Chinese tea · cracked blackletter, oxblood
Cracked letters arched over cracked ground
Thirty-four Chinese teas on cracked near-black, named in weathered blackletter, with red character columns down the margins and a club line beneath.
Chinese tea · cracked blackletter, oxblood
Thirty-four Chinese teas on cracked near-black, named in weathered blackletter, with red character columns down the margins and a club line beneath.
8 teas · 5 categories
Half of this catalogue is sold on age: pressed cakes, aged clumps, charcoal roasts that were fired and then rested. A ground that is already cracked puts the product and the page in the same condition. The blackletter is filled with the same crackle as the ground, so the name looks weathered by the same weather rather than stamped on afterwards. Red character columns in the margins do the job a seal does on a wrapper, marking origin and grade at the edge instead of the centre. The club line under the tea is set in serif caps because it is a claim about people, not about leaf, and it should read differently. Everything is dark except the leaf, which is lit from above and left alone.