Seven Cups News Category

Zhuping and Austin at the Yunnan tea market with puer tea master Hu Haoming in 2005 sourcing puer mao cha

What was the puer tea market like 20 years ago?

  My first experience with puer tea came in an alley outside the Victoria Hotel on Shamian Island surrounded by the Pearl River in Guangzhou China on a fall morning in 2002. I had just registered my business in Tucson, Arizona and was in Guangzhou looking for tea. I was having dim sum. I was… // MORE


A group of smiling people standing outside in front of a mural, with Zhuping and Austin in the center.

The Gift: All this year and the next.

Newsletter Archive Dec. 30, 2022 Dang! It’s been a weird, scary, challenging, and amazing year. We always say this at the end of every milestone, but it’s always true – it’s a gift to still be here, doing something we care about, and getting to share it with so many people we care about too.… // MORE


A few dozen people smiling in front of the new mural on the side of the new teahouse.

It’s time to take a pause.

Newsletter Archive Dec. 23, 2022 The cold weather, the long nights, the holidays – now is when all the signs are telling us to take a pause. But really, most of us are rushing and working as much as ever. We crank away under year-end deadlines and crises, the peak hospitality season, and the holiday… // MORE




Screenshot of a very old–fashioned website for Seven Cups in a browser window.

20 years old and still green.

Newsletter Archive Oct. 28, 2022 This November marks a full 20 years since Seven Cups officially started business. Let’s honor the occasion by going back to where we started: green tea. We’re showcasing four green teas: the prestigious Xishan Bi Luo Chun, the little champion Mengding Maofeng (Feather Peak), the singular and inimitable Ming Qian… // MORE


A glass pitcher of brewing green tea, a small filled teacup with a single tea sprig floating in the middle, and a small brown paper package of tea leaves with a trailing untied red ribbon around it, all on a bamboo tray surrounded by green and red bamboo-like leaves of a plant.

Spring tea (at last.)

Newsletter Archive Apr. 29, 2022 2022 Spring teas are here at a last. As per our tradition, we’re immediately offering a discount on Shifeng Longjing for the first weekend. This discount comes with our gratitude to you. If you’re reading this, you’re likely as excited to see these teas show up as we are. Along… // MORE



Three porcelain dishes full of dark dry tea leaves, one a long thin and twisted black tea, one fluffy and dark green with larger leaves and some buds, and one a broader dark twisted rock wulong.

Humans and tea go way back. Sip a few millenia of flavors.

Newsletter Archive Apr. 1, 2022 This weekend we’re featuring three teas from three unusual tea bush cultivars: one new, one old, and one downright prehistoric. That’s Huang Guanyin wulong tea, Tieguanyin Baicha white tea, and Laoshu Dianhong black tea. In the span of these three teas, you’re in for a tour through humanity’s long history… // MORE


A cozy teahouse interior brightly lit by natural light from a large window.

Happy Chinese New Year from Seven Cups

This new year is the year of the water tiger. It will be a year full of challenges and changes that will take courage, curiosity, spontaneity to solve. That sounds pretty good to me. It also marks twenty years that Seven Cups Tea has been in business, twenty-one years if you count the year I… // MORE



The front room of the tea house, with the seating area visible beyond through a wide doorway.

Teahouse Blues

With the holidays’ approach, I’m filled with sadness that our teahouse continues to be closed for service. It looks as if that may be the case for the rest of the year. The first year we were open was also challenging, but December filled us with hope for the future.




A group of people around a table with a dozen teas set out for tasting.

Trade War, Tariffs, and Tea

Trade War With China From the beginning of American history China has been an important trading partner. One of the causes of the American Revolution was the monopoly of the East India Company that made it illegal for us to trade with China directly. Tea was the key element in that trade, helping to make… // MORE



Spring Teas Arrive In The Desert

Shi Feng Long Jing Spring teas arriving brings a lot of joy to our little warehouse in the desert. It is bittersweet this year because of the passing of Weng Shang Yi, the maker of our Shifeng Longjing. He lived to be 90 years old. He started making Longjing when he was fourteen, 1943. During… // MORE



The Tea Tour Moves Through Yunnan

This year’s tea tour marks 11 years of Seven Cups providing professional-level education on the ground in China. Every year is different, and every detail gets planned by our own Zhuping Hodge.  So, after months of planning, it’s exciting to see the trip take off. 2018’s tea tour has just passed its first leg, traveling… // MORE


Puer tea producer's storage area.

How Are Puer Cakes Made?

Where the Indentation in a Puer Cake Comes From This brief under-two-minute educational video is packed with information. If you’ve ever wondered how puer tea cakes are made or just where that funny indentation comes from, then take a couple minutes to watch this video. The video takes off from the point where mao cha… // MORE








My Tea Blog is Ten Years Old

November 2013 was the tenth anniversary of my tea blog. When I first started the idea of blogging was relatively new. There were just a few political blogs, and many of these were focused on reporting.


Lucky to be in the tea business

Since the middle of May I have been on the road, traveling in China, the US, and Europe, and for Zhuping it was three months in China. Finally we are enjoying our sanctuary in Tucson, with a lot of welcome home cooked meals.



Yunnan Black Tea and the Middle East

I first came to Yunxian in 2005 after a trip to Dubai. I was invited to Dubai to become a member in the newly formed Dubai Tea Trading Center. Dubai wanted to become the hub of tea distribution and was providing remarkable incentives for companies to set up business there.