Photos from Yunnan

The July issue of Global Tea Hut will include lots of photos and stories from our recent trip to Yunnan. In the meantime, here are a few photos of our journey...

Amazing, vegetarian, Yunnanese food:



Tien Wu pressing a sheng puerh cake by dancing atop a stone mold:



Shane & Lindsey wrapping their just-pressed puerh cakes:



Wu De before a Kuan Yin shrine in a grotto in Dali, Yunnan:



A gorgeous, noble, 2700-year-old tea tree in Ai Lao, which we hiked for an hour or two to reach:



Beautiful rock patterns on the ground in an ancient town in Yunnan:



The group meditating over fresh tealeaves we rolled into Red Tea:

We're in Yunnan!

Last year, we started an annual tradition to raise funds for a bigger tea center in Taiwan. It's not any old fundraiser--it's a custom pressing of organic puerh cakes especially for Light Meets Life. Last year, we pressed three cakes: an organic Wuliang Mountain Sheng Puerh, an organic Snow Chrysanthemum Shou Puerh (pictured above) and an organic Ailao Mountain Sheng Puerh.

This year, we're in Yunnan to press more tea cakes. We're having another batch of the Shou pressed, as well as a red tea cake and another Ailao. This time, we're traveling to Ailao to select the leaves ourselves. Ailao is a protected reserve in which ancient tea trees are responsibly harvested, and we feel honored to be able to visit and share in this incredible gift from Nature.

After we return to Taiwan, we'll post some photos and notes from our trip here on the blog, and write about the trip in more detail in the Global Tea Hut magazine. In the meantime, wish us luck!

Light Meets Life Puerh Cakes

Last year, we started an annual tradition--a fundraising drive for our new tea center in Taiwan. The new tea center is called Light Meets Life. Similar to our current center (Tea Sage Hut), Light Meets Life is a nonprofit, donation-run center devoted to sharing the spirit and wisdom of tea with guests from around the world.

Anyway, more about the tea! In spring of 2013, we pressed three kinds of organic puerh cakes. Two were organic sheng puerh teas: one from Ailao Mountain and the other from Wuliang Mountain. And the third cake was an organic shou puerh pressed with organic "snow chrysanthemums"--a special kind of red chrysanthemum that blossoms out of the snow high on the Tibetan Plateau. The first two cakes are great for drinking now or for aging, and the third is a warming tea that we recommend enjoying in wintertime. For more info on each one, check out the July issue of Global Tea Hut, available to read for free here on our website.

Next month, we'll continue this tradition by traveling to Yunnan to press a new batch of organic puerh cakes as a Light Meets Life fundraiser. Exciting! In the meantime, we still have a few (very limited amount) cakes from last year left. If you're interested in donating toward the construction of Light Meets Life (and getting some amazing puerh in the process), contact us! globalteahut @ gmail . com