A life in tea

Yuan began with Chenwei.

She grew up in Chengdu, in the province of Sichuan, where tea is part of everyday life, and where her family owned a teahouse.

Between the cups, the kettles and the conversations of the guests, tea has fascinated her ever since.

Today she brings that teahouse spirit to the UAE: today in our blue container at Alserkal Avenue, soon in the brick-and-mortar teahouse in Abu Dhabi, and online.

Chenwei in front of the blue Yuan Tea & Dumplings container

From Chengdu to Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Chenwei came to the UAE in the early 2010s and joined ArtTeas, a new concept Asian teahouse that had just opened in the Central Market in Abu Dhabi.

There she discovered that tea thrives far beyond China.

She deepened her knowledge of Korean, Japanese, Indian and Ceylon teas, while learning ever more about the many varieties of Chinese tea.

Chenwei opening a small pink gaiwan

Travelling to the source

Over the years Chenwei has travelled to tea fairs around the world and visited tea farmers and producers in their own gardens.

She has walked through tea plantations and sat in teahouses in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, and across China, in the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

The photographs on this website come from these journeys.

Curved rows of tea bushes on a Yunnan hillside
Yunnan
Baskets of freshly picked tea leaves
Freshly picked leaves
A stone path through tea gardens in the Wuyi Mountains
The Wuyi Mountains, Fujian
Neat rows of Longjing tea bushes
Longjing gardens, Zhejiang

Good tea deserves good teaware

In China, tea has always gone together with fine teaware.

Over the years Chenwei has built relationships with several makers of high-quality porcelain and pottery.

It is a joy to share this passion for tea and teaware with tea lovers in the UAE and around the world.

A white porcelain gaiwan with its lid
Porcelain gaiwans painted with ink plants and birds
Three cups of tea on a wooden table
A dark clay teapot and a small cup on a shelf
Gaiwans, cups and a glass pitcher on a bamboo tray
Dry Longjing leaves in a celadon bowl
Chenwei smiling next to a shelf of teaware
Handmade glazed tea bowls in red, turquoise and grey

And then, dumplings

Chenwei loves good food, above all the spicy cuisine of her native Sichuan.

But her real love is for dumplings: they are so delicious!

And they pair perfectly with tea, in all its varieties and flavours.

That is the idea behind Yuan: high-quality tea and homemade dumplings, shared at the same table.

Our dumplings
Our tea
A tray of homemade dumplings in neat rows

Learning never stops

Chenwei is a Certified Tea Sommelier of the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada.

In Zhejiang she attended the West Lake Longjing intangible cultural heritage workshop, learning the traditional craft of shaping Longjing by hand in a hot pan.

She is eager to share this fascination for dumplings and high-quality tea with you. Come and meet her at our blue container in Al Serkal Avenue.

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Chenwei with a bamboo basket of tea leaves at a tea pan
Hands tossing fresh Longjing leaves in a hot pan
Shaping the leaves by hand in a hot pan
Group photo of the West Lake Longjing workshop participants in a garden
The workshop group
Participants at desks during a lesson of the Longjing workshop
Lessons at the workshop