Our vision of tea

There is no single recipe for making the perfect tea.
Each preparation of the leaves has its individuality,
its special affinity with water and heat,
its own method of telling a story.
The truly beautiful must always be in it.

Kakuzo Okakura (1862-1913)

At The Tea Factory, we have long been inspired by Kakuzo Okakura’s aphorism, because it reflects so well what we ourselves, during our travels, have experienced firsthand, namely that each country, even each region, family or person, has his or her own way of making tea. Among other things, we tasted boiled-through tea in Turkey, enjoyed simmering Chai with milk and spices in India and were surprised by a potent cup of tea in Sri Lanka.

The encounter with that diversity, that journey of discovery through the world of tea, surprising all our senses time and again, led us to create a place like The Tea Factory. A place where everyone is invited in an approachable way to embark on his or her personal tea journey and become acquainted with that great variety of colors, fragrances and flavors. However, we are not going to tell you how to make that journey or, in other words, how to brew and drink your cup of tea. After all our experiences, we, like Kakuzo Okakura, are convinced that there is not just one good way to make tea, there are many!

We would like to invite you to go on your own adventure, to discover for yourself the right tea utensils for you, the way of making tea that suits you. Get ideas along the way, see how others choose and prepare their teas. Be inspired by someone who has been using the same earthenware tokoname teapot all his or her life, carefully preheating and rinsing it, soaking the wall with tea, or on the contrary, by the one who prefers wafer-thin eggshell porcelain in which the color of the tea is so well displayed. Discover for yourself whether you find it more enjoyable to use tea loose in the pot, in a filter bag or in a metal filter, and how these different brewing methods affect the taste of the tea. Try teas from all over the world and experiment with white, yellow, green, oolong, black and pu erh.

Also play around with the water temperatures, experience whether you like the aroma of a tea prepared at a lower temperature or, on the contrary, find the tannic acid indispensable that is released at higher temperatures, more tea and longer infusion times. You can even see if it suits you better to boil the tea through like in Turkey or India. And should you get the chance, also be inspired by the tea ceremonies of Japan, where one consumes a “thick” or “thin” beverage of tea leaves ground into powder, or China, where the various infusions are used to release the different aromatic and flavor palettes of tea.

In short….. a (tea) world lies open for you. We wish you a pleasant journey of discovery!