Direct Chinese Sourcing

Is this drop shipping?

No... not in the conventional sense.

Orders ship directly from China, but this is not a random marketplace arrangement or anonymous fulfillment model. We work only with producers, artists, and people with whom we already have long relationships.

One thing I often hear from newer tea drinkers is:

“But he goes to China and gets it directly from the source.”

People often say this as though it is proof of quality.

It is not.

That is an incredibly low bar.

China is full of tea. Full of middlemen. Full of factories. Full of people happy to sell you whatever story you want to hear. Simply getting on a plane and buying tea “from the source” does not mean someone understands tea.

If you are buying from someone who has no real relationships with the people they source from, who has never spent meaningful time in China understanding how and why tea is made the way it is — you should ask questions.

And even spending time in China is not enough on its own.

Good tea takes time.

It takes trust.
It takes making mistakes.
It takes learning when to say no more often than yes.

 

 

Have I tasted every single one of these teas?

No.

That would mean endlessly shipping samples from bushes that cannot be infinitely harvested, from producers whose work I already know and trust.

I have tasted many. More importantly, I have spent years aligning goals, standards, and expectations with the people growing and making them. I trust their judgment. That trust was built slowly.

And I welcome your feedback on what deserves to stay and what does not.

This is not a team effort in the sense that I alone handle your order.

It is very much a team effort in the sense that I work with people whose tea I have loved for years, artists whose work I admire, and shippers who have consistently done right by me.

We remain committed to sourcing the highest quality tea and teaware we can find. That does not change.

 

What this model allows, however, is access.

More affordable teas at higher volume without abandoning standards.

It allows more people to drink well. It allows room for experimentation. And it allows you to help shape what stays and what goes.

The friendships that allowed me to open the teahouse are the same ones that make this possible now.

If the gods are gentle, perhaps we will guide a few oversized teapots to their end and replace them with small 60ml pots and sachets of Zhengyan holiness.

This is another stepping stone across the river of tea.