From Yunnan’s old forests to your chá-shì
The cedar for this cabinet was chosen in autumn 2023 on the cedar-rich slopes of western Yunnan — a material as alive as the teas it would house. The mountain cedar there — slow-grown, resin-heavy — had long been used by local tea families for incense-bead boxes and trousseau chests. The cabinet is made with a family-run mill outside Kunming that air-dries each plank for two years, rejecting any board with knots within the critical joinery zone.
At the Teamotea procurement hub, the cabinet was sketched for drier climates, since traditional open shelves let too much moisture escape. The design that emerged — a closed cabinet with magnetic-close doors and a concealed slot for a hygrometer card — came after months of prototype testing in Kunming’s winter, when indoor humidity can crash below 30%.
Today, each cabinet is cut, assembled, and tested in the same Kunming workshop, where the cedar grain pattern and the softness of the magnetic catch are inspected before it ships to you. A piece of Yunnan’s high country, engineered for your collection.