From the Birthplace of Tea

China is the birthplace of tea. Its history spans thousands of years and the varieties and flavours available reflect this complexity.

The discovery of tea, like all great things in history, was accidental. According to one legend, in 2737BC, the emperor Shennong was drinking a bowl of just boiled water when a few leaves from a nearby tea plant fell into his cup and started to change the colour of the water. He sipped the resulting liquid and was pleasantly surprised by its flavour and restorative properties. And that is how the legend of tea as a beverage began.

Shennong as depicted in a painting by Guo Xu – dated 1503

The variety and depth inherent to Chinese tea is truly mind-boggling – there is so much to explore and discover. Hundreds of varieties and sub-varieties, each with a different flavour profile, all coming from a single plant – camellia sinensis. The process of producing the different varieties of tea developed in China over thousands of years. There is a lot of history and tradition behind tea in China and the complexity and variety reflects this.

With great quality tea, there’s no need to mess with it. Why destroy a beautiful product by adding or blending in other flavourings or essential oils? Call us purists or tea snobs if you will but we feel that with all the experience, skill, hard work and dedication that goes into producing quality tea, who are we to mess with it? But that doesn’t mean we’re also content to stay static.

Culture is always moving and evolving and we’re looking to do our part to push the culture of tea forward. Tea doesn’t need to have new, wacky flavours in order to be progressive. Our goal is to discover great tea and make it accessible to everyone in the world.

Click here to explore our collection of teas.