Tea & Clay: Wild Taiwanese Teas ~台湾野茶の神秘~

March 22nd 

10:00 - 

Join us for an intimate 80-minute guided tasting exploring three Taiwanese teas: white, high mountain oolong, and red. All are wild grown or naturally farmed without pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or even organic inputs.

Wild-grown teas are produced in extremely small quantities and are rarely available outside Taiwan. This is a rare opportunity to experience them here in Kyoto.

Together, we will taste slowly and intentionally while exploring how each tea is made, its cultivar and region, and how terroir shapes aroma, texture, and depth. We will also discuss why naturally farmed and wild teas express a different kind of character, one that reflects ecology rather than intervention.

All teas will be brewed using Andrew’s ceramics, allowing us to experience how clay subtly influences structure, softness, and finish in the cup.

No prior tea knowledge is required, only curiosity.

Seats are limited to keep the session personal and conversational.

Hosted by Stone Soup （Faline Lin）

Stone Soup

After a decade in finance in New York, Faline felt a pull toward more tangible pursuits. She returned to Taiwan with her wife to reconnect with family and the natural world, renting a small plot of land and learning to farm from the ground up while studying soil health, natural cultivation and permaculture.
Tea became the thread linking this new path with her heritage. Family rituals and weekends in mountain tea houses had shaped her earliest memories, and as she explored Taiwan’s tea culture more deeply, Faline discovered how few farms embraced natural or wild-grown methods.
Stone Soup emerged from this realisation – a bridge between conscious drinkers and growers working in balance with the land. Now based between Taiwan and New York, she continues to deepen that connection, bringing the integrity of these landscapes to an international audience.