancha if you would like to explore more

As always,
Happy sipping!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Fall Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

Fall is around the corner. As the weather changes, we crave for something that is slightly darker but smooth; something that will warm and nourish our body. We are introducing a few of our favorite teas for this season.

2004 White Tea
In China, people believe aged white tea is good for wellbeing. It is not easy to find white tea that’s over 10 years aged, not to mention white tea that’s close to 20 years aged. Harvested in the spring of 2004, this aged white is from Fuding, China. Throughout the steeping, we found notes of plum, ripen fruits, chestnut, vanilla, honey, etc… We enjoy this aged white tea for the deepening and full taste and yet still has a very clean and sweet finish. This tea is very smooth and relaxing.

Boseong Black Tea
Oftentimes black teas can be easily overlooked by tea drinkers, but when it comes to the good quality ones, they’re very enjoyable as well! Boseong Black Tea is from one of our favorite Korean tea farmers who also made our Boseong Green Tea. This tea is using the same leaves that are used for Boseong Green Tea but picked slightly later (about 7-10 days after our green tea is picked). It is very unusual that a farmer would use early spring picking for black tea, we are very grateful that this farmer is willing to work with us on this high quality black tea. This black tea is very elegantly floral and soft on the tongue. This is definitely one of the most delicate and beautiful black tea we have tried.

High Mountain Black Tea
High Mountain Black Tea is one of T Shop’s popular teas of all time. This Taiwanese black tea is produced using high mountain tea leaves (Qing Xin Oolong cultivar), fully oxidized to make into black tea. It has very nice notes of chocolate and dried fruits with almost no astringency. It is very easy to drink and can be enjoyed at any time.

Happy sipping and hope you enjoy the tea club box!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Summer Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

The shipment of some spring tea is finally here and this season’s tea club is all about new teas from spring 2023! In this subscription box you will find 2 green teas, 1 white tea and 1 raw puerh tea. Hope you will have fun with all of them!

2023 Long Jing Green Tea
This season we would like to include a green tea from China so that you can compare it to the Korean Green tea we have. Long Jing (or Dragonwell) is one of the most famous Chinese green teas. This Long Jing is varietal #43 from the earliest picking this spring. #43 is the most common Long Jing on the market nowadays. The first picking of the Long Jing is always the most precious one. I hope you enjoy the freshness and sweetness that this tea brings you.

2023 Hadong Green Tea
Hadong Green Tea is one of the Korean green teas that we carry in the shop. This green tea is carefully crafted by a Korean monk. The slightly savory nutty aroma was due to the roasting of the green tea. This year’s Hadong Green Tea we taste less toasty but much bolder flavor than previous seasons.

2023 Yunnan Silver Needle
The Yunnan Silver Needle has always been one of our most popular teas in the shop. This Yunnan Silver Needle is delicate and yet bolder than other Silver Needles because it is made using young buds from old tea trees in Yunnan. This season’s Yunnan Silver Needle is quite amazing; it’s bright, nutty, floral, and sweet. It is still one of our favorite teas to enjoy on any day any time.

2023 Lincang Raw Puerh
This year we are adding this Lincang puerh to our collection. Lincang is located southwest of Yunnan Province. Lincang has many tea regions in the area. It is also the region that produces the most tea in Yunnan. This puerh is made using material from ancient puerh tree. The tea is so robust and well balanced, which makes it so enjoyable even as a young raw puerh.

As Always,
Happy Drinking

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Spring Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

This season we are going to introduce puerh teas.

Puerh tea is a very special tea only from Yunnan, China.  If you have never had a puerh tea before, the taste might be a little surprising, it tastes quite different from other teas. In general speaking, puerh tea is quite earthy, but it can still taste quite different depending if it’s shou (ripe) puerh or sheng (raw) puerh, young or aged.  Most people think of puerh tea as very dark fermented tea, that is the shou (ripe) puerh.  Sheng (raw) puerh  looks pretty close to green tea when it is young, and it becomes darker over time as it ages.

1998 Shou puerh
Shou (ripe) puerh goes through a fermentation process so it is dark to begin with even when it is young.  We always look for a clean taste in tea, especially in shou puerh, which means we prefer shou puerh that doesn’t have unpleasant smell or taste due to poor handling during process or tea storage. This mellow, smooth shou (ripe) puerh has been aged for more than two decades. Wonderfully rich and thick in the cup, this tea tastes of sticky rice, roots, and dried fruits. Each cup has a warm and gentle feeling, perfect for colder weather. This has been one of our favorite shou puerh.  

