Blog 1: Welcome to Valley Brook TEA

Today marks the beginning of Valley Brook tea, a tea business that I wanted to start in the U.S. long ago.

I come from a family with a long history in tea in China. Headquartered in Xiamen and based in the Wu-Yi mountains, my family and our 茗觉 (Ming Jue) team produce some of the best teas in the Wu-Yi mountains. We own everything from acquiring the land, growing tea plants, harvesting tea leaves, processing leaves and eventually packaging products. We do not source or purchase any of our teas from a supplier. I believe this makes us more unique. Because in this market, we are the source.

The reason I’m mentioning this has a lot to do with my personal experience with presenting tea in the United States. I first came to the U.S. as an international student. Because of my background, I soon began to host tea events for universities, local stores, museums and galleries. During this period of time, I experienced the tremendous interest in tea and the incredible enthusiasm from tea lovers. Also during this time, I noticed quite a lot misunderstandings, misrepresentations and twisted information due to the lack of first-hand information and experience in tea.

You see, tea as a product is more than the flavor and the aroma, and it takes more than just a couple trips to China to truly appreciate it. It is the people, the culture, the language, the environment, the mountain, the water, and the history that you need to understand. I hope this blog will serve as a library of tea knowledge as well as a place that I can communicate with you and my fellow tea lovers.

I will try to update this blog as much as I can. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or inquiries. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Yunhan