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                                                                                                                     Caihong Street No.26, Give It a Try            for working.” Wu Qiong’s cousin is a villager of Tongmu-
                                                                                                                                                                    guan Masu Village where people are involved in the tea
                                                                                                                         Last October, Yang Qinli met the two other girls in   business for many generations, particularly black tea. Lv
                                                                                                                     Chengdu: a new friend Lv Jiaoyang, and the old acquain-  Jiaoyang is in charge of white tea, purple sand pot and
                                                                                                                     tance Wu Qiong who Qinli got to know because of tea.   ware category, because of her years of experience in tea
                                                                                                                     The  three  of  them  have  been  pure  tea  lovers  for  more   research. Yang Qinli, as the leader for brand and fabric,
                                                                                                                     than a decade; another shared favorite among them is the   also has first-hand tea channel resources as she was born
                                                                                                                     cozy  Yulin  Community  in  Chengdu.  The  girls  love  the   in Guizhou and living in Hangzhou for years.
                                                                                                                     place, and want to stay. One day, while enjoying dump-  After  the  opening,  young  people  flooded  in,  most
                                                                                                                     lings at a street stall, they realized through conversation   of which were born after 1997, younger than the three
                  About Caihong Street No.26
                                                                                                                     that a teahouse is their own way to express their way of   founders.  They  also  know  tea,  as  some  are  tea  science
              Caihong Street is an old street in Chengdu, only
                                                                                                                     life in this city.                             graduate  students  and  some  grew  up  to  drink  tea  with
               500 meters long, initially only a few sporadic
                                                                                                                         To set up a tiny store, you have the freedom to be   their parents. It’s said that tiny stores usually carry the
            take-away stores and footwashing rooms are listed
             along the way. Later, with the opening of a coffee                                                      casual. When they found out from a friend that a space   style and charm of the founders, and the three girls are
                 shop, more people came to this old street,                                                          was available, they wasted no time to sign the contract   more  suitable  to  create  such  a  relaxed  state  with  no
                    and more small stores opened here.
                                                                                                                     and opened Proper Tea within just a month. They used   threshold and constraints. “When you get older, you will
                                                                                                                     the brand name which they had no time to consider more,   be more mature and stable. However, the three of us are
                                                                                                                     and hastily put up second-hand furniture within 48 hours   very casual.” says Qinli.
                                                                                                                     right  before  opening.  As  a  product  out  of  plan,  the   When the customers are different, the products shall
                                                                                                                     teahouse  shared  drinks  with  Caihong  Street  neighbors   also be adjusted. The store introduced more entry-level
                                                                                                                     during  the  supervision  of  renovation,  and  dealt  as  a   options to minimize the threshold for customers.
                                                                                                                     greenhorn with numerous unplanned problems that came   In  Proper  Tea  or  “Tasting  Tabloid”(its  Chinese
                                                                                                                     one after another. That’s how it ushered in December 8,   name), the three founders are flexible with the idea of
                                                                                                                     2021, the birthday of Proper Tea. Though they are new-  “give  it  a  try”,  letting  the  store  be  itself  as  much  as
                                                                                                                     bies for store management, their trademark Fujian tea is   possible. The guests also find their tea by “giving it a
                                                                                                                     based an experience they have built up over ten years.  try”. As the spirit of the brand conveys, “try tasting”
                                                                                                                         Positioned as a tiny tea store hidden in the commu-  is an adventurous tea path, and it also sounds like the
                                                                                                                     nity, Proper Tea was at first expected by the three girls   word “suitable” in Chinese. As for the “tabloid”, they
                                                                                                                     to  gather  a  group  of  experienced  and  middle-aged  tea   believe  that  tea  is  a  personal  perception  and  also  an
                                                                                                                     drinkers. “After all, the space is quiet, making it suitable   excellent medium.


































     102                                                                       Photo / PROPER TEA                                                                                                                103
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