Today marks a new chapter for Valley Brook Tea. Our first DC tea store located at 2101 P St NW officially started its construction. If everything goes smoothly, we should be able to open for business by the end of this year.
What is Valley Brook Tea?
Essentially, we’re a tea producer that owns everything from the source. In our tea and teaware production, we own the land, tea mountains, tea plants, processing facilities, teaware factories, the design studio, the packaging center, and even the water company.
Where are all those things located?
All of our facilities are in Fujian, China. Fujian is a province in the southeast coast of China.
We have three major tea mountain fields that grow and produce our tea products:
Oolong Tea: Huangcun, Town of Xingcun, Wuyi Mountains, within the core Wuyi Scenic Area.
Black Tea: Sangang, Tongmu Village, Wuyi Mountains, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
White Tea: Fuding, Fujian and Zhenghe, Fujian.
Teaware facility: Ningde, Fujian.
Design Studio and Packing Center: Xiamen, Fujian.
Water Company: Tongmu Village, Wuyi Mountains, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Why are we called “Valley Brook Tea”?
Valley Brook Tea is our name in English. We choose this name because a “valley” and a “brook” are the basic requirements of a premium tea mountain field.
Every mountain range has 3 parts: the sunny side, the shady side, and the valley. Best fresh leaves always grow in a valley because the valley regulates the amount of sunlight leaves can receive. Also, all fallen leaves and fruits go to the bottom of the valley and become natural nutrients for tea plants.
Of course, all lives need water to survive and thrive. A good tea mountain field needs water supply to nourish all plants and take out unneeded trash (such as absorbed fallen fruits).
Therefore, “Valley Brook” makes best tea. 😁
What does our logo mean?
Our logo is actually our brand in Chinese.
Our name is Chinese is pronounced “Ming Jue/茗觉”. The character “Ming/茗” is a more elegant version of the character “tea/茶”. “Ming/茗” literally means “famous plants”.
The character “Jue/觉” is a borrowed buddhist idea of “sudden realization”.
So what do these two characters mean when we put them together?
Tea, as a beverage, is easy to understand and enjoy. However, if you want to know more about what makes a tea good or how fresh leave become tea leaves, the concept of tea becomes obscure.
The only way to the world of tea is to drink tea. When you have enough tea experience, you’ll have a “sudden realization” of tea. At “茗觉/Ming Jue”, we hope that we can be part of your journey to the realm of sudden realization.
What to expect in a Valley Brook Tea store?
In the US, our tea store will be the first of its kind.
At Valley Brook Tea, you can truly enjoy an authentic farm-to-table, high quality cup of tea. There’re no “sourcing” or “suppliers” involved. Every tea product comes directly from our tea mountain fields.
You can enjoy your tea in the store or to go. If you really fancy the traditional way of tea-drinking, we’ll supply you a full tea set at no extra cost.
Besides our signature tea products, you can also find our huge selection of teawares, cultural and creative tea-related products.
Finally, don’t forget we provide free & advanced tea classes! In these classes, we’ll offer more detailed information on the use of teaware (such as Gaiwan), the history of tea, pictures and videos explaining our amazing tea-making techniques and procedures, etc.