A style study — not a real store, not affiliated with Noah · more
Draft — 7 of 34 teas designed in this style. Ask us to finish it
Noah tea study

Chinese tea, crest and ribbon

A roundel, a rope border, one ribbon

Thirty-four Chinese teas set inside navy and oxblood crests on cream stock, with rope borders, small marks and a banner under each one.

Squares of pressed ripe pu-erh inside a navy oval frame on cream paper, under a large navy serif headline with an oxblood ribbon below

Seven categories, seven crests

7 teas · 5 categories

Green teaGreen tea1 teaOolongOolong3 teasRed tea (hongcha)Red tea (hongcha)1 teaPu-erhPu-erh1 teaTea paste (chagao)Tea paste (chagao)1 tea

Wear the crest

All tees and hoodies →

Wear — Ripe Pu-erh PasteRipe Pu-erh PasteWear — Dà Hóng PáoDà Hóng PáoWear — Gong Ting Pu-erhGong Ting Pu-erhWear — Hēi JīnHēi JīnWear — Mòlì Lǒng ZhúMòlì Lǒng ZhúWear — Nǎi Xiāng OolongNǎi Xiāng Oolong

Why every tea gets a badge

A crest is a promise about provenance, and this shop uses that grammar on purpose: an oval, a double rule, a rope border, a date and a short motto on a ribbon. The palette is fixed at navy, oxblood, forest green and gold on cream, the range a club or a chandler would have used, and it never leaves that set. Type is a plain transitional serif or a collegiate slab, arched around the ring so the words become part of the frame rather than a caption. Small marks, an anchor, a pennant, a laurel, do the work a photograph of a shopfront would do. Chinese tea has actual provenance to put in the badge, a mountain and a grade and a season, so the crest carries information instead of decoration. Setting a rock oolong the way a sailing club sets its name is a joke and a compliment at once.