Eastern Leaves and the Tea Horse Road

On Wednesday 7 October, we are delighted to welcome Eastern Leaves to Sing Tehus for an evening exploring the Tea Horse Road through tea, history and their own travels across Yunnan.

Eastern Leaves was founded by Vivian and Lorenzo, tea farmers based in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, where they live close to their own ancient tea forest on Nannuo Mountain. They are also co-founders of the Chinese Tea Culture Foundation and have recently published the first English-language monograph dedicated to the Tea Horse Road.

Over many years, Vivian and Lorenzo have travelled extensively through the tea-producing regions of Yunnan. Their journeys have taken them north and west along parts of the historic network of paths that once crossed rivers, gorges and high mountain passes, connecting the ancient tea forests of southern Yunnan with Tibet and beyond.

During the evening, they will take us along this route, sharing stories, historical research, encounters and teas gathered through their travels. Beginning in the ancient forests of Xishuangbanna, we will follow the Tea Horse Road northwards towards the Tibetan border and explore how geography, trade and time shaped the teas that travelled along it.

Along the way, we will taste four teas, each representing a different stage in this story: a young sheng pu’er from Eastern Leaves’ own ancient-tree forest on Nannuo Mountain; an aged sheng from the same region, transformed through decades of storage; a Tibetan brick tea representing the teas historically carried north and exchanged along the route; and a shu pu’er, a modern expression shaped by the long tradition of fermented and aged teas.

The evening will offer a chance to experience the Tea Horse Road not simply as a historical trade route, but through the teas, landscapes and people that continue to give it meaning today.

Teas in tasting:

Sheng Pu'er, ancient trees, Lunan, 2022 — from our own
forest, the origin of the road, complex and full-bodied, with
the bright bitterness that settles into sweetness

Sheng Pu'er, Guafengzhai, 1990s — the same journey after
three decades, deep and settled, quiet in the mouth and long
in the throat

Zangcha Jinjian 金尖, 1970s — Tibetan tea of the highest grade, made for the pleasure of lamas and nobles and packed in cowhide for the passage to Tibet. Clear liquor, soft and
nuanced: botanical, sweet, liquorice, balsamic wood and camphor

Shu Pu'er, Huazhuliangzi, 2022 — from Xishuangbanna's
highest peak, the modern descendant of the road's long
fermentations, thick and smooth, with notes of wet wood and
dried fruit

Bonus: the same Huazhuliangzi shupu, pressed in blend with
Qinan agarwood — one of the most prized fragrances in
Chinese incense — in preview, not yet available in Europe.

During the evening will also be presented the first English-language monograph on the Tea Horse Road, published by Eastern Leaves with the Chinese Tea Culture Foundation: one hundred pages of academic essays and interviews translated from Chinese, with original photography and design.