01 · Plucking
Picked by hand, twice a year
Only the top two leaves and a bud, in the fortnight after Grain Rain. A good picker brings back six jin a day.
OUR STORY · SINCE 1987
Three generations,
Three generations,
one cliff.
In 1987 our grandfather leased four mu of rock ledge above the Nine-Bend River. We still farm the same slope, by hand, the same way — because the cliff decides what a tea can become.
A tea is not made in a factory. It is negotiated with weather, rock and time — and we are only the ones taking notes.
Wuyi rock tea grows in the cracks of weathered danxia cliff — thin soil, fierce drainage, long shade. The bushes are stubborn and slow, and the leaves they give are small. Everything we do downstream exists only to keep that smallness intact: hand-picking in the two-week window after Grain Rain, turning the leaf by feel, roasting over charcoal in tiny lots. No shortcuts survive the cliff.
TIMELINE · 1987 — NOW
Four moments that shaped the slope
-
1987
Four mu of rock ledge
Our grandfather signs the lease on four mu of cliff above the Nine-Bend River and plants the first Rou Gui cuttings by hand.
-
2003
The charcoal house
We build our first roasting room and commit to three rounds of charcoal baking over bamboo baskets — never more than forty jin in a single lot.
-
2016
Second generation, same slope
The second generation takes over the turning table, writes our first hour-by-hour withering ledger, and begins buying directly from forty-two neighbouring households.
-
2026
Tea with a paper trail
Every lot now ships with its harvest date, slope name and roast record — so you can trace a cup back to the morning it was picked.
HOW WE MAKE IT
Four hands, four decisions
02 · Withering
Sun and shade, no clock
Leaf rests on bamboo trays until it loses a third of its moisture — judged by hand, not by a timer.
03 · Turning
Bruised, rested, bruised again
Seven rounds of turning in a bamboo shaking drum, each followed by a rest. This is where the aroma is argued into being.
04 · Charcoal
Three bakes over wood coal
Slow, low and repeated over weeks. Charcoal pulls the last water out and leaves the mineral spine of the cliff behind.
1,200 m
Average slope altitude
42
Households we buy from
8 t
Annual output, all grades
60+ yr
Oldest living tea bush
THE MAKER
“My father could tell the roast was done by the sound the leaf made in the basket. I still can. No machine has ever learned that.”
Chen Weiguo
Second-generation maker · charcoal roasting room
WHAT WE PROMISE
Nothing hidden, nothing blended
Bought at the farm gate
We buy directly from forty-two households in the Wuyi reserve and publish the price we paid each season. No auction floor, no middle layer.
Every lot lab-tested
Residue and heavy-metal panels run on each batch before it leaves Fujian. Certificates are on every product page — and in the parcel.
Traceable to the morning
Slope name, harvest date and roast record are printed on the tin and kept online, so a cup can be traced back to the day it was picked.
Trade & wholesale
Buying for a café, a restaurant or a shop? Write to [email protected] and we will reply with what is available from the current harvest.
TASTE THE SLOPE
Start with the four teas we drink ourselves
Four lots, three hundred grams total, chosen across the roast spectrum — from a bright spring green to a heavy traditional bake. Free shipping in the US and EU.