A business trip turned into the quiet origin story of a brand. Here is what happened in the hills above West Lake.
It was supposed to be a three day stop. Meetings in the morning. Dinners in the evening. A polite departure on a Tuesday afternoon.
I was in Hangzhou in the Fall of 2018, working on a project for a global brand. On the second afternoon, a local colleague asked something that changed the next six years.
You have not been to a tea field yet?
We drove into the hills above West Lake straight after work. The fog had not lifted. Hangzhou's tea country sits in soft terraced rows that look almost embroidered into the slope. This is the home of Longjing, the Dragon Well green tea, one of the most celebrated in the world. People have been picking tea here for more than 1,200 years.
The pickers were still at work when we arrived. They moved like dancers. Fast and certain. Plucking only the youngest leaves. I asked how they knew when a leaf was ready - “when it asks to be picked” I was told. I have thought about that line a hundred times since.
Drinks were in a small house on the edge of the field. They served tea elixirs I had never seen before. Green tea with chrysanthemum. Roasted oolong with osmanthus. Tea, in this part of the world, is not a single thing. It is a vocabulary. A way of marking the hour.
Most of all, tea here is patient. You do not rush Longjing. You let the leaves unfurl. You take a small sip. You wait. By the third infusion the tea has become something different than it was at the first. The same leaves. A different experience. That is the gift.
I went back to the hotel that night and wrote one line in my notebook. Tea should be the spine of something I would create.
I did not know what that something was yet. Steff&Co would not have a name for many moons to come. But the idea was already moving. A brand built on the patience of a tradition that does not need to shout to be heard. A hard Green Tea seltzer.
Passion and patience are flavors. All blended in our Cooler.
Your everyday elevated, with a hint of Hangzhou glimmer ✨
Celine x