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2023 Nannuo Array

700 grams of premiere Nannuo deep dive

2023 Spring Sichuan Teas are on sale

Pre qingming mountain chi ready for blast off

The 2023 Taiwan Series

5 fresh award winning teas hand picked from our recent travels. Take a tour of Taiwan's best

2023 Yunnan Collection

Official release in on 9/23/23 --
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recent words

good tea + hospitality > western paranoia

New blog post inspired by our recent trip to Taiwan, that asks the question 'are we too obsessed with authenticity in tea'?

Dimensions of White Tea, an Introduction

You might have heard of White Tea: "one year tea, three years medicine, seven years treasure.” But what allows white tea to transform so remarkably — into medicine, and then treasure as they say — after just a few years?

Tea as Ritual

Tea scholar, educator, and Rivers & Lakes community guest writer Miles Cramer pens an essay providing a tasteful glance at tea's journey through time as a ritual communion.

riversandlakestea

🍵 quality 茶, simple + transparent
🏞 direct sourced from farmers we know
🌏 yunnan | sichuan | fujian | taiwan
🍃 the latest leaves ↓ ships globally 📦

Travel. Farmer relationship building. Risk tak

Travel.
Farmer relationship building.
Risk taking.
Taste testing and vetting.
Global coordination of logistics.
Research.
Translating.
Writing.
Photographing and edits.
Over 200 photos and 5000 words on this release alone will be on the site come tomorrow morning.
But all these efforts are absolutely dwarfed in comparison to the myriad labors performed — often painstakingly — by the farmers and their communities that commit their lives to this craft. We are inspired by their devotion and are honored to try our hand at showcasing them to a broader audience in the West.
Tomorrow’s the day — the official drop of the Yunnan Collection 🔺
At the very least, as a fellow tea nerd you’ll enjoy taking a gander at some of the stories, historical contexts, and anecdotes all put into one place. Please enjoy.
Photos 2 - 7 by the amazing @arden_teanote of 2023 Mahei (photo 9 is Mr. Hé in Mahei)
Subjects on the wrappers rendered by the talented @houseofarulu
👉 Drop is at 10am EST 9/23/23 fall equinox 🍂
#riversandlakestea #yunnancollection #camelliasinesis #xishuangbanna #puerh #puertea #gushu #moonlightwhite #dianhong #tea #yunnan #nannuo #wangong #badashan #pashamountain #laobanzhang #bakanan #luoshuidong #mahei #yiwutea #menghai #jingmai #bulangpeople #akhapeople #gongfucha #chadao #gongfutea

Some fun twelfth hour images of the brewed out lea

Some fun twelfth hour images of the brewed out leaves of this year’s Yunnan teas before tomorrow’s big drop.
One way to tell that you’ve got gushu on your hands is the absence of thinner, more brittle, twiggy stems. When brewed all the way out like this, the stems of ancient tree tea will typically be nice and thick; ropey almost.
Bonus points: you can check out how many 马蹄 mǎ tí horse hoof pluckings there are. Mǎ tí plucks are named after the bottom of the stem opposite of the bud whose underside retains a "horse hoof" from some of the woody branch it was harvested from — more typical in less managed, old growth settings. Usually from an early harvest. In my observation, the photos of Mahei, Luo Shui Dong, and Wangong have some decent examples of mǎ tí — do you see them?
All my pu’er nerds out there — which material looks the best to you? I’ll share with you my observations in comments.
#riversandlakestea #teaassessment #teanerd #teatime #teajudge #mahei #pasha #wangong #luoshuidong #nannuo #bakanan #laobanzhang #camelliasinensis #badashan #gushu #puerh #pu’er #shengpuerh #ancienttreetea

A visit to Mr. Yáng in Lao Banzhang, the producer

A visit to Mr. Yáng in Lao Banzhang, the producer of our Banpen and Bakanan tea 👑
#riversandlakestea #laobanzhang #chawang #puerh #tea #gushu #LBZ #老班章 #gongfutea #chadao #camelliasinensis #teamaster #teatales #teahoarder #teatravels #tealover #menghai #yunnan #xishuangbanna

