Nadi Biran roasting dan cong tea in Chaozhou

our story

ho yum tea is a research-led tea company, founded in Hong Kong in 2017 and based in Xiamen, Fujian. As tea explorers, we source pesticide-free tea directly from farmers in Yunnan, Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan, and teach what we learn in the field.

EST 2017

at the frontier of tea culture

We spend most of the year in the tea regions of China and Taiwan. We drive between mountains and taste through harvests to curate our own tea selection every season. We target clean tea only, study ecological cultivation and unique craftsmanship, and interview the people behind them. Based on that research, we commission exclusive batches, and run experiments we share with our Blind Tasting Club.

Our time is divided between the field and our tea community. This keeps the two sides of our work feeding each other, without the field ever taking over from our commitment to the people who study with us and follow our work. Education is how our work in the mountains reaches you. We teach tea through online courses and we guide educational tea tours in East Asia. The rest of the year, we give workshops wherever in the world we are invited.

meet the founders

We met in Hong Kong in 2015. Pink worked in PR and marketing for a French company, producing its fine wine tastings and culinary events, and tea was already part of her daily life. Nadi, a documentary filmmaker and photographer, had come across loose-leaf tea a year earlier, on a documentary project following minority communities through Assam and Darjeeling, and in Hong Kong he found it again in the old Cantonese tea houses and the city's dim sum culture. In Cantonese there is a standing invitation, 得閒飲茶, "drink tea when you are free." Two years later, ho yum tea began.

Pink Luk guiding a travel group in Tongmu Guan, Wuyi Shan

Pink Luk (Luk Sze Wan 陸思韻)

CEO, marketing and tea educator

Pink runs the business and handles all of our communication with farmers and tea producers. She writes our Chinese and English copy and creates the syllabi for every one of our courses. Pink is a certified tea art teacher in China, and holds a government-certified qualification in pu'er tea tasting. She trained under one of China's senior tea masters, now one of our mentors, and with professors at tea colleges in Yunnan. Her fields are Chinese tea history, hosting and serving methods, and teaware craft.

Nadi Biran tasting tea at a tasting table

Nadi Biran (Nadav Biran)

creative director, photographer, designer

Nadi shapes how ho yum tea looks and speaks: the brand's look, its visual storytelling, all of our photography and videography, and the website you are reading. He is also our English content writer. He leads our pesticide research and laboratory testing protocol, and looks after our online community. Nadi grades every tea with a tasting method he developed himself, and curates the tea collection. Since a sourcing trip in Taiwan in 2022, his sensitivity to residues has become part of how we taste.

Pink Luk with farmers in Zhengyan, Wuyi Shan
One of us came to tea from outside, the other grew up inside it, and ho yum tea was built in the space between the two.

our core values

  1. ten years of relationships

    Our catalog is the outcome of a decade of networking and fieldwork with farmers, tea makers and teaware artists. The best tea comes in small quantities and goes to people who know how to appreciate it, not only to those who pay the most.

  2. clean tea ambassadors

    We choose to raise awareness of clean growing environments by taking an active role in plantation conversion and supporting the tea makers who choose this path. We test in the lab every source, garden and tea maker to verify pesticide-free before its first tea enters our catalog.

  3. no compromise on quality

    We always look for the best value for money, but we know that higher grades cost more. When tea makers name their price, we respect the value of their work and never bargain. Our selection offers a wide price range. When a tea is priced high, it is because we paid more for it, believing it is worth it.

  4. our own trade channel

    We are our own importer and exporter, which gives us access to almost any tea we desire. With that freedom, we slowly learned that taste and aroma are only part of what we are looking for: the rest is the relationship with our collaborators in the mountains, care for the environment and human health, and the benefits you get from the tea.

  5. independent and small, on purpose

    We source, pack, store and ship ourselves, and we finance the company on our own, with no investors and no shareholders. We keep ho yum tea a small, boutique company so we stay in full control and keep the highest standards, knowing we serve a small circle of tea enthusiasts who appreciate our work and professionalism.

OUR JOURNEY

 
2017

Founded in Hong Kong

Founded in late 2017, we built our own trade channel, registering as exporter in Hong Kong and food importer in the Middle East. We studied the industry and food regulations, while developing our brand identity.

 
A hand holding a bamboo tea scoop above a white tasting cup of golden tea on a tea tray
2018

Our first curated selection

Our first curated tea selection from Yunnan and Fujian only. Still holding full-time jobs, we spent months on sourcing trips in China and started to collect teaware and equipment for hosting tea sessions.

 
A tea grower and a woman looking at tea bushes on a sunny hillside
2019

Our first tea room

Our first tea room opened with free tea tasting sessions every Friday, and Eatwith culinary events we hosted at home. We curated the 'Four Springs' exhibition of Nadi's tea photography featuring a Chinese calligrapher's work, shown at 3 venues.

 
A man and a woman standing barefoot in a tea shop
2020

The pandemic year

The pandemic grounded us, so we grew our tea community in TLV. Nadi built our first website and we kept hosting between lockdowns. We started researching Taiwanese tea and what we later named 'the hidden ingredients' in tea.

 
A man and a woman preparing gongfu tea at a tea table
2021

16 months of nomad life

With no rental lease we went on a full nomad journey for over a year, starting in Georgia, the first tea-growing country to reopen. We founded the Blind Tasting Club, and sent our first tea samples to the lab in Taiwan.

 
A woman and a man examining tea leaves in a tea garden under trees
2022

The pesticide-free rule

Nomad life continued to China's tea-growing neighbors: India, Thailand and Taiwan, targeting clean tea cultivation only. The Yefang Cha pioneers in Taiwan welcomed us into their closest circle of natural farming, which would change the face of our brand forever.

