The program
Yin yoga asks us to stay. In long-held floor postures, the body softens, the mind settles, and a different kind of strength emerges — one rooted in patience and release. This twelve-week cohort pairs that deepening stillness with teas that have also learned to rest: aged Fuding white teas and post-fermented shu pu’er.
Fuding white teas — Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针), Bái Mǔ Dān (白牡丹), Shòu Méi (寿眉), Gōng Méi (贡眉) — ages of eight to fifteen years develop honeyed, medicinal, subtly sweet profiles. The leaf mellows; the liquour grows round and soft, with notes of dried jujube, camphor, and sun-warmed hay. Shu pu’er, born through wò duī (渥堆) and years of cellarage, offers a different ground — earthy, smooth, with a deep, warming qi that invites calm. Chosen wisely, both teas are low in caffeine enough for evening practice, yet carry a palpable presence that mirrors the long-held asana.
Chen Hui Yi, our Senior Tea Expert from Guangdong, guides the tea dimension of the cohort. With decades of experience in white tea curation — particularly aged yínzhēn and shòu méi — he brings a sensibility shaped by Chinese tea ceremony and somatic awareness. Each week, he welcomes the group with a short tea meditation, then hands over to a yin yoga facilitator from our tea.yoga network for a 60-minute asana practice. Afterwards, you gather again with Chen to taste the week’s tea, discussing its character, qi, and how it resonated with the body’s stillness. This rhythm — movement, stillness, shared tasting — becomes a ritual that deepens over three months.
The program unfolds in two arcs. The first six weeks introduce aged white teas alongside foundational yin poses: butterfly, dragonfly, sphinx, caterpillar, and supported fish. You learn to notice how a 2012 shòu méi lifts the heart after backbends, or how a 2009 bái háo yín zhēn sharpens meditative focus. The second half introduces aged shu pu’er — 2007 lǎo shú pǔ’ěr (老熟普洱) from Menghai, 2005 material from Lincang — matched with deeper hip openers, longer holds, and restorative shapes that encourage surrender. By week twelve, the practice feels less like a class and more like a private sanctuary.
Between the weekly calls, the cohort continues. Each month, a parcel arrives at your door: two 50g packets — one aged white, one aged shu — curated from our library at shop.puerh.app and thetea.app. A welcome kit from tea.equipment includes a hand-thrown gaiwan and a meditation cushion, because ritual matters. You might prepare your tea in the quiet morning, or after the day’s demands settle, and allow the flavour to act as a bridge back to the body.
A private discussion space on tea.community becomes a living journal. There, you share tasting notes, ask Chen about your steeping parameters, or simply witness how the same leaf tastes different after a particularly deep practice. A preparatory video from tea.school shows you how to brew aged teas — whether you lean toward gongfu precision with a clay pot, or the unassuming elegance of a bowl. The invitation is not to master anything, but to deepen: as your palate grows more attuned, your holds may lengthen; as your practice quietens, the tea may speak more clearly. This is a slow, sattvic conversation between leaf and body, and it needs no urgency.
Week by week
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Week 1 — 2012 Shòu Méi (寿眉). settling into the practice; the first long holds and the tea’s gentle honeyed warmth
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Week 2 — 2010 Bái Mǔ Dān (白牡丹). cultivating inner stillness; noticing how floral lift meets the body’s edge
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Week 3 — 2009 Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针). refined energy in stillness; yin’s subtle engagement and the tea’s lucid clarity
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Week 4 — 2015 Gōng Méi (贡眉). deepening hip openers against the earthy, warm spice of aged gong mei
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Week 5 — 2018 Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱) — Menghai. introducing fermented warmth; grounded yin and the smooth, comforting broth
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Week 6 — 2007 Lǎo Shú Pǔ’ěr (老熟普洱). the mature quiet; long pigeon pose and tea that tastes of forest floor and old wood
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Week 7 — 2013 Shòu Méi (寿眉). layers of mellowness; unfolding the spine and sensing tea’s gentle lifting quality
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Week 8 — 2011 Bái Mǔ Dān (白牡丹). revisiting blooming notes; hip flexor release and the tea’s sun-warmed apple peel
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Week 9 — 2010 Gōng Méi (贡眉). autumnal tones; kidney meridian work and the grounding, sweet depth of aged leaves
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Week 10 — 2005 Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱) — Lincang. deep rest; yin for the nervous system and tea that carries a smooth, camphor resonance
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Week 11 — 2014 Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针). bringing clarity to the final weeks; a supremely quiet white tea with long, luminous energy
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Week 12 — 2016 Shòu Méi (寿眉). integration; a slow, complete practice ending in a tea ceremony that honours the journey
What’s included
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twelve live weekly video calls (90 min each): 60-minute guided yin yoga, followed by a tea tasting with Chen Hui Yi
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monthly tea shipment: two 50g packs of aged tea — one Fuding white, one shu pu’er — sourced from shop.puerh.app and thetea.app
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private discussion group on tea.community to share reflections, tasting notes, and questions between sessions
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preparatory brewing video from tea.school, covering gongfu and bowl methods for aged teas
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welcome kit from tea.equipment: a hand-thrown gaiwan and a firm meditation cushion for your practice space
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downloadable yin yoga sequence sheets for each week, with cues for the corresponding tea
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a cloth-bound tea journal to record tasting impressions and somatic observations
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two guest sessions: one on Ayurvedic perspectives of tea and yin, one on aging and storing white tea
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lifetime access to all session recordings and materials