Our Mission
At the Royal Academy, London, 2023
The Tea Guardian is created for those who are interested in fine teas as a gourmet habit.
About fine tastes, mostly
Our purpose is NOT to promote the business of any individual teashop, product or production region, but rather to help the reader to form better understanding of the various aspects of fine teas such that they are better informed to make judgment and decisions for themselves. Telling the facts and realities may not make us very popular amongst some traders and merchants. However, we believe that it is only through a better educated market that any trade could have a long term prosperous future.
There simply is too large a gap between the facts and what the general consumer knows about fine teas; this allows for too many myths, misunderstandings and misrepresentations, resulting in dissociation for some consumers, and skepticism for others. As a result, only those who have been culturally accustomed to premium teas are privileged to the enjoyment. This is unfair both to the quality of fine tea, to the consumers, and to the hard work of those who put into producing good tea.
We began as an agent for change
The one thing that has irritated me the most since switching my company from creative communication to tea in 1998 is the amount of myths and misunderstanding so widespread in the trade. That as well as the huge amount of pretensions, ignorance and unprofessional practices. At the same time, there is the large populations of people in various tea production countries that have to rely on the health of the trade to survive.
I was determined that a change in the trade is necessary. It has to start with education. Information is the seed to good education. My first book in tea was published in 2000, and since then, I have written and presented genuine quality in many occasions to spread better information.
The idea of Tea Guardian came much later in 2010. The web was rapidly ingrained into every way of life, everywhere.
Information basis for physical experience
Nothing compares to the actual physical experience of a properly prepared cup of fine tea, but it is through the foundation of enough verbal and visual cognition that people can be prepared to even begin shopping around.
I’d like to remind the reader that the photos here are only benchmarks for the appearance only — there are a lot of products which looks are very similar to the real thing but are not the same in gastronomical qualities, some not even remotely close. Tasting is still the ultimate verification of a quality product but the best we can do here is to describe it in words.
Originality
All writings in this site are original; all observations, descriptions, and summaries of scientific findings and historical facts are based on a wide range of trade experience, intimate contacts with real life situations, investigative reading, together with recent research reports of reliable and reputable sources.
Our direction is to provide practical and realistic references for both the trade and the connoisseurs, recommendations that reflect the writers’ personal experience, and meaningful readings about the market as well as individual tea varieties from an insider’s perspective.
Since 2000, many of my information works, be it text or photos, have been copied, imitated, adulterated, re-appropriated in many tea-related sites, books, articles and lecture handouts. I once sat in a talk by an Italian “tea-specialist” using my text and pictures as his to describe all the wrong products and trade situations. It was so ridiculous that I almost couldn’t control it and laughed out loud. I regret that I had not recorded it then as a case study.
We have, however, asked web-hosting services to close down sites because of blatant copyrights infringement.
However, all such insane copying simply proves that the trade, as well as the consumers, are in bad needs of proper education and information.
Setting your standard
If you are preparing your tea well according to the infusion guideline here, but it is not tasting up to the description provided in this site, then it is likely that you are not getting a fine enough quality. We hope that the quality standard we describe in this site can be useful as a benchmark for the consumer and the trade alike.
Staying healthy as well
A huge number of researches have pointed to the health benefits of tea. This becomes an essential part of tea-drinking in the health-conscious population in most of the developed countries today. This aspect will be discussed in the corresponding section.
Why China first?
We have begun with productions in China, where tea originated, and which productions and products we have first hand knowledge of, and where the current biodiversity, product ranges, taste differences, and varieties in health contributing composition are by far the greatest and most interesting. Its tea economy structure is also the most vibrant, energetic and has the best potential to learn from. As the content of this site grows, quality productions from other parts of the world will be included (note).
Missing topics
There could be areas of knowledge that the reader wants but not included. There will also be different opinions and information and experiences that the reader may want us to discuss. Comments and feedback are most welcome. Please be generous with offering us your thoughts.
Keeping update
This site is on the continual creation. New articles, such as tea selection reviews, tea health information, infusion techniques, tea ware reviews etc., will be added regularly. It is beneficial to the reader to subscribe to this site for updates, for free.
Leo Kwan, the Tea Guardian
note: Producers who think their products should be included are welcome to submit information and samples for our study. Click <here> for contact details. It should be understood, however, we insist on editorial independence and no comments or inclusion of any products, teahouses, or any other commodities or commercial entities are influenced by any sponsorship or advertising in this site.