2007 Harmony Raw Puerh
This raw puerh is a blend of 12 mountains, a very well-crafted blend that creates a very harmonized tea.  This tea is very dense, complex, and smooth. At first we taste baked apple, slightly smoky and leathery. As we steep more, we can taste some darker fruits, camphor and slightly bitter, but the bitterness is quite pleasant and smooth due to its age. Everything seems to balance itself quite well, and we enjoy the weight and warmth of this tea in our stomach. Our shoulders start to relax more after a few cups of this tea. This 2007 Harmony Raw Puerh is great to enjoy now or age more.

2017 Yiwu Raw Puerh
In the past, people usually didn't enjoy young raw puerh until it was more aged. Younger raw puerh can be a little more aggressive and quite bitter. It usually becomes smoother as it ages. This 2017 Yiwu Raw Puerh is still quite young, which you can taste some floral and stone fruits but a lot more bitter and astringency. We would like to compare this tea with the more aged raw puerh to see how the bitterness is different between them. It is also interesting to come back to the same young raw puerh from time to time to see how it changes throughout time.

As Always,
Happy Drinking

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Winter Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

In this season’s subscription box, we are going to introduce a few interesting black teas and an exquisite white tea.

White tea is a very neutral tea that most people seem to enjoy all year round regardless of the weather.  Therefore we are always in search of a good white tea. This year we found this amazing  Bai Mu Dan from Tai Mu Mountain in Fuding, China. Fuding is very well known for white teas, and the best ones are usually from the high elevation region of Tai Mu Mountain. This exquisite Bai Mu Dan is from a biodynamic farm using traditional craftsmanship that includes both sun withering and indoor withering. As a result, this tea is very clean with amazing fragrances. Finish with a very nice minty in the mouth but warmth in the stomach. 

Boseong Black Tea has been one of our most popular black teas in the shop. The farmer uses early pick with very delicate materials for our Boseong black tea, which is not common to use for black tea. We asked the farmer to send us some of the regular Boseong black tea to compare, and we’re putting it in this tea subscription box so you can compare and see.

The Regular Boseong Black Tea uses slightly mature leaves and our Boseong Black uses only the bud and very young leaves. Both teas are very enjoyable, you might notice the slight differences when you brew in a larger pot or in a mug. But when you brew them in gongfu style, the differences are quite noticeable. Our Boseong black tea has more sweetness and floral notes, the liquid also feels more delicate. Try it yourself and see if you can tell which one is our Boseong black tea. 

Lapsang Souchong originates from Tong Mu Guan reserve region in Wuyi Mountain, China. When people talk about Lapsang Souchong, the first thing that comes to mind is the smoky taste. Traditionally, Lapsang Souchong has to be smoked in a special smokehouse called Qing Lou, or the “Green House”. The tea will be placed in the “Green House” where they will be withering and roasting.  The farmer would burn the local pine at the lower level and let it smolder the whole “Green House”. That is how the smoky taste got into the tea, so that it has a good balance of smokiness and tea taste. 

Nowadays the cutting of the local pine is prohibited in the Tong Mu Guan reserve area. The farmers can only use pine that they cut from the past or pick up the broken pine branches from the ground. In addition, Jin Jun Mei and other new varieties of non-smoked black tea have become more popular. Most of the Lapsang Souchong nowadays are no longer smoked. In this subscription box we put in a smoked Lapsang Souchong that we think is a very good example to showcase the craftsmanship and a Floral Lapsang Souchong which is the non-smoked version. 

Happy sipping and hope you enjoy this subscription box!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Summer Season's Tea Club

We’re sending out teas for the warmer weather in this tea club box. Also, this is a very exciting time that a lot of new spring harvested teas have arrived, we also include a few in this box as well. Enjoy and have fun exploring the teas! 

Hadong green Tea is one of the Korean green teas (along with Boseong green tea) we brought back freshly for the season. This tea is produced in Hadong, South Korea, and carefully crafted by a monk. The slightly savory nutty aroma was due to the roasting of the green tea. This year the monk roasted the tea slightly differently, so it gives a more fresh taste to the tea than before.

En Shi Yu Lu Green Tea is a rare steamed Chinese green tea that still uses the ancient steaming method in the process of making green tea. Steaming was the widely used method for making green tea during the Tang dynasty and was later adapted by the Japanese. Nowadays most Chinese and Korean green teas are made using pan-frying and Japanese green teas use steaming. 

