This last week was a busy one for us. We managed to get our modest collection of 2016 Spring teas released shortly after returning from a brief trip to Jianshui. Needless to say, it’s been a fairly promotional week, with lots of product pictures, both of our new teas and some previews of our new teaware haul.

A few of our new teas all wrapped up. All of our labels and designs are 100% done by Coomi, except for our Year of the Monkey cakes. These are a few of our house pressings for spring.

The whole 2016 family, as gathered by farmer Coomi. As mentioned, all designs are done in house, with our direct-sourced pressings receiving some special treatment. Thank you to Kelly Puissegur for her work on our Year of the Monkey cakes.

A group shot of our new pieces from Jianshui. We’re quite happy with this haul as we were able to re-stock some favourites, but also branch out with some new styles of pots and difference accessories that were missing from our store. A few of the pieces in this picture, like the ivory coloured cup in the back and the darker grey cup toward the front won’t make it to the store, as they’re somewhat more difficult to come across. We will be adding some beautiful coasters, a hu cheng (pot support for dry pour gong fu), tea strainers and more though.

We were really excited to sell this pot, however while taking pictures we discovered the tiniest of holes in the surface. It was difficult to notice, but impossible not to see after that. We considered selling it at a discounted price, but were reluctant to offer something with a known flaw. We then thought about bringing it back to the studio to exchange, but couldn’t pull ourselves to do it. This pot is too beautiful to give up, not to mention a great size @ 130ml. The engraving on it is intricate and tasteful, along with a subtle pattern around the top of the lid that is hard to see at first. It’s also done by our favourite artists, who has made most of the pots weve carried so far and we know will not be around for much longer. The choice was easy in the end, and now we have a new pot for our own use!

Another keeper for ourselves. As our Warrior Gaiwans have proved popular, it’s been hard to take one off the shelf for ourselves, so we waited until we could get a few more. Now we happily have our own and it’s already been through 7 or 8 sessions with some of our favourite sheng puers. The new batch is a little more red than the previous, but beautiful nonetheless. They’re also quite fun to use once you get the hang of the pouring style.

Our last post was just sharing more teaware excitement, this time in the form of some zitao strainers.