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For those who hope to feel, understand and truly love to drink tea. They talk about tea and also other things.
tea, flavour is simply not enough. The overall experience of Some are attracted by the atmosphere, sitting down
brewing and enjoying tea is much more important. In order with an attitude of giving it a try. They become regulars
to highlight the value of quality tea, Proper Tea set a fee of when they find that they can relax, open their mind and
30 yuan per person for tea evaluation. Tea enthusiasts bring make friends here. There is even one customer who comes
their tea from their home and ask for Proper Tea to review, here almost every day after work before going home.
while more experienced guests bring their own highly value Though Proper Tea doesn’t provide any food, guests
tea to challenge Proper Tea to a friendly “tea competition”. will not go hungry. There are coffee shops, dessert stores,
Good tea deserves a good name. Jiulongye half-day wine cellars and other food and beverage stores nearby,
demon (九龙窠半天妖), old tree cinnamon (老树肉桂), little allowing guests to make an order and enjoy the food with
bit of osmanthus (有点小桂), small Chenjiu (小陈九)... The tea. During the peak time in the afternoon, mobile vendors
founders name their drinks based on the region, the age of will always be there on time, parked right in front of the
the tree, characteristics and the category. For featured tea, store. According to Qinli, “Just sit here, and you can order
they will also decide the name based on the inspiration the food available in the whole street.” Also, they cook with
brought about by the drinking feelings. “It’s true that many their guests sometimes .
people will come here because of the fancy name. However, In Proper Tea, everything happens naturally, whether
we will not deliberately decide the name. It must be relevant it is related to tea or not.
to the tea itself.” says Yang Qinli. The “relevance” here is not
equal to being objective, as drinking is a very subjective ex- Night After Night
perience. The founder “will not deliberately render with the
name, and will not tell you what you will encounter in the Many tea lovers have the habit of drinking tea at night.
drink.” At the product introduction, the cultivation year, “Tea is also suitable for night, because the senses will be
category, mountain region, flavour profile and history are more sensitive at night. When seriously drinking a good tea,
introduced in detail, thus introducing the tea itself in a more it is easier to relax the whole body and feel the state of tea.”
comprehensive way. This, in turn, goes against the trend of says Qinli.
new brand development which blurs tea leaf and its origin. It’s also very easy to elevate your senses with tea. Not
long work, a group of guests started drinking from 10:30 pm,
Boundless Tea and talk about poetry and philosophy until 2:30 am. The
party ended with a poet who shared a poem at the site. With
In addition to being a teahouse, Proper Tea is also a this experience, the three founders set the closing time at
living room for neighbors, a space for information transit, 10:00 p.m., but the the implementation of the schedule is
and a landing place for emotions. very flexible. For example, the tiny store will in due course
Upon signing the lease for the store, the three girls extend the business hours in winter when people like to drink
ordered a hot pot from the restaurant on the back street tea soon after the sunrise, and in summer when customers
and bought some wine from the next door, having a big show up before the sunset and drink until the cool night.
drinking and eating feast. On the second day of renovation, After the last guest leaves, the tiny store put on its
they joined the neighbors on the street for tea, and got B-side. If you pass by, you may see the three founders present
acquainted with the entire Caihong Street in just a few days. together in a group, or some neighbors drink here with friends
“Hanging out with these neighbors is simply fun.” says Yang until the early hours of the morning. “We will leave the keys
Qinli. When there are few customers, the neighbors will to the neighbors.” tells Qinli, “I guess we’ll stay that late too
take a seat in Proper Tea. in summer.” If you do’t want to go home, maybe you can try
Not only do they enjoy hanging out with neighbors, they your luck at Proper Tea to sip tea, have snacks and play Hold-
also invite passersby and even animals who they “find inter- em together.
esting”. “We often ‘force’ the customer to sit down. Sometimes “Coziness. Enjoyment. Resemble to the crescent
we just think his/her clothes are very pretty, and then we just moon in the dark sky. Bright light, appealing.” This is the
start a conversation.” claimed Yang Qinli. Some of these Yulin in Qu Yongming’s poem. I think it also appeals to
passersby later come to the store time and again on purpose Proper Tea.

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