Li Shan or Pear Mountain boasts some of the tallest peaks in Taiwan and the conditions are ideal for growing tea. Li Shan Reserve is a new tea that we love and just recently added to the shop’s collection. The high elevation (~2000M) presents itself in the golden brews of this tea. Incredibly aromatic from the first cup, each infusion is thick, creamy, and robust. Each infusion of this tea is as enjoyable as eating fruits in the peak of their season, layer by layer, savoring the richness as it coats the mouth as the briskness of the high mountains flows through.

Li Shan Oolong is from a different farmer of the region. A lighter oxidized oolong compared to Li Shan Reserve, which we think would be a lovely tea to have on hotter days.

2022 Yiwu Raw Puerh and 2022 Manzhuan Raw Puerh cakes from this spring just arrived and we would love to share with you first. They are from Yiwu and Manzhuan.  Both Puerh are produced with very high quality material so that they are very enjoyable even at this young age.  Each also has very distinctive characters from the represented regions.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Spring Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

This season, we are sending you teas from the famous Wuyi mountains of Fujian, China.  The Wuyi region produces a number of well-known teas, including Lapsang Souchong and Da Hong Pao.  In the tea club box, you will find 2 Lapsang Souchong and 2 Da Hong Pao.

When people talk about Lapsang Souchong, smoky black tea is usually what comes to mind. 2 Lapsang Souchong, that you can find in the tea club box, are not smoky at all; one is more floral , Floral Lapsang Souchong, and the other one, Fei Zi Xiao Black Tea, is sweet like lychee .  Both teas are different variations of Lapsang Souchong that have not been smoked by pine.  Both teas are from Tongmuguan, which is a very special national nature preserve region in Wuyi mountain. Tongmuguan is cloudy and misty all year round, with abundant rainfall and warm climate.  The region has rich soil and is full of tea plants, bamboo, and wood forest, which has naturally formed a complete ecological system. The excellent climate and geographical environment have created unique ecological conditions to cultivate excellent black teas.

Da Hong Pao is one of the most sought-after Yancha (or cliff tea) in Wuyi mountain.  Da Hong Pao is one of the most expensive teas sold in history.  However, the most expensive Da Hong Pao, which is from the six original mother bushes, are not available in the market. There are two major types of Da Hong Pao in today’s tea market. The first type is produced from the cuttings of the original bushes. Our Da Hong Pao Zhu Ke Yan and Da Hong Pao Jiu Long Jian are among this kind of Da Hong Pao. The other type which is more common in the market is actually a blend of other Wuyi cliff teas to create the similar flavors and characteristics as the original Da Hong Pao.  In the tea club box we included 2 Da Hong Pao that are blended by different farmers.  Both teas are very smooth with a nice aroma and lingers. We would like to show you when the Da Hong Pao is well blended, it can be very well balanced and you won’t even notice that this is a blended tea!

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Winter Season's Tea Club

Dear tea lovers,

Let us introduce you to a few teas that we think are perfect for the cold winter weather. We love roasted teas for the winter, so we brought in two roasted oolong that we think is amazing for you to try. Both are from biodynamic farms, one from China, and the other one is from Taiwan. Last but not least, a very smooth puerh to keep you warm. Hope you enjoy all the teas as much as we do.

Old bush refers to the Shui Xian tea tree that is at least 60 years old.  This tea farm was created with the intent to make tea that is grown in a diverse yet harmonious environment. The tea plants grow along with other crops and livestock, and they treat the land with very minimal intervention.  This Biodynamic Old Bush Shui Xian has a nice roast to it but not overpowering. We enjoy this tea’s silky texture along with the clean finish.

Royal oolong is from a biodynamic farm in Dong Ding region in Taiwan. We have been getting a small batch of this tea every year from a tea roaster. The tea roaster has done amazing roasting to these leaves grown and harvested under optimal conditions.  We absolutely love the roasting done to this tea, which made the tea full and rich, and yet still smooth and surprisingly harmonious. 

1998 shou puerh is a mellow, smooth cooked puerh that has been aged for more than two decades. Wonderfully rich and thick in the cup, this tea tastes of sticky rice, roots, and dried fruits. Each cup has a warm and gentle feeling, perfect for colder weather. Our 1998 Shou Puerh lasts for many infusions for long, cozy sessions.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Summer Season's Tea Club

Dear Tea Lovers, 

This season we put one Puerh, one Taiwanese oolong, and one Black tea  for our tea club box.  We hope you can find some comfort and happiness as you sip through this season’s selection. 

