Where do you source your tea and herbals from?
The production of all of our teas and herbals is directly overseen by Shang, and most of our teas and herbals come from the Fujian Province (located in southeastern China), across the water from Taiwan. Shang would spend two months in China every year (pre-covid), around April and September, during the spring and fall harvests, and ships the tea and herbals to our store in Kansas City, MO.
What makes your tea and herbals different from your competitors’ products?
All of our teas and herbals are high mountain grown without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. All of our teas and herbals are hand picked in order to ensure that each leaf is harvested at the pinnacle of freshness. All of our teas and herbals are produced traditionally, by hand.
Our teas and herbals are dried, gently steamed, or carefully roasted in small batches to guarantee full, consistent flavor and aroma.
Our blended and infused teas bring you the very best flavor because we use time honored Chinese techniques that preserve the flavor and integrity of the leaf.
How much caffeine is in tea?
Caffeine levels in tea is surprisingly debatable. The science seems to be suggesting that the answer really depends on quite a few different factors including growing conditions, amount of rainfall, when the tea was harvested, and amount of steeping time, just to name a few. New research does seem to suggest that higher levels of antioxidants and L-theanine in tea appear to slow the absorption of caffeine into the body as well as counteract the negative effects of caffeine.
White teas and green teas tend to have the highest concentrations of these antioxidants and L-theanine, and tend to affect people the least regarding caffeine, whereas red or black teas tend to have the lowest concentrations and thus the caffeine tends to have more of an effect on people.
All tea naturally from the camellia sinensis plant (white, green, wu-long, black, etc.), which naturally contains caffeine, so if you are looking to completely avoid caffeine, we have herbal tisanes which are naturally caffeine-free.
Do you sell caffeine-free teas?
While we do not decaffeinate any of our teas, all of our herbal tisanes are naturally caffeine free.
What is the difference between the different types of tea?
Two factors distinguish a type of tea. The first factor is processing:
White and green tea are the least processed of all the teas and are processed to prevent much oxidation from occurring in the leaves.
Wu-long teas are rolled and then heated or placed in a humid environment to cause the leaves to oxidize or darken in color. Wu-longs are typically between 30 – 80% oxidized.
Red and black teas are almost completely oxidized and thus have a much darker appearance.
The second factor is cultivar. Certain cultivars are best suited to certain kinds of production, just like certain grapes are required for different kinds of wine.
You can learn more about our different types of tea on our beginner’s guide page and by clicking here.
How do I brew my tea?
To learn how to brew an ideal cup of tea, head over to our brewing guidelines page.
Do you sell any tea in teabags?
Our belief is that tea leaves need room to expand and space so that water can properly flow between the leaves. This is just not possible in a tea bag. In addition, some teabags are treated with harsh chemicals or are made of cheap plastics that can leach into your beverage.
If you’re specifically looking for a bagged tea, our Ginseng Chai is the perfect option. This tea is the only bagged tea that we carry, because the special spice blend we use to create this tea must be ground up into a powder for maximum efficacy, and without a bag it would leave a significant dredge. The bags we use for this tea are unbleached, have no metal, and are large enough to allow the loose leaf tea leaves inside to expand.
What type of water should I use to brew my tea?
At a minimum, we recommend that you filter your water using a basic carbon filter. This should get rid of any heavy metals and some of the components such as chlorine that will affect the taste of your tea. In our store we use reverse osmosis filtered water for health and flavor purposes.
How do I store my tea?
The easiest means to store our tea is in the packages that they are packed in. We recommend using our tea clips to keep the packages airtight and fully sealed in order to keep oxygen out and the flavor in. If you are looking for a jar to store your tea leaves in, look for something airtight if possible and store in a cool, dark place. Do not store your unbrewed tea leaves in the fridge or freezer.
How does the tea come packaged?
Our teas and herbals either come in half ounce (15 g), one ounce (29 g), or 2 ounce (57 g) bags, with the exception of our Ginseng Chai, (which as was previously mentioned, is our only bagged tea), which has 10 bags per package.
The relatively smaller amounts of tea per package ensures that you only have to open a small amount of your tea at a time while the rest stays sealed and is not exposed to oxygen.
Are your teas organic?
We only source our tea leaves from farms that follow organically grown standards, and some of which are certified organic. Since Shang has oversight of quality control with the teas and herbals, he is continuously checking to ensure that these standards are followed and that no chemical pesticides or fertilizers are ever used on the tea leaves.
Are your teas fair trade?
Our teas are not certified fair trade because the expense of certification is too great for small tea farms. However, we ensure that all the workers on the tea farm are paid well above the average wage (oftentimes 2-3x the wage of nearby farms) and are given a good meal everyday.
Do you add sweetener to your tea?
We do not add any sweetening chemicals or sugar to our packaged teas, and in the shop we only offer organic sugar as a sweetener upon request.