Dance of the Tea Teaser Out Now

We just released the first teaser for our Taiwan Oolong Documentary! The Dance of the Tea.

This is the first installment in a series of teasers, all organized around elements of tea. This first is focussed on the actual leaves, farms and processing. You can see Dong Ding mountain and the tea fields there. The farmer we have bought tea from for a decade is in there, a thin man with white hair. He will show up in later videos.

Please enjoy and stay tuned for more teasers. We think the way the leaves dance is so beautiful!

Special thanks to Jake Knapp who filmed and edited the video and to Jon Davis who contributed music for this piece.

Dong Ding Guided Tastings Beginning Soon

We are very excited to bring our live session focus to Dong Ding! We believe drinking tea together with tea people is the best way to explore tea, and we want to bring that experience of sharing tea to our clients and friends far away. In these sessions, we will share what we have learned from having tea with Taiwanese tea merchants, farmers, artists and masters. It is really important to us to deliver the knowledge of these people. They have been steeped in tea culture for generations, and have so much to teach all of us. We hope you can accompany us on our journey.

With Master Zhan. Photography by Jake Knapp.

Dong Ding oolong is so important to us because it is a tea that inspires these tea people to work their artistry. Oolongs processed with caring hands in the traditional Dong Ding style bring our imaginations to Dong Ding tea farms of the early 20th century. It is clear that these farmers were striving for an excellence beyond commercial success, and their commitment to the craft is really beautiful to us. Now it is rarer to find this kind of tea, but what we've found we've fallen in love with.

Charcoal Roast Dong Ding. Photography by Lee Damon.

We hope you can find time to accompany Shiuwen for guided Dong Ding tastings this month, starting on November 14th. We really recommend you purchase the Traditional A and Charcoal Dong Ding from our website so you can drink it with us. If you do this, we will offer a one sessions sample of Charcoal Four Roast Dong Ding, given the name "Secret of the Sages" by Master Zhan. It is a rare opportunity to drink a masterpiece like this. Our first session, on Traditional A Dong Ding, will be Tuesday November 14th at 11:30 AM on Instagram. The next sessions, focussed on Charcoal Three Roast and Four Roast, we will cast on the following Tuesdays: November 21st and 28th.

Written by Noah


Dong Ding Oolong Tasting Set
Charcoal Dong Ding (three roast) is scheduled to arrive in the shop on the 6th. We've put together a tasting set to make things easier. If you prefer to buy the teas separately, we will still send a sample of Master Zhan's Four Roast Dong Ding. If you pre-order the tasting set this weekend, we will ship it to you as soon as the tea arrives. *The new Charcoal Roast Dong Ding just arrived!