In the 80s, I was a little boy, and my grandmother started buying a tea that was supposed to help with weight loss. It wasn’t particularly good, but we got caught up in the excitement of drinking it every day, hoping to slim down. It did not work but the taste and packaging were so novel that they left a lasting impression on us, particularly on me. It was the Xiaguan XiaoFa, only exported to France at the time.

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  Xiaguan XiaoFa

In 2007, my grandmother passed away, a few months later my grandfather as well, and in 2009, on a wild whim, I started exploring puerh tea without making any connection to that childhood experience.

Between 2009 and 2013 I became passionate about puerh and wanted to taste all the puerh terroirs and learn about them, so I started to sample all the tea I could and made maps and lists of puerh areas on TeaChat.

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  Pu sampling circa 2012

Living in a coffee-rich area, I've slept in the coffee beans bed for years, now I’m revisiting my beengs!