Our philosophy is that when a customer buys tea they are investing in pleasure. Tea is a product to be enjoyed for its aroma, taste and sense of satisfaction. There is no right or wrong way to drink it; just whatever suits you best at any point in time - but remembering the better the tea the greater the enjoyment.
Tea is the ideal to enjoy alone or to share with friends. It can both relax and revive. Tea is a drink for everyone and does not have to be something mystical or to be discussed at length - unless that is what you want to do. Be curious, explore, experiment and don't be overwhelmed!
We only source tea from Vietnam. We don’t pretend to be experts in every teas across the world – just in our little bit of it. Although not our sole focus, many of our products are sourced from the wild, ancient trees (Shan Tuyet) that continue to grow in bio-diverse forests in the north of Vietnam. Our stock includes a range of green, white, oolong. black, dark and flower scented teas. Our goal is to offer unique Vietnamese teas, not copies of teas produced in other countries.
We aim to operate our business with integrity and honesty. We believe a good tea stands on its character and we will steer clear of unsubstantiated health claims and wild exaggerations about age of tea trees.
Sourcing is an everyday activity for us; not something that happens for a few weeks every couple of years. Being 100% Vietnam based, we rarely stock off-the-shelf teas - rather we work with our tea-making partners to produce different and better products.
In selecting a Hatvala tea, we adhere to a consistent set of principles with the satisfaction of the drinker in mind. If we wouldn’t drink it ourselves, we wouldn’t stock it. Teas must have stand out taste and aroma, a depth of character that develops over successive brews, consistency in production and must offer excellent value for money. We only stock teas that we believe are clean (i.e. free of chemicals and additives), produced in a responsible manner, sustainable and fairly traded.
An excellent tea must have first rate source material (fresh tea leaves harvested in an optimal environment) plus great skill in turning those leaves into a stand-out end product. No amount of skill will turn poor material into something exceptional and great raw material can easily end up as ordinary tea in the wrong hands. The challenge and our mission is to discover those extraordinary circumstances where these essentials happily come together.