A Hummingbird's Dream, A Tea Gathering, & A Deep Dive into Yuja Peel

+ a little preview of a new project

Dear tea friends,

We’ve been eagerly anticipating this new tea’s arrival for months now, and it’s finally here! May we present to you: A Hummingbird’s Dream.

Like our Honey Orchid, this is a dancong-style oolong tea with explosively floral notes. This tea is made from the classic ya shi xiang (鸭屎香) cultivar, which has its own legions of fans. This particular version of ya shi xiang is a light interpretation of this cultivar; it’s oxidized to about the same degree as a high mountain oolong (20-25%), then lightly charcoal roasted by hand at 98C for 14 hours (yes, that is a light roast). The result is an intoxicating honeysuckle aroma that makes us feel like a drunken little hummingbird in a midsummer night’s dream…

Newsletter readers get an exclusive 10% discount until the end of this week to taste this new tea with code MIDSUMMERBIRD10.

A Tea Gathering

This Sunday 7/14, I am hosting a little community tea gathering at my house in Somerville! I will be steeping lots of our 2024 fresh oolongs and providing some light snacks. You are welcome to bring your own tea to share as well, if you’d like. PLUS, each guest will get a goodie bag of "odds and ends" of tea samples to take home with them. Tickets are $10/person. Bring a tea friend or make a new one!

A Deep Dive Into Yuja Peel

Our 2022 Yuja Peel was recently featured in Leafhopper, "a weekly newsletter for anyone who wants to drink better tea and dive deeper into the world's most popular drink," written by award-winning journalist Max Falkowitz! Here is the full story behind one of our most popular and beloved teas.

A little preview of a new project

Or a little pre-listen, rather, of a new tea and music podcast project that Jonathan Kronheimer, local professional oboist and tea lover, and I are embarking upon. We drink tea, we talk tea, we listen to music, and we talk music. Mostly classical Western and classical Chinese. Here’s a 2-minute snippet from one of our free-form sessions:

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading/listening and for your support!

-Yin