Mei Yang

Mei Yang’s relationship with tea began in the mist‑wrapped gardens of Phoenix Mountain (凤凰山), where she apprenticed under third‑generation dancong master Huang Rui Guang in her late teens. Instead of a textbook approach, she learned to read the leaves — recognizing the exact moment a Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) would unfurl its honey‑orchid sweetness or when a Jīn Jùn Méi (金骏眉) had taken on enough smoke to balance its malt core. That line‑by‑line attention now anchors every recommendation she makes on tea.energy.

After a decade sourcing single‑estate lots across the Wudong (乌岽) and Pingkengtou sub‑regions, Mei moved from Guangzhou to Saint Petersburg to help build Teamotea’s Eurasian tea program. She teaches the full arc of Guangdong black and oolong processing — from the quick‑withered leaves of Lapsang Souchong (正山小种) to the painstaking fourteen‑step transformation of a top‑tier Dān Cōng (单丛). Her comparative tastings at tea.school often run three hours, with students cupping six or more vintages side‑by‑side to map how a 2018 Wudong harvest differs from one picked in 2022.

Mei’s afternoon picks circulate widely across tea.energy’s community, pairing specific teas with focus windows. A recommendation might be a 2021 Yā Shī Xiāng (鸭屎香) for the 2:30 p.m. dip, or a low‑temperature steep of a 2019 Sòng Zhǒng (宋种) when the work requires sustained, frictionless attention. Readers who try her picks often report that they replace the spike‑and‑crash cycle of coffee with a steadier, more intentional alertness.

Beyond tea.energy, Mei’s work reaches the wider constellation. Her favourite batches appear in shop.puerh.app’s seasonal dancong boxes, and her voice notes — recorded during roasting sessions — are a regular feature in tea.community’s Friday tasting circle. She still spends two months each spring in Chaozhou, firing small lots in a charcoal oven that her teacher’s family built in the 1960s. That commitment to craft, never rushed and never loud, is the energy she brings to every cup.