An Shim Life

TIMELESS TEA: GREEN TEA

Nowadays matcha seems to take a lot of space in tea conversations, which is only one part of the bigger trend of exponential interest for Japanese tea. For a lot of people, it could overshadow other classical expressions of the category of green teas.
This is why it seems timely to remember the great traditional Chinese teas whose history shaped the very foundation of green tea culture as we know it today. Despite all trends and changing fashions, green tea continues to exist far beyond modern hype, preserving its depth, refinement, and identity. We call this TIMELESS TEA: teas that have traveled through time, inspired countless generations and styles that followed, and teas that will remain long after temporary trends fade away.

We have gathered for you a selection of 10 green teas produced in China. Each one of them became, in its own way, an inspiration for many teas that followed. Today, nearly all of these teas represent unique production technologies that create an extraordinary diversity of appearance, aroma, and taste within a single tea category. It is remarkable how, within the seemingly narrow boundaries of this one plant, people arrived at such different and distinctive results. These variations, linked to terroirs and cultures from what was once a distant, hard-to-reach country, inspired tea-seekers from my generation to study tea production as an art form. Even after 15 years of working in this field, I continue to be inspired by the depth of Chinese green tea.

Originally highly specific and limited products of small regional traditions, the names of these teas have today become powerful marketing instruments. As a result, they can now be found not only throughout China, but far beyond its borders as well. This has greatly increased the amount of “tea carrying these names” on the global market, while simultaneously reducing the presence of the truly authentic teas from which everything originally began. It was precisely the search for “the real one” that eventually led me to where I am today.

Welcome to our website https://anshimtea.com/tea/green-tea-collection where you can explore each of these teas in greater detail. Ten teas is of course far from a complete list, but it is certainly a good place to begin.

TEA EXPERIENCE AFTERTASTE

A few days ago, our annual tea tour in Vietnam came to an end. While the emotions and memories are still fresh, I reflect on this experience and mostly feel gratitude.

Seven participants, seven days, seven nights. Once again, we gathered a wonderful group of people with an interest in tea culture, Vietnam, and a conscious way of living. Their curiosity and appreciation for the program we crafted is always fulfilling and inspiring for us! Indeed, these tours are about connection: between the participants, and all of our local friends and partners who share their culture.

So I would like to express my gratitude to all the tea experts we had the privilege of visiting this year. Your warm hospitality, meaningful conversations, tastings, excursions, and shared energy made this journey special.

Special thanks go to my Vietnamese friends and colleagues, without whom organizing such an experience at this level and with this degree of care and service would not be possible. Thanks to the passion and unity of our team, we have once again been able to create the atmosphere of calmness and inner balance that are dear to AN SHIM TEA.

I would also like to thank all the people at our new factory, which began its operations this year and became a highlight of the tour. They gave participants the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the production of different tea categories, to live at the factory, and to experience firsthand the rhythm of the spring harvest. For the first time, we also visited ancient tea gardens that supply leaves to our factory. This allowed participants to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the entire process, from the terroir of the tea trees to the final cup.

For nearly ten years, we have remained dedicated to offering people the chance to experience some of the finest teas produced in Vietnam. For those who would like to join our future tea experiences, we invite you to visit the “Tea Tours” section on our website to receive the details of our next tea experiences.

https://anshimtea.com/tea-experience/tea-tours

As for me, I will soon start my next journey, following the quiet path that tea continues to unfold before me.

BACK TO THE MOUNTAINS

We have arrived in the Vietnamese mountains, and for the past three weeks our new factory there has been producing its first spring harvest. It is truly a historic moment for us, filled with new emotions and a deep sense of joy. Throughout this time, we have been fully immersed in production, crafting new teas, evaluating recent batches, and developing blends that you will soon be able to experience at our live gatherings. We have created a new signature sheng called “AN IV” and conducted several experimental productions, the quality of which will be assessed later, as such teas require time to settle, balance, and fully reveal their character.

We have dedicated time to create photo and video content to show you the places where our tea is grown and produced. We are also honored to share that this year, eight of our teas have received recognition at the Golden Leaf Awards, which encourages us to pursue our activities.
Staying true to our core values and vision, we move with fresh energy towards deeper knowledge and new challenges.

Today marks the beginning of our annual Vietnamese tea tour. For the eighth year, we are guiding a group of tea enthusiasts through the country’s key tea regions, offering an in-depth immersion into the tea industry. This program is entirely dedicated to the nuances of tea production and represents a unique opportunity for those who wish to deepen their understanding of high-level tea. If such journeys resonate with you, we invite you to visit our tea tours page and to contact us to receive updates about upcoming tours and special offers.

May the coming week bring you many joyful and meaningful moments.

AN SHIM TEA

10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY REVIEW

Dear friends, in this post we would like to share a few moments from our gathering held in mid-February with our Riga tea community dedicated to the 10-year anniversary of our professional journey in tea.

As you may remember, this February marked ten years since our founder began his path in the field of high tea culture and its popularization. Over the years, we have created many meaningful experiences, met beautiful people, and shared countless unique teas from different regions of the world.

Today, just as ten years ago, we continue this journey guided by our core values: quality, openness, kindness, and a genuine passion for tea.

More than social media, it is our website that allows us to stay connected with many of you while inspiring and educating remotely on the subject of tea of the highest mastery. Today, within the AN SHIM TEA collection, you can find over 200 carefully selected representatives of some of the most authentic classical teas from the world’s leading tea-producing countries. For each tea, we present extensive information such as history of the tea, environment, production methods, brewing instructions and organoleptic insights.

