from soil to boil an exhibition to explore all
In 2018, I found myself on a tea mountain in Cangyuan — deep southwest Yunnan, the kind of place that still requires a second flight and a dirt road after Kunming. There are 65 li of unpaved track winding from the base up into the garden. That's where the name comes from.
The founders broke ground here in 2002. What they've built over two decades is quietly remarkable: China's first Rainforest Alliance-certified tea garden, organic certification across four countries, a range spanning all five major tea categories, and a flavour philosophy that traces every cup back through craft, cultivation, terroir, and genetics. But almost none of this had been given a voice. It sat in the product, in the land, in the cup itself.
In 2025, we started working together. Inside a new processing and blending facility nearing completion in Cangyuan, we built the full arc — brand strategy, exhibition curation, spatial design, service design — from a ground-floor prologue through to a third-floor main exhibition. What we're making is a space you move through bodily: the vibe of a rainforest, the creation of flavours, portraits of key products through art, then a sip, and something to carry home. We also developed a digital strategy for the exhibition — because not everyone can drive 65 li up a mountain, but everyone deserves a way in.
Working alongside people who've given twenty years to one mountain is not something I take lightly.
Opening spring / summer 2026.