Hello, I’m Gus. I created and operate this sourcing project. Rivers & Lakes is the result of the fascination, adventures, and relationships I've tended to over the course of over a decade in the tea industry. Recognizing that as a purveyor, I am meant to merely be a bridge from the traditions I aim to highlight to other parts of the world, I want to remove as much of the usual static between the earnest efforts at source and the tea table as possible. No gimmicky marketing, no cult-of-personality branding, no inflated margins. I work directly with just over 30 select families—skilled makers devoted to ecological garden practices and tradition-bound craft, most with countless generations behind them. Here are some of them below:
