Three porcelain lotus dishes holding the dry leaves of three different green teas.

You’re alive during the golden age.

By , on August 27, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Aug. 27, 2021 Have you tasted this season’s green tea micro-lots? Now is a good time to try them. We still have Mountain Forest Huangshan Maofeng, Yu Qian Mogan Green, and Huang Jin Ye (Golden Leaf), all of which might not return next year. Believe it or not, teas like this haven’t been… // MORE

A man in matching blue smock and pants leaning over a slightly angled wok to expertly fry fresh rock wulong tea leaves by hand.

Make good tea. Keep a cool head.

By , on August 13, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Aug. 13, 2021 This weekend enjoy 20% off of three of our favorite rock wulongs, Ba Xian (Eight Immortals), Shuixian (Narcissus), and Laocong Shuixian (Old Bush Narcissus). Rock wulongs are good companions in summer rain storms. Their character is not far off from a grilled peach, that other summer delicacy: woodsy, fruity, sweet… // MORE

An elderly man with short grey hair expertly tossing tea leaves in a hot wok with both hands.

What does it take to make the best Longjing tea?

By , on July 30, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jul. 30, 2021 Tea making is a complicated art, all the more when we’re talking about famously complex teas like Longjing. Manuals written on Longjing almost always say that it takes 10 particular hand movements to shape this tea during its wok frying. How are these 10 movements learned? Zhuping once put this… // MORE

A person seated at a small workbench stacked high with finished small puer cakes, one by one wrapping them in paper and placing them on a wooden rack nearby.

Where were you 20 years ago? The modern journey of puer tea.

By , on July 23, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive July 23, 2021   Puer teas stand a world apart from other styles. Their flavors uniquely complex, challenging and delicious. But Puer has only recently become the famous style that has tea enthusiasts worldwide hunting it down to explore its intricacies. Back in the summer of 2000, Austin found himself exploring Yunnan itself.… // MORE

A man leaning over a table to sprinkle handfuls of fresh tea buds over the ventilated table's surface.

Meet Tongmu’s newest oldest black tea maker.

By , on July 16, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jul. 16, 2021 The new 2021 crop of the world’s oldest black tea is here: the delicately pine-smoked Tongmu Lapsang Souchong. Also in stock is a small lot of 2021 Tongmu Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach), a new approach to black tea made with slow and gradual oxidation techniques borrowed from Wulong tea… // MORE

A man operating an old-fashioned wooden tea kneading machine.

Where is the hardest place to source tea in China?

By , on July 1, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive July 1, 2021 Where is the hardest place to source tea in China? If you ask us, it’s Anxi County, Fujian. A bundle of teas from this challenging provenance just arrived, including the much-anticipated Tieguanyin White Tea and the first Anxi Wulongs of the year, Golden Guanyin and Monkey Picked. This weekend you… // MORE

A woman standing in a traditional Chinese teahouse, smiling and holding up two glass pitchers filled with green tea side by side.

Missing our Friday tea tastings? Us too.

By , on June 25, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jun. 25, 2021 Zhuping kept a weekly ritual for nearly 15 years. Every Friday afternoon, she hosted a tea tasting at our tea house. Her ritual not only let her taste a lot of tea, it introduced her to new friends. As an immigrant, getting to know her guests enriched her experience and… // MORE

Two people carrying large woven baskets climbing to the top of a mountain ridge dotted with tea bushes in the dawn light.

How does a whole mountain fit into a humble green tea?

By , on June 18, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jun. 18, 2021 It’s hot. The antidote? A special micro-lot of green tea. Welcome Mountain Forest Huangshan Maofeng — a green tea born from cold spring mornings and largely untended tea bushes in a remote part of the Huangshan mountain range. You could say it took generations of tea makers to make this… // MORE

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A toast to the hard work of wulong tea.

By , on June 11, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jun. 11, 2021 We’re taking a short pause from debuting 2021’s green, white, and yellow teas to show the darker wulongs some appreciation. According to the old Chinese agricultural calendar, now is just the right time to take a breath. We’re in the heart of Mangzhong, a solar term named for fruiting grain.… // MORE

A smiling couple standing in front of green trees.

Where would you go for love?

By , on June 4, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Jun. 4, 2021 Yang Guangqing had no idea how he was going to make a living in the backwoods of Youle Mountain. He was a city boy who had just left his home in Chongqing, the largest city in China, to the middle of the highland rainforest in Yunnan Province, and he’d done… // MORE

A tall monument of natural stone with red characters written on it. It stands on a small plinth near a fence, surrounded by the majestic low green mountains of Anji. A hand in the foreground points to the monument.

Meet the white leaf that launched Anji into the limelight.

By , on May 26, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive May 26, 2021 When plant scientists came to a remote family farm to collect leaf cuttings from good tea bushes, the Gui family knew exactly where to take them. Perched on the narrow hillside of their land was a tea bush, unusually old, maybe hundreds of years old, that grew strange pale leaves… // MORE

An older woman in an apron kneading tea leaves on a woven bamboo tray while a young woman holds the tray steady for her.