“If Lao Banzhang is king, then the king should l

“If Lao Banzhang is king, then the king should listen to his wife!” Mr. Hé retorted when asked of his opinion of the sensationalist ‘crowning’ of Lao Banzhang tea as King of Pu’er.
In tandem, Yiwu teas were being sensationalized as the “Queen of Pu’er”, renowned for their expansive softness and sweetness.
We had just arrived to Yiwu the night before, after traveling all over Menghai county, including Lao Banzhang, in the days leading up to crossing into Mengla County. As Mr. Hé pulled out more and more prized aged tea from his collection we couldn’t believe the differences in the range of teas we had tried over the last week.
The Hé family is prominently featured in Jinghong Zhang’s anthropology of Pu’er in her book Pu’er Tea, Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic. I’ll post a video in stories that features the Hé family (and a more youthful looking Mr. Hé) from her mini film shot on site at the time of her writing this remarkable book.
We are stoked to be releasing 4 premium teas from the Hé family from the following areas this Saturday:
🔺Luo Shui Dong
🔺Mahei
🔺Zhangjiawan
🔺Wangong
#riversandlakestea #puerh #shengcha #shengpu #camelliasinensis #yiwutea #yunnan #xishuangbanna #laobanzhang #gushu #agedpuerh #puertea

Pu’er. A vast terrain unto itself within the ex

Pu’er. A vast terrain unto itself within the expanse that is Tea.
It doesn’t abbreviate and market itself to palates through a homogeny of human cultivation techniques.
No, its seed propagated cultivation retains all the genetic material bred into it naturally by its native territory, allowing for essential communion with primordia for those ready to listen.
#riversandlakestea #普洱 #camelliasinensis #yunnan #puerh #puertea

#riversandlakestea #puerh #puer #普洱 #tea #puer

#riversandlakestea #puerh #puer #普洱 #tea #puerhtea #wadegiles #pinyin #learnchinese #teavocabulary #puercha #茶 #gongfutea #chadao #teatime #teamaster #tealover

🔺 Less than one week away: the full lineup of 1

🔺 Less than one week away: the full lineup of 13 different Yunnan offerings will be officially available for all. This spring was one for the books ☁️☁️☁️
#riversandlakestea #yunnancollection #tea #camelliasinensis #chadao #gongfucha #shengpu #gushu #puerh #puerhtea

This week my friend Shùnyù will interview Dá É

This week my friend Shùnyù will interview Dá É, the maker of so many of our teas.
Dá É is of Akha descent, living on Nannuo Mountain in Xishuangbanna, tending to ancient tea trees and making tea from them, which her people have done in the area for many many centuries.
While there will be talk of tea of course, we would like to focus more on what life in the mountains with her people is like.
The video talk will be recorded and captioned.
CROWD SOURCE — tell us in the comment section:
📌 what would you ask Dá É?
#riversandlakestea #nannuoshan #puerh #yunnan #akhatribe #xishuangbanna #nannuomountain #gushu #tea #camelliasinensis #theteagirlofhummingbirdlane #gongfucha

Official drop of the entire Yunnan Collection will

Official drop of the entire Yunnan Collection will be September 23rd, Fall Equinox!
These prime, spring harvested pu’er teas have been resting for nearly 6 months and are so ready to be delighted in.
13 teas total, from 9 different acclaimed territories in Yunnan, the tea in this series is the most top notch and badass we’ve ever released.
Huge thanks to everyone who got in on the soft release, the impressions we’ve heard so far have made our dayssss 🫶
#riversandlakestea #yunnancollection #puerh #gongfucha #camelliasinesis #gushu #shengpuerh #moonlightwhite #teacakes #pancakes #tea #chadao #yunnan

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