A Year of Teas

A small-batch Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, traditionally pine-smoked over Wuyi pinewood for forty-eight hours. The smoke is structural, not loud — it disappears completely after the third infusion, leaving a clean black-tea body underneath. Drinks like a campfire on a cold morning. Dried longan. Pine resin. A finish that lingers like the pitch on the inside of a cup.

Origin

Wei Family small farm, Wuyi Mountains, Fujian. 2025 harvest.

Brew

4 g per 200 ml, 95°C, 2-min first steep, +30 s each subsequent — good for 5–6 infusions in a small clay pot.

When

Cold playa nights after you’ve been outside too long. To open an evening of speakers.

Source

Gifted by Half Moon Tea House, Seattle. Sponsor

Roasted cacao husk, green cardamom, vanilla bean, cinnamon bark, and a pinch of dried Pasilla chili. Deep, almost chocolate-soup at full strength. Sweet without sugar. Add a splash of oat milk and it pulls toward a Mayan hot chocolate; brew it lean and it’s a clean caffeine-free pick-me-up.

Origin

Highland co-op in Chiapas, Mexico. Cacao husks reclaimed from the bean-roasting process — what would otherwise be compost.

Brew

5 g per 250 ml, just-off-boil 95°C, 5-minute steep. Stretches to a second infusion with another 8 minutes.

When

First thing in the morning to wake up gently. Or after midnight when caffeine would be a mistake.

Source

Direct from Cooperativa Tierra Y Libertad, Chiapas. Sponsor

An Assam-Ceylon base balanced 60/40, lifted by foraged Irish heather and gorse flowers from the Galway coast. A robust malty backbone (the Assam), a bright citric edge (the Ceylon), and a soft floral perfume on top — heather honey and coconut-sweet gorse. Holds milk beautifully. The blend that opens the camp every morning.

Origin

Tea: Assam & Ceylon. Botanicals: foraged on the Atlantic coast of Galway, Ireland.

Brew

5 g per 250 ml, full boil 100°C, 4-minute steep. Take it with whole milk. Don’t argue.

When

Pre-dawn shift change at the teahouse. The first tea of every day on the playa.

Source

Botanicals foraged by Aoife McCullough (Galway) and shipped to Seattle each spring. Sponsor

A Fuding silver needle from the 2018 spring harvest, aged seven years in unglazed clay in Seattle. The aging has turned its grassy young-white-tea edge into something contemplative — honeysuckle, dried apricot, beeswax, with a soft barn-wood depth at the bottom of the cup. Sweet without sugar. Best in a glass gaiwan you can refill in front of your guest.

Origin

Fuding county, Fujian. 2018 first-flush. Aged in-house since 2018.

Brew

5 g per 200 ml, 85°C, 1-min first infusion, +20 s each subsequent. Good for 8–10 infusions if you have the patience.

When

Quiet conversations. After a hard talk at the lectures. Late-afternoon visits.

Source

Aged in-house by camp co-founder Marisa Lin from a 2018 wholesale buy.

Wild bergamot (bee balm), white sage, sweetgrass, and wild peppermint, grown and harvested on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Cooling and minty up front; deep, almost piney underneath. Drink it hot and it’s ceremonial. Drink it iced and it tastes like the prairie. Caffeine-free.

Origin

Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.

Brew

5 g per 250 ml, just-off-boil 90°C, 4–5 min steep. Or cold-brew overnight, 8 hours, for the iced version.

When

Hot afternoons. After dust storms. As an offering when someone needs to ground.

Source

Standing Rock Cultural Center — multi-year sponsor partnership. Sponsor