June 2026
Yunnan Tea from Cha Yi Lai
This month we bring you four ancient-tree (gushu) teas from across Lincang — one of Yunnan's most celebrated tea regions — each from a different category, offering a rare breadth of what Lincang gushu can express. We are delighted to collaborate with Cha Yi Lai（茶亦来）, a producer dedicated to ecological wild-growth tea rooted in Lincang, with genuine ownership of their gardens and full control from tree to finished tea. We got to know its founder through her tea shop near Tsinghua University over the past two years, and what began as a shared love of tea has grown into a genuine friendship and, now, this collaboration. Cha Yi Lai owns and stewards Shangzhu Tea Mountain, a 200-mu (~33 acres) wild-growth garden of century-old ancient trees, maintained entirely without pesticides, fertilizers, or any chemical intervention for over fifteen years. Every tea is handpicked and handmade using traditional methods, preserving the raw character of each mountain. The four teas span a decade-aged shou pu'er from their high-altitude estate at over 1,700 meters, a freshly harvested 2026 Spring white tea and 2025 Spring sheng pu'er from the remote high-mountain Mangang area above the famous Xi Gui area, and a 2023 Spring purple-bud black tea from Fengqing. Four categories, four distinct terroirs — all ancient trees, all from the same trusted hands.