Yibang is one of the original six famous puerh tea mountains.  This 2016 Yibang Raw Puerh used “gushu” material, which is leaves from ~200 years old trees, and you can definitely tell the quality by tasting it. It has very elegant and soft floral notes. It also has a very full and round body compared to most of the other raw puerh of the same year. It carries slightly bitterness and astringency that young raw puerh does but overall it is still very pleasant.  What we love so much about this tea is that it feels so relaxing and makes us feel like we are napping outdoors on a beautiful spring afternoon.

Boseong Black Tea is from one of our favorite Korean tea farmers who also made our Boseong Green Tea. This tea is using the same leaves that used for Boseong Green tea but picked at the later of the season. This black tea has a very nice aroma and is so soft on the tongue. This is definitely among one of the best black teas we have tried.

Honey oolong is from a small biodynamic farm in Pinglin, Taiwan.  The tea roaster who we admired a lot for his skillful work, decided to experiment on doing a very mild roasted oolong, which turns out the tea has a very charming honey aroma. We love this tea so much not just for the taste of it, but it feels like it is a tea that can soothe your soul on any day.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Spring Season's Tea Club

In this season’s tea club subscription, we would like to introduce you to a few of the interesting black teas that we found. Oftentimes black teas can be easily overlooked by tea drinkers, but when it comes to the good quality ones, they’re very enjoyable as well! 

This High mountain Black Tea is one of T Shop’s popular teas of all time. It is produced using Taiwanese high mountain oolong tea leaves. It has very nice notes of chocolate and fried fruits with almost no astringency. It is very easy to drink and can be enjoyed any time. 

We’re so thrilled that we were able to get very limited quantities of this Award Winning Lapsang Souchong. This amazing Lapsang Souchong  used only tea leaves from the Tongmuguan special reserve region in Wuyi mountain. Lapsang Souchong is a very well-known tea that most tea drinkers should have tried or heard of. It is known for its smokiness.  This award winning Lapsang Souchong shows us how exquisite the smokiness can be when using very skillful traditional processing. Smokiness is not the only focus of this tea; it has a very nice texture, with a good balance of the smokiness and the tea itself. It is definitely the best Lapsang Souchong we have tried so far.

Not all Lapsang Souchong are smoky. Some Lapsang Souchong do not go through the pine-smoking process, which can result in very different tastes. This particular Lapsang Souchong (non-smoke) is so delightful, fruity, and sweet. It reminds me a lot of the gummy candies that I liked when I was a little kid. This would be a wonderful black tea for the Spring! 

This Floral Lapsang Souchong is another non-smoked Lapsang Souchong. This tea has a thick velvety mouthfeel. It also has very deep malty and floral notes to it. It has a very nice aroma and the flavors lingers for a long time even after you finish.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

Staff Picks for Winter

Here's some recommendations from our staffs. We hope it helps you find your perfect teas for winter time!
 

• Tie Guan Yin
  Snow is here just in time for the holidays. That means the cold is here too. So when it really starts to get frigid, I reach for Tie Guan Yin. It’s deeply roasted to help me fight the frost while shoveling myself out of the driveway. That same roast also keeps those nutty notes and orchid sweetness singing back into my mouth long after I’ve finished my cup. It has the kind of longevity that not only lasts in the mouth, but brews for many cups. There’s nothing better to curl up with a book on these chilly, winter days than Tie Guan Yin.
  -N

• 2005 Wild Big Snow Mountain Raw Puerh
  2005 wild big snow mountain raw puerh is a very unique tea. This tea isn’t for everyone and it is definitely not an everyday tea. But this tea is addictive; I’ve been thinking about it since the first time I had it. It’s smoky, earthy, woodsy, and it is warming. This tea takes me out to the woods while I comfortably sipping it at home. This is a tea that I’m not going to drink it everyday but I want it available in my tea collection.
  -T

• Rou Gui (Lian Hua Feng)
  Rou Gui Lian Hua Feng is from Lian Hua Feng, one of the true cliff tea regions, but is unlike most our other true cliff teas. This elegant tea has delicate floral notes backed by a fresh, stony minerality. And roasting is nicely done. It is suitable for tea drinkers who seek roasting flavor and delicate taste at the same time.
  -H

Happy sipping and stay warm!

Winter Season's Tea Club

This season’s tea subscription is about roasted tea and yancha. Yancha, also known as Rock tea or Cliff Tea, is oolong tea from Wuyi mountain in Fujian, China. Due to its geography, Yancha has very unique characters. Growing at the cliff regions and more rocky soil gives the Yancha a very distinctive mineral finish that other teas don’t have. 

