About

THEASOPHIE, tea wisdom.

Theasophie is a family-based agroforestry tea farm located in the Jingmai Mountains of southwest China, the botanical and cultural heartland of tea. We craft artisanal teas from old-growth tea gardens handed down over several centuries. We also participate in an oral transmission of tea constituted from a rich network of ancestors, farmers, producers, scholars and drinkers. 

SU YIMU 苏玉亩 was born and raised in Mangjing Village into a line of succession that goes back to the beginnings of tea culture. She has apprenticed in artisanal tea production under her father, Bulang herbalist Su Wenxin, for over a decade. BRIAN KIRBIS 艾柯 was born into a lineage of foresters and farmers and is trained in environmental and medical anthropology. From 2006 to 2016, he conducted independent research in affiliation with Yunnan University’s Museum of Anthropology while simultaneously apprenticing in artisanal tea craft under Chen Jian of Yunhaizhidian 韻海之巔. 

Brian and Yi Mu are committed to the path of tea as an ancestral inheritance and as an embodied practice of Spiritual Ecology. They travel extensively throughout China and the United States sharing their Garden to Gaiwan model of tea culture –  a farm-to-table, local to global ethos of transparency from original ecology to craftsmanship, storage to selection, brewing and appreciation.