Frances Tea is run by the second generation of a tea-farming family from Fujian, the coastal province in southern China that the world has been drinking tea from for four hundred years.
Where we come from
If you know wine, think of it this way: Bordeaux is to Cabernet what Fujian is to tea. The very first black tea the West ever tasted — Lapsang Souchong — was made in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian around 1600. Tieguanyin, the most celebrated oolong, comes from Anxi. White tea comes from Fuding. The jasmine tea that perfumed every old teahouse in China is scented in Fuzhou. One province, and the family tree of nearly every great tea branches through it.
Our parents spent their lives buying and blending in those mountains — Wuyi for rock oolong, Tongmu for black tea, the jasmine houses of Fuzhou each summer. We grew up on cupping tables, learning to tell a true zhengyan roast from a hillside shortcut before we could legally drive.
Why we sell online
For decades this tea left Fujian through chains of exporters, importers, and boutiques. Each link added margin and subtracted freshness. By the time a good Wuyi oolong reached a shop counter overseas, it cost ten times what the farmer earned — and nobody drinking it could say who made it.
We built Frances Tea to delete those links. You order, we pack and ship from the family network, and the tea arrives fast enough to taste the difference. That is the entire business model.
What we promise
- Priced by the leaf, not the legend. The number on the page reflects the tea, the harvest, and the work — not a mythology markup. What costs $30 here is $30-grade tea.
- No ceremony tax. You do not need a clay stove, a twenty-step ritual, or a vocabulary lesson to enjoy this. Hot water and ten minutes will do.
- Honest descriptions. If a batch is a compromise, we say so. If the harvest was extraordinary, we explain why — in plain words.
- Direct from the source. Every tea traces to a named farm, workshop, or scented house in Fujian and beyond.
This is the tea we serve at our own table, at honest prices, with the story told straight. Welcome in.
— The Frances Tea family, Wuyishan, Fujian