Tie Guan Yin is the only non-yancha in this subscription box. Tie Guan Yin is always one of our most popular teas in the winter.  This Tie Guan Yin is from Anxi, China. The roasting is freshly done from this Spring’s harvest. It followed the traditional heavy roasting, which was roasted 3 times in the past few months. You can still taste a lot of roasting in the tea right now. Usually for heavy roasted tea we prefer to enjoy it when it’s not freshly roasted. Give it some time, the roasting will mellow in the tea, which will give a much better balance to this tea. Stock up now and wait for the colder days to enjoy this tea. 

Shui Xian is traditionally made and heavy-roasted. The tea brews a color redolent of aged oolongs. Dark fruits swirl around a fresh botanical taste accented by a roasted flavor coating the sides of the mouth. A clear mineral taste builds on the palate with every infusion. Long-lasting and warming tea—a perfect fit for the colds of Winter. 

Old bush refers to the Shui Xian tea tree that is at least 60 years old. This Old Bush Shui Xian has a very nice clean and long finish because it’s from old bush. Its roasting has been mellowed, and it creates a very balanced aroma and flavors. It also shows a very clear characteristic of Wuyi Yancha, which you can taste the mineral sweetness from the first cup all the way till the end.

There are many different varieties among Wuyi yancha, and Jin Mu Dan is one of those very unique ones. Jin Mu Dan is a hybrid of Tie Guan Yin and Huang Jin Gui. This Jin Mu Dan is a medium roasted yancha, which is perfectly done to bring out the amazing fragrance of the tea. It has a very nice aroma of gardenia. The gardenia soon changes into a little hint of black currants and ends with mineral sweetness. This tea can be enjoyed on any nice winter day.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription

T Shop’s 6th anniversary

It’s T Shop’s 6th anniversary this Friday (10/16), and we’ve got something special for you!

When we first opened T Shop, we loved our Red Water Oolong so much that we put some away to age. We called this first batch of Red Water Oolong the Anniversary Tea, because we only taste this tea for T Shop’s Anniversary. This year due to the pandemic, we will not have any tasting in the shop, so we decided to sell some of this Anniversary Tea!

For 3 days only, from Friday to Sunday, you will be able to get the Anniversary Tasting Set on our website, limited quantities only! The set will come with a sample size of the Anniversary tea and a sample size of current Red Water Oolong, so you can taste and compare them at home.

Thank you for growing with us throughout the years!

>>go to get Anniversary Tasting Set

Introducing 2020 Manzhuan Raw Puerh

As the season changes, we are excited to introduce our 2020 Manzhuan Raw Puerh. 2020 Manzhuan raw puerh is produced using ancient arbor tree leaves. It is a very delightful young raw puerh. It has the bitterness that young raw puerh has, but the bitterness fades away. The nuances in each steeping will remind you the beautiful spring time. You can linger over the freshness and sweetness throughout the tea.

Fall Season's Tea Club

This season, we’re sending 2 raw puerh and 1 special oolong. We’re very lucky to find two raw puerh for our tea club. Both are newly harvested puerh from Yiwu, Yunnan. 

The 2020 Yiwu Raw Puerh is a very energizing tea. It has some bitterness since it’s a very young raw puerh. But the bitterness is very slightly upfront and then it becomes more soft on the pallet. It brings up notes of mung beans and stone fruit, with a very clean sweet finish at the end. This tea is so interesting as a young raw puerh, and we believe it will develop more characters as it ages over them. 

The other puerh is a 2020 Wild Yiwu Raw Puerh. This puerh is from the same year and same region as the previous one, but because it is “wild” tea, they are so different in character. “Wild” here means the tea plant has not been cultivated or domesticated by humans and used extensively, and it retains at the most primitive state. Compared to these two puerh, 2020 Yiwu Raw Puerh is like strolling through a botanical garden and 2020 Wild Yiwu Raw Puerh is like walking to wood in nature. This puerh is very bold as a young raw puerh, and it feels very focused and relaxed at the same time. 

The third tea we put in the box is Formosa Oolong Special Reserve. This is a wonderfully aged tea from the early 2000's. Rich and mellow, the tea tastes strongly of sour plums, wildflower honey, and cloves. This aged tea is warming and gentle, and it is perfect to have during the colder months as we are getting into the Fall.

>>Join our Tea Club Subscription