Gift delivery with hand-written card

What you get

• One 100g portion, a 200g cake, or a four-sample flight — your choice of leaf

• Cotton-paper wrap or linen furoshiki, sealed with a paper band

• Hand-written card in Russian, English, German, or simplified Chinese

• A printed brewing card with gōngfū ratios and water temperatures for the chosen tea

• A short note from the curator on origin — mountain, factory, year

• Courier hand-off with a photo confirmation sent to the sender

• Optional second delivery window if the recipient is not home

How a gift moves from leaf room to doorstep

The order arrives in the leaf room around mid-morning. Whoever is on shift — most often Chen Hui Yi for white and green selections, Amgalan Chin for aged and sheng — reads the sender’s note first. A birthday for someone who already drinks Fújiàn whites. A thank-you for a host in Saint Petersburg. A condolence, gentle, no festivity. The tea is chosen before anything else is touched.

For a calm gift we tend toward Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针) from Fúdǐng in northern Fújiàn — silver buds, pale apricot infusion, a soft cooling finish. For a celebratory gift, a 2008 shu cake from a Měnghǎi-area pressing, dense and earthy, the wet leaf the colour of damp bark. For a curious recipient, the four-sample flight: a Wǔyí Ròu Guì (肉桂), a Yúnnán mountain sheng from the Yìwǔ side, a Mēngdǐng Huángyá (蒙顶黄芽) yellow, and a Cháozhōu Dān Cōng (单丛) from the Phoenix mountains. Each sample is weighed to 8g, folded into cotton paper, labelled by hand.

The wrap happens at a low table by the window. The cake or the pouches are set on a square of unbleached cotton, the paper band slipped under, the corners folded so the seam sits at the back. If the sender chose furoshiki, the linen is tied in a flat knot rather than a bow — quieter, easier to untie without scissors. A small wax disc is pressed onto the band, no logo, just a circle.

The card is written next, with a fountain pen, on card stock the weight of a museum ticket. We ask the sender for the message at checkout and for the recipient’s preferred language. If the message is in Russian and the recipient reads Chinese, we will write both — the Russian on the inside, a short Chinese line on the outside flap. The curator who chose the tea adds two lines underneath: where the leaf is from, how to brew the first steep. This is the closest thing to a signature the gift carries.

The brewing card goes in last. It is a single folded sheet — water temperature, leaf-to-water ratio, first-steep seconds, a note on the second and third. For the sheng, a line about resting the cake a week before opening. For the silver needle, a reminder that the cup should be glass so the buds can be watched standing upright in the water.

The parcel is photographed once, closed, on a pale background. That photo goes to the sender by email at hand-off, alongside the courier’s name and an ETA window. In Berlin and London the same-day window is between four and seven in the evening; in Saint Petersburg it is two to six. Regional deliveries — anywhere a zone-1 courier reaches by morning of the next day — leave on the eight-o’clock van.

If the recipient is not home, the courier holds the parcel rather than leaving it. Tea sits badly in a cold stairwell. A second window is offered free of charge. Senders who are members on tea.community see their gift history in their account, and orders placed alongside an event ticket on tea.events are bundled at no extra courier cost. For larger orders — a corporate gift list, a wedding favour run — the curators move the work to teamotea.com and quote separately.

Who picks the tea and writes the card

• Amgalan Chin — Selects the aged sheng, shu, and dark-tea options — and writes cards in Russian and Mongolian.

• Chen Hui Yi — Curates the white, green, and yellow picks from Fúdǐng and Méngdǐng — cards in Chinese and English.

Practical details

• Coverage — Same-day in Berlin, Saint Petersburg, London. Next-day to zone-1 regional cities.

• Order cut-off — 13:00 local time for same-day delivery. After 13:00, the gift leaves on the next-morning van.

• Card languages — Russian, English, German, simplified Chinese. Up to 240 characters per message.

• Wrapping — Default cotton-paper wrap with paper band. Linen furoshiki option for an additional €8.

• Tea formats — 100g portion, 200g cake, or four-sample 8g flight. Curator chooses if you ask us to.

• Confirmation — A photo of the closed parcel, the courier’s name, and an ETA window are sent to the sender at hand-off.

• If not home — Courier holds the parcel and re-delivers in a second window at no extra cost.