Rise

Here's something to stir your curiosity: a tea born from wartime urgency, now steeped in global prestige. In 1938, as Japan tightened its grip on eastern China, Feng Shaoqiu and a team of technicians arrived in Fengqing, Yunnan, to cultivate what would become China’s most iconic red tea: Dianhong. The choice of this remote mountain region wasn’t accidental. Its high altitudes, yellow soils, and wild tea bushes—15 clusters of ancient plants and 6 heirloom cultivars—provided the raw material for a tea unlike any other. From these leaves, Feng’s team engineered large-leaf cultivars with thick yellow fuzz, the hallmark of Dianhong’s…