The leaf that bridges two worlds.
We are a small team working between Yunnan, China — the birthplace of the tea plant — and Dallas, Texas. We work with one tea garden, on one mountain, with trees that have been growing there for more than three hundred years.
This is the story of how the tea gets from there to here.
The intention
初心
Tea is the oldest drink in the world. The first tea leaves were picked from wild trees growing on the high ridges of southwest Yunnan — trees that are still standing there today.
We started Aqua Tea because the longer we lived in North America, the further we felt from those trees — and the more we wanted to bring them closer.
We're not a brand built on flavor notes or competition scores. We're built on a simpler idea: that good tea is a record of a place and the people in it, not a product.
Yunnan, the homeland
从云南开始
Botanists agree that the tea plant — Camellia sinensis var. assamica — originated in the mountainous corridor between Yunnan, northern Myanmar, and northeast India. In a sense, every cup of tea in the world traces back to here. Our garden sits inside that triangle, in Yongde County, at the foot of a mountain locals call Da Xue Shan — Great Snow Mountain.
Three things we won't compromise
三件不让步的事
TRACEABLE TO A TREE.
Every batch comes from a named co-op in Yongde — we know the elevation, the picking week, and the family that processed it.
STANDARDS THAT TRAVEL.
Our teas meet FDA & FSVP import standards before they leave Yunnan, not after. No surprises at customs, no surprises in the cup.
KNOWN HANDS.
Every tea, every cup, every teapot we sell — we can tell you who made it. We only work with people we've met, in places we've been.
Dallas, 2026
达拉斯·2026
In spring 2026, we'll open a small tasting space in Dallas. We'll be inviting our partners from Yunnan to pour the teas they made themselves, and let the cup speak for itself. Our first North American release follows later that year.
Be at the table when we open.
水初沸，候君来。
Join our list. We send a few emails a year — notes from the mountain in spring, a heads-up before new releases, and an invitation when pre-orders open.