Yellow tea and a micro-lot three generations in the making.

By , on May 21, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive May 21, 2021 The wind-blown hills of Moganshan were once a hideout for mythic swordsmiths, gangsters, and even Mao Zedong. Today, they’re home to the Zhao family tea farm. Here, three generations of female tea makers work together: Grandmother Wang Xiangzhen, Daughter Zhao Xianqin, and Granddaughter Zhang Xiaonan. The lives (and the life… // MORE

A pile of fresh single tea leaf pluckings for Lu An Gua Pian green tea on a woven bamboo tray.

Getting weird with Tai Ping Houkui and Lu’an Gua Pian

By , on May 14, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive May 14, 2021 Something odd was going on at Anhui tea farms in the late 19th century. Communities of innovative tea makers, working in distant parts of the province, gave the world two of the strangest green teas ever produced: Tai Ping Houkui and Lu’an Gua Pian. These teas were not just unique… // MORE

A smiling older woman in an apron and carrying a woven basket for Guzhu Zisun green tea leaves, standing between tea bushes and some bamboo.

Have you met Purple Bamboo and The Grandma Squad?

By , on May 7, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive May 7, 2021 Every year, just in time for Mother’s Day, we feature the fresh arrival of Guzhu Zisun (Purple Bamboo Shoot), a traditional green tea made by a squad of mothers and grandmothers. It’s only appropriate we continue. As of this year, the head of the operation, Ms. Pei Hongfeng, is now… // MORE

A tea plucker in a green rain coat walks down a narrow street between white buildings. The ground is wet with rain water. The figure carries a woven basket over one shoulder.

What spring tea are you dreaming of?

By , on April 30, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Apr. 30, 2021 2021 Ming Qian Anji Baicha (Early Harvest Anji) and Bi Luo Chun are here. Earlier this year, Zhuping found herself in a foot chase with our Bi Luo Chun maker. Zhuping ran behind Mr. Lu in the rainy streets of his village on Xishan island, calling after him, “Mr. Lu!… // MORE

Dry leaves of Silver Needle pouring out of a small porcelain dish onto a white surface, with a few pale pink flowers strewn around and out of focus.

Why are we discounting the freshest tea in North America?

By , on April 16, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Apr. 16, 2021 Fresh 2021 Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle) is here and for just this first weekend, we’re offering it to you at a discount. There’s something different about Baihao Yinzhen when it’s just been made. In the first few months after production, Silver Needle’s fresh hay and green fruit notes are at… // MORE

Two men standing over a wok with Longjing green tea leaves in it, one with a hand in the wok demonstrating and one learning.

Meet the tea that started it all: Longjing green tea.

By , on April 9, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Apr. 9, 2021 30 years ago, a sip of Longjing tea started a chain reaction that moved Seven Cups into existence. Austin received a gift of some curious flat-leaf tea from a friend who had just returned from his hometown in Zhejiang province, China. It was love at first brew. The only problem… // MORE

A hazy sky above bamboo forest and dark buildings with water running out the gutters, being drenched in pouring rain.

Time for a haircut? Spring rain heralds the new harvest.

By , on March 26, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Mar. 26, 2021 Way out in the Pacific, a dragon just looked up from the waves and sent rain for the spring crops. That rain found its way to the tea crops, at least. In many of China’s tea gardens this past weekend, when a warm day of sunlight finally broke through on… // MORE

A man crouches next to a red string of firecrackers on a hillside covered in green spring growth in Wuyishan, home of rock wulong tea. He is calling loudly.

Spring is waking up. Can you hear it?

By , on March 12, 2021 in: Newsletters

Newsletter Archive Mar. 12, 2021 On a misty morning last week, tea makers, tea scholars and officials gathered in Wuyishan National Park to remind the tea bushes there that it is time to wake up. The ritual, han shan, literally “calling the mountain” reached its apex when everyone in the grove called out, “Tea, please… // MORE

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

Teahouse Blues

By , on December 3, 2020 in: Seven Cups News

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 compressed round cake of white moonlight tea

The Complex Identity of Yue Guang Bai “White Moonlight”

By , on September 27, 2019 in: Specialty Tea

Yue Guang Bai (White Moonlight) is one of the most beloved teas in our catalog. Yet despite its popularity, it seems to be a difficult tea to categorize.  Is it sheng puer? Its Yunnan origins and its tangy, herbaceous aromatics suggest it could be. It lacks sheng puer’s typical astringency, though. Is it white tea?… // MORE

Two different years of Ming Qian An Ji Bai Cha green tea leaves side by side. The fresh is green and the aged is brown.

What’s So Special About Aged Tea?

By , on September 3, 2019 in: Industry News, Specialty Tea

Though somewhat counterintuitive, aged tea is in fact a recent phenomenon. Before the 21st century, fresh tea was always considered to be the best. However, while it is true that freshly made teas tend to have the strongest and brightest aromas, many types of tea develop fascinating new flavors and textures with time. Tea that… // MORE