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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