Chinese tea · a green roundel
Everything the shop says goes around the ring
Thirty-four Chinese teas inside a green roundel: the name curved along the top, two outline stars at the sides, the hanzi curved along the foot.
Chinese tea · a green roundel
Thirty-four Chinese teas inside a green roundel: the name curved along the top, two outline stars at the sides, the hanzi curved along the foot.
3 teas · 3 categories
A ring reads at any size and from any angle, which is why it has always been the shape of a stamp. It also enforces brevity: the arc has room for a name and nothing else, so the pinyin goes across the top, the hanzi across the bottom, and both scripts get equal curve. The centre is left white so the green never tints the leaf — a Longjing photographed inside a green field looks greener than it is, and that would be a lie about the grade. Steam is drawn as a thin line rather than photographed, so no picture here pretends to be a brewed cup. The one script line is capped at two or three words, which is all the tasting language the ring is allowed. Two outline stars hold the horizontal axis and keep the type from drifting. It is a badge borrowed from a coffee counter and pointed at loose Chinese leaf, with no cup and no serving suggestion anywhere in it.