Collection: Chinese Tea

The Only Country That Makes All Six Types of Tea

China produces every one of the six tea classes — green, white, yellow, oolong, black and dark tea. Black tea began here, and both Japanese green tea and matcha trace their origins back to Chinese practice. The growing regions stretch from the far south to the north and from lowland to high mountain, so the same cultivar can taste entirely different depending on the soil and the climate it grew in.

We Buy at the Garden, Not From a Sample

Everything in this range is bought in person. Each year we stay in Yunnan, Fujian and Guangdong, walk the gardens with the farmers and judge that season's crop before committing to it. During the spring harvest we spend around two months in Yunnan, working alongside the producers and checking quality on the processing floor rather than choosing from finished samples sent to us.

Gardens Without Pesticide or Fertiliser

Whether a garden uses pesticide decides whether we buy from it at all. We favour high mountain sites where pest pressure is naturally low, and carefully tended naturally grown gardens. For Yunnan in particular we buy only tea grown with no fertiliser and no pesticide.

A tea bush that is never fed grows slowly and yields less, but its leaves carry more minerals and polyphenols. The body and the long finish we judge tea by come from those growing conditions, not from the processing.

Where These Teas Come From

From Yunnan: pu-erh, old tree black tea, white tea and wild tea. From Wuyi Shan in Fujian: Wuyi rock oolong and Lapsang Souchong, held to be the first black tea ever made. From Fenghuang in Chaozhou, Guangdong: Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. From Anxi in Fujian: Tie Guan Yin. Alongside these we carry the teas each province is known for — Tai Ping Hou Kui and Keemun from Anhui, Xi Hu Long Jing from Zhejiang, Meng Ding Gan Lu and Bi Tan Piao Xue from Sichuan, and Jun Shan Yin Zhen from Hunan.