HOW WE CHOOSE TEA
Small range. Clear sourcing.
Three Cups isn't a catalogue. It's a small shelf of teas that earn their place — chosen by us, tasted by us, kept stocked by us.
OUR PRINCIPLES
Five things we ask of every tea.
- Single origin We know the farm, the cultivar, the harvest year.
- Tested in cups Every harvest re-tasted. If it slipped, it doesn't ship.
- Easy to brew Forgiving teas with clear brewing data on every label.
- Direct buying We pay growers directly. Fewer hands, fairer share.
- Worth keeping Teas that reward returning to. No novelty for novelty's sake.
THE SOURCING
Where the teas come from.
The core ladder draws on six regions. Yellow Mountain in Anhui, China gives us our greens and reds — clean, bright, well-priced for what they are. Kawan and Sagara in Japan supply our roasted and shaded greens, where the steaming and shading traditions are strongest. Lincang in Yunnan grows the white tea and the pu-erh we age. Hamamatsu and Kagoshima in Japan close out the lineup with subtler, less-trodden teas like Wakōcha and first-flush Hojicha.
Most teas we buy directly from a single producer. Some come through a partner cooperative we've worked with for years. We don't blend; we don't mix harvest years; we don't pad seasonal gaps with last year's leaves.