About Us
Seven Cups, Inc.
Seven Cups is dedicated to providing you, our customers and friends, with the best Chinese tea and the most complete information about tea available. We focus on these two pieces — tea and information — because we believe that you have a right to know about the tea you’re drinking. For that reason, we spend months in the Chinese countryside every year, working side by side with more than 20 local producers in 9 provinces to hand select our teas and gather information about them. Then we bring it all to you, to provide you with the most authentic tea experience possible.
Seven Cups has worked hard to build partnerships with experienced Chinese farmers and producers who are dedicated to growing the very finest white, yellow, green, oolong and puer teas. Our company was born out of a passion for these teas. We are delighted to share this passion with tea lovers around the world.
At Seven Cups, we are honored to work with tea producers, scholars, and scientists who are driving the reemergence of Chinese tea culture, a culture built upon personal health, relationships, quality, and sustainable agriculture. In addition to these experts we work with various Chinese government entities, which recognize the importance of small-scale tea production to rural economic development, and seek to preserve tea culture as a national treasure for future generations. These government agencies strive to set standards, encourage organics, establish places of original production, provide education, and open doors that have had previously been closed to the public.
The Story Behind Seven Cups
Our obsession with tea started in the mid-1990s. Austin Hodge, frustrated by the fact that he couldn’t find the very best Chinese teas here in the US, traveled to China to search for them himself. It wasn’t long before Austin’s passion for white, green, oolong, black, and puer teas evolved from a hobby to a business. Since 1997, Austin has been searching the Chinese countryside for its best teas, developing relationships with tea producers, and sourcing tea from them to be shipped to tea lovers around the world. On one of his trips to China, Austin met Zhuping, a certified Tea Master, and now Austin’s wife.
Together, Austin and Zhuping started selling fine Chinese tea at the St. Phillip’s Plaza Farmer’s Market in Tucson, Arizona. Encouraged by the responses they received from customers, they opened the Seven Cups Teahouse in 2004.
Seven Cups Today
Seven Cups is a small company, but we’re focused on growth and we’re constantly learning. From our humble beginnings, we have built a company we can be proud of. Here’s where we are today:
• Our customers: Although we’re based in Tucson, Seven Cups ships tea to people in more than 35 countries. From Singapore to Salt Lake City, Portland to Prague, Brooklyn, London, Beijing and Bangkok, tea lovers across the United States and around the world are finding the teas they want and the information they need at Seven Cups. We want to thank all of you for your support, and we look forward to building strong relationships with you. Thank you!
• Our relationships: Our relationships are what set us apart as a company. Our customers, employees, and partners in China are our greatest assets. We rely on our customers to push us to succeed, and let us know how we can improve. We rely on our employees to give our best to our customers. And we rely on our unique relationships in China to source tea that most people can’t find, which makes it all possible.
News
• Seven Cups’ Trading License (March 2008) Seven Cups has become the first American tea company to have secured our own Chinese trading license. This puts us in complete control of our supply chain, and allows us to export and ship tea directly to our customers without having to go through middlemen. Having our own trading license also means that we will be scrutinized by both Chinese authorities and the US FDA. Seven Cups has accepted a higher level of responsibility for the tea we source and export from China. So why go to this trouble? We’re doing this as a guarantee of authenticity, quality, and purity to our customers.
• Austin Published in Prestigious Tea Journal (May 2008) Austin Hodge will be the first American to publish an article in the Chinese International Tea Culture Institute’s journal. The organization is comprised of recognized tea masters who not only judge tea standards but supervise the dissemination of information on tea and tea culture. We are proud to announce Austin will present his paper among the leading Chinese tea scholars at their annual conference at the end of May.
• Seven Cups Opens Our First Franchise (June 2008) — We are currently working on our pilot franchise, which is due to open in Denver, Colorado in June. This is a very significant step for us, one that will enable us to offer an authentic Chinese tea experience to tea lovers outside of Tucson.
• Seven Cups Granted Central Role at Lu Yu Tea Museum (July 2008) — Seven Cups has been working with our Chinese partners in Hangzhou, the reputed Tea Capital of China, to establish an authentic teahouse at the new Lu Yu Tea Museum in Changxing. Still under construction, the Museum will be a replica of a tea factory from the Tang Dynasty. Covering an area larger than two football fields, the Museum will be a true monument to tea in the place where the original Cha Jing was written. Seven Cups is honored to have been granted the exclusive rights to supply tea to the Museum, and to have an opportunity to provide our input into the design and operation of this important place.
Mission and Goals
Seven Cups’ mission is to be recognized as the international leader in high-quality Chinese tea.
To achieve this mission, we are dedicated to three major goals. Simply stated, they are:
• To provide the best tea possible to our customers.
• To provide the best, most complete, and most authentic information about tea to our customers in order to promote tea culture around the world.
• To deliver both in a spirit of service to our producers, customers, employees and friends, in an unwavering commitment to improving their lives through our business.
We invite you to read Our Promises to Our Customers (with full money back guarantee), and about our Growers, Pickers and Tea Masters — the people who make Seven Cups possible, as well as our Environmental Promise.
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