Gunpowder (Zhu Cha)

To protect your tea's flavor and aroma, store it in an airtight container away from light, heat, moisture, and strong odors. A sealed opaque tin kept in a cool, dark cupboard is ideal. To maximize freshness, we recommend storing your leaves in our specially designed light-blocking tea tins alongside our food-safe freshness packs, which work together to lock out oxygen and eliminate flavor-damaging humidity. Avoid the refrigerator or freezer, as constant temperature shifts and condensation will quickly spoil the tea.

Proper storage makes the biggest difference for your tea. In our sealed online packaging, leaves stay at their best for 6 to 12 months if kept in a cool, dark place. Once opened—or if purchased in-store in our folded, biodegradable bags—aim to finish your tea within 2 to 4 months for peak flavor. Because everyday eco-bags and opened packs are not airtight, we highly encourage transferring your tea into a light-blocking storage tin with a freshness pack as soon as you get home. You can even bring your favorite tin into our shop, and we will happily refill it directly to keep your leaves perfectly fresh.

While most grocery-store teas are made from older, broken leaves and dust that sit in paper steeping bags, we take a more careful approach. We work with trusted growers and suppliers to bring in fresher, whole-leaf teas, and we keep our batches small so the leaves stay vibrant. Sold loose, they have the space to open fully and show their true character. Because good leaves can be re-steeped several times, the effective cost per cup is often closer to everyday tea than it first appears.

Most of our teas are grown organically, but not all of them carry formal organic certification. Formal certification is a long and expensive process, which can be prohibitive for many small farmers.
We source through experienced tea buyers we trust, and in some cases we have met the farmers ourselves. Whether certified or not, every tea we carry is grown with care for the land and chosen for quality and responsible farming practices.