The houses
26 houses
Austin tea guide
Austin, TX
A short orientation for finding real Chinese tea in Austin — what to look for, what to ask, and how the city’s cross-category food culture makes it a promising place to start.
Boston tea guide
Boston, MA
Boston has one of the oldest Chinatowns on the East Coast and a academic culture that rewards precision — a promising combination for anyone looking for real Chinese tea. A short orientation.
Chicago tea guide
Chicago, IL
Chicago’s Chinatown is one of the largest and most established in the country — a real starting point for Chinese tea, plus what the city’s Lake Michigan water does to a steep, and a pointer to the wider Midwest cohort.
US customs and importing — what to expect
United States
A plain-English walkthrough of how dried tea actually moves through US customs — the tariff classification it falls under, which agencies touch it, and what changes once a cake is old enough to count as an antique rather than a grocery item.
Washington DC tea guide
Washington, DC
Washington’s Chinese tea scene is spread across a diplomatic capital and a Northern Virginia suburb with a deep Korean and Chinese community — Annandale and Falls Church are worth the drive.
Los Angeles tea guide
Los Angeles, CA
The San Gabriel Valley is one of the largest concentrations of Chinese tea retailers anywhere in the United States — a genuine advantage most LA residents underuse. A short orientation.
New York City tea guide
New York City, NY
Manhattan’s Chinatown and Flushing, Queens hold two of the largest concentrations of Chinese tea retailers in the country — different in character, both worth knowing. Plus the wider East Coast picture.
Portland tea guide
Portland, OR
Portland pairs a genuine Chinese garden and teahouse with a craft-tea culture that values source transparency — a good combination for a first serious tea afternoon.
Seattle tea guide
Seattle, WA
Seattle’s International District and the growing Chinese-American community across the lake in Bellevue give the city two real starting points for Chinese tea — and genuinely soft water that favors delicate teas.
San Francisco Bay Area tea guide
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest in North America, and the wider Bay Area — Oakland included — carries decades of Chinese tea retail depth to go with it.
Sommelier sessions — booking guide for US readers
US (online + by arrangement)
A private gongfu tea session — online from your own kitchen, or in person where arranged — is an unhurried session in Chinese oolong and black tea, built on the winter charcoal roast at Phoenix Mountain.
US guide — find your tea entry point
United States
Not a shop or a school in itself — a short map from six common questions to the constellation site that actually answers them. Whichever you’re after, this page points you to the right address, not a generic homepage.
East Coast guide — Boston to Miami
US East Coast
What ties the East Coast together for a Chinese tea drinker is coastal humidity — good news for storing pu-erh, less straightforward for keeping a delicate white tea at its best. A regional overview.
Hawaii guide — Honolulu and the outer islands
Hawaii, US
Hawaii’s position outside the continental US makes shipping the central question for Chinese tea here — plus Honolulu’s own historic Chinatown as a real local starting point.
Midwest guide — Chicago to Minneapolis
US Midwest
The Midwest’s real challenge for tea isn’t finding it — Chicago’s Chinatown covers that — it’s winter itself, where dry forced-air heating can drop indoor humidity further than almost anywhere else in the country.
Mountain West guide — Denver to Albuquerque
US Mountain West
The high-desert corridor from Denver to Albuquerque runs paper-dry air and a genuinely lower boiling point — real physics that changes how tea should be brewed, not just a matter of taste.
Pricing across the constellation in USD
United States
A plain guide to why Chinese tea is priced the way it is in USD — the exchange rate, the harvest calendar, and the extra value that time adds to a well-stored pu-erh cake. Free and always updated.
US-departing sourcing trips for 2026-2027
US-departing
Three seasonal itineraries — spring in Yiwu, summer in Wuyi, autumn on Phoenix Mountain — each following the leaf from bush to cup under our guidance. Small groups depart from major US gateways.
South guide — Atlanta to New Orleans
US South
The American South’s humidity is a genuine asset for aging pu-erh, closer to the traditional storage conditions the category was developed under than most of the country gets by accident.
Storing aged pu-erh in US climates — region-by-region
United States
A free guide to keeping pu-erh across four very different US climates — the humid Southeast, the arid West, the high-altitude Mountain states, and the four-season Midwest — grounded in the storage principles pu-erh drinkers have relied on for decades.
US tea clubs and cohort meetups
Various US cities
A guide to finding — or starting — a Chinese-tea-focused gathering in the United States, plus the format that most serious tea study groups converge on once you strip away the marketing. Notes on what makes these groups work.
US tea shows and events
Various US cities
How to find the tea trade shows, specialty festivals, and grassroots tastings worth attending in the US — and what a procurement specialist actually looks for on the floor, from our sourcing team in China.
US tap water for tea — a city-by-city brewing guide
United States
Why the water in your kettle matters as much as the leaf in your gaiwan — how mineral content and hardness shape a steep, and how to find out what your own city’s water is actually doing.
West Coast guide — Seattle to San Diego
US West Coast
The West Coast’s advantage for Chinese tea is threefold — long-established Chinatowns in several major cities, genuinely soft mountain-fed water in much of the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area, and a single time zone that makes scheduling a live session simple.
Where to buy — US shipping options across the constellation
Ships to United States
Which constellation shops ship to US addresses, what to expect from customs and transit, and how to judge whether a shipment’s packaging actually protected the tea inside — a plain field guide.
Where to learn — US-friendly tea education paths
US (online + on-site)
A plain map of Chinese tea study for American readers — from structured online curricula to master-guided tastings and on-site intensives in China, curated by our team.