 
A man with a camera standing in a flowering tea field, looking at a tea shoot
2023

The hidden loft studio

Our studio opened in south TLV, a hidden loft for hosting ceremonies, workshops, and tea-related music events. Fine dining chefs and 50 Best restaurants joined us for pop-ups and curated tea menus. The Gongfu Cha course was born.

 
A woman pouring tea for guests seated on tatami mats at a tea gathering
2024

Moving to Fujian

China reopened after nearly four years. We moved operations to Xiamen, extended our sustainable agriculture work from Taiwan into Fujian and Guangdong, built a climate-controlled aging warehouse and guided two ecological Yefang Tea Tours in Taiwan.

 
Two men turning fresh tea leaves by hand on a round bamboo tray
2025

The First China Tour

The Wuyi yancha research was completed and the Yancha course was launched. We curated our first clean dancong series and collaborated with artists in Chaozhou to curate our first guided Min Yue East China tea tour. The 10th Blind Tasting Club edition was celebrated with a double feature.

 
A tea master serving a group seated around a long tasting table
2026

Festivals and workshops

We presented at the Paris Tea Festival and the Hong Kong Tea Expo, where we ran our blind tasting activity, and taught workshops in Belgium. Pink was certified as a professional pu'er taster and we launched this new website with a 100% pesticide-free clean tea catalog.

 
A man and a woman brewing tea together at a tea event table
2027

the 10th year of ho yum tea

A new educational course, a limited edition pu'er cakes release and special tea tour routes are among the surprises we are preparing for our 10th anniversary.

 
 
A tour group in a tea garden
Spreading withered tea leaves on a tray
Hands gathered around a plate of fresh tea leaves
Tea processing machinery in a workshop
A mountain path through terraced tea gardens
A woman picking tea leaves
Misty tea mountains

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FAQ

Who runs ho yum tea?

ho yum tea is run by its two co-founders, Pink Luk (Luk Sze Wan 陸思韻) and Nadi Biran (Nadav Biran). Our courses are taught live online, and we teach every session ourselves: none of them is a recorded, self-paced course. We also give workshops, lectures and courses face to face, and we lead every tea tour in person. A small logistics team works with us at our warehouse in Xiamen.
When and where was ho yum tea founded?

ho yum tea was founded in Hong Kong in late 2017. Its co-founders, Pink Luk and Nadi Biran, had met there in 2015, when Pink was working in PR and marketing for a French company and Nadi as a documentary filmmaker and photographer. The first thing they built together was their own trade channel, from the tea mountains of Yunnan and Fujian, and later Taiwan. Today ho yum tea focuses only on clean, pesticide-free tea.
Where is ho yum tea based?

ho yum tea is based in Xiamen 廈門, Fujian, China. Our office, our tea spaces and our climate-controlled aging warehouse are there, and it is where we host visiting groups, run courses and workshops, and collaborate with tea tours from all over the world. Hong Kong, where ho yum tea was founded, remains our second base and the home of our tea export company.
Why does ho yum tea sell only pesticide-free tea?

ho yum tea sells only pesticide-free tea because we care about the environment and about human health. We believe pesticide use damages both, and puts the future of tea growing at risk. Our first lab results, in 2021, found residues in teas we were already trading. Once we began sourcing tea in Taiwan and testing it regularly, we decided to stop working with commercial tea grown with pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. As people who drink tea every day, we had also felt how that tea affected us, and in 2022 we made the change complete.

Today every source, garden and tea maker is verified pesticide-free in the lab before its first tea enters our catalog, and an organic certificate alone is not enough for us. We raise awareness of clean growing environments, take an active part in converting plantations and support the tea makers who choose this path. We teach about clean tea on our tea tours and in our workshops, and we continue our research into clean and natural tea growing.
Does ho yum tea buy through agents or wholesalers?

No. ho yum tea is its own importer and exporter. We buy directly from the growers and tea makers we work with, in person, and we handle packing, storage, aging and shipping ourselves from Xiamen. We run our own lab testing for pesticide residues, and every source, garden and tea maker is verified pesticide-free before its first tea enters our catalog. The tea we sell comes only from gardens in China and Taiwan kept with sustainable, ecological practices.
Is ho yum tea more expensive than other tea sellers?

No. ho yum tea offers a wide range of prices, from affordable teas to rare high grades. We always look for the best value for money, but higher grades cost more, and when a batch deserves it, we choose not to compromise on quality. Price also depends on where a tea comes from and how much demand there is for it: some regions cost more than others. We never bargain with our tea makers: when they name their price, we respect the value of their work and skill.
What does he yun 和韻 mean?

He yun 和韻 is the Chinese name of ho yum tea, and it carries our Chinese identity. 和 he means harmony, holding two things together, such as East and West. 韻 yun is the rhyme a tea leaves behind, as in yan yun 巖韻, the rock rhyme of Wuyi yancha. It is also the last character of Pink Luk's Chinese name.
Can I visit ho yum tea or learn tea with you?

Yes. ho yum tea hosts visiting groups and individuals at our base in Xiamen, Fujian, for private workshops, courses and tours, and every year we guide tea tours in Taiwan, Wuyi Shan 武夷山 and Chaozhou 潮州. Our live online courses and our online Blind Tasting Club are open to tea drinkers from all over the world. You are welcome to contact us.
What does ho yum tea specialize in?

ho yum tea runs tea courses and workshops, researches pesticide residues, sustainable agricultural practices and clean growing with the farmers we work with, and guides educational tea tours in Taiwan, Wuyi Shan and Chaozhou. We also run the online Blind Tasting Club, which features experimental and educational teas we create together with our tea makers and farmers in China and Taiwan.