Thank you for staying with us. We sincerely hope that this project will continue to grow, live on, and inspire people to follow a refined and meaningful tea path.

For those who are just joining us, welcome to our small, yet truly refined tea community.

AN SHIM TEA
www.anshimtea.com

A FEELING YOU NEVER FORGET

During my first trip to Kyushu, my French tea colleague and I decided to visit a unique tea factory located in the heart of the island. The place was not easy to reach: our journey required multiple forms of transportation, including high-speed trains and long bus rides winding through remote mountain roads. In these rural parts of Japan, of course, English is of no use and we had to figure out how to navigate with our very limited knowledge of Japanese.

We relied on intuition and the hope that we would meet kind people willing to guide us along the way. As is often the case, the most interesting tea factories are located away from cities and even small villages, which made this journey particularly challenging. We traveled from a relatively large city to several smaller towns by bus, and from there took a taxi to a tiny settlement where we notified the farmer, who was expecting us, of our arrival for him to come and pick us up.

After covering about two-thirds of the journey, here we were in the middle of nowhere, standing on a quiet mountain road with no traffic, where we had to wait for an hour until the farmer finished his work in the tea fields. For a little while we had the feeling that we were isolated in the wild, but as we were walking along the road we suddenly came across a Seven-Eleven, one of those famous Japanese convenience stores. There was nothing else to do so we had a meal of cheap snacks, and now every time I see a Seven-Eleven, it makes me think of those remote mountains.

In the end, the farmer came to pick us up and brought us to his tea factory, surrounded by volcanic landscapes, where the organic tea we had both loved for many years is produced. We spent an unforgettable day there, in the company of incredibly kind people, whose stories remain with me to this day.
During our Japan Tea Experience Tour, we design experiences that we hope will create beautiful memories from each day’s adventures.

Join us for our upcoming Japan Tea Experience Tour from June 1 to June 10.

More details:
https://anshimtea.com/japan-tea-experience-tour

JAPAN TEA EXPERIENCE TOUR

For me, Japan has always been one of the most mysterious and desired destinations on the world map. Of course tea was part of the appeal, but the culture had a depth and a special way of reflecting other cultures that I found fascinating.

A country where the spirits of samurai (warriors) and geisha (person of the arts) live on, with refined aesthetics, inspiring hospitality, and an extraordinary variety of traditional crafts preserved from ancient times, all of these embody a philosophy developed over centuries that continues to shape Japanese life. In Kyoto especially, the ancient capital, temples, renowned Japanese gardens, and historical monuments coexist with ambitious new projects, people and places that use traditional wisdom to face today’s challenges.

Sometimes, during a single hour of walking, you may feel as if you are traveling through time, moving from the present to the past and then into the future, experiencing a wide range of emotions and impressions. In moments like these, reality begins to blur and you’re left with only your senses and the present moment. Maybe that’s why so many people are drawn to the country today.

When talking about senses, taste deserves a special mention. Diverse, refined, and remarkably healthy, ‘washoku’ (Japanese cuisine) represents another essential dimension of the country’s culture, recognized by UNESCO and millions of visitors every year.
I have not yet properly addressed tea, for it is a story of its own. We will speak about it in our next post! For now, please enjoy the photos from our tour last year, which I hope will tempt you to join us this year. /Andrei/

More information:
https://anshimtea.com/japan-tea-experience-tour

TIMELESS TEA: WULONGS

In our TIMELESS TEA series, we would like to help new tea lovers navigate the vast and complex world of tea.
One way to classify teas is by oxydation levels, and Wulong tea has one of the most diverse profiles: ranging from lightly oxidized, fresh and aromatic styles to deeply oxidized, richly roasted teas. The tea industry is constantly evolving, and today the market offers far more than the traditional Chinese and Taiwanese classics. Throughout our long tea journey we have encountered remarkable wulong teas produced in Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Japan, India, Nepal, Malawi, and even in parts of Europe.

The variety makes the tea path exciting and full of discoveries, adding new colors and new experiences to our understanding of the leaf. Yet some teas we can call true classics still remain, teas that have traveled through time and have defined for generations the very standards of quality and character of the whole category. These are the teas that once inspired us to begin our own tea journey, the teas we continue to dedicate ourselves to, and the teas that help develop a truly refined professional taste palette. These are the teas we call timeless teas.

Until March 12, we are offering a 20% discount on all wulong teas from our collection. And to help you as you begin, or to continue your explorations, we have selected ten of the most classic wulong teas.
Link to the collection - https://anshimtea.com/stock-updates

Let’s celebrate women’s day with exclusive wulongs every day! 🌸
www.anshimtea.com

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT OUR TOURS

Since we started organizing tours 8 years ago, led by the belief that tea and human connection promote peace, we have adopted a personal approach to introduce tea in its cultural context. Our first participants were friends and long-time clients, and we continue to welcome our guests in this manner. Each year during those travels, we deepen our relationships with all the local tea experts who welcome us and share their world. With their help, we try to refine the itineraries and activities, based on the feedback we receive.

We’re a very small team but do everything to offer a truly unique experience, and we always sincerely appreciate reflections on our work.

In this post, we have gathered several reviews from participants of our previous tea tours. We hope they offer an outside perspective on our activities and highlight the diversity of experiences we create during our journeys. Take a moment to read, find inspiration, and consider joining us this year.

Please note that registration for the Korea tour closes next week. There are still a few places available, and we would be happy to welcome you. Our tea activities are slowly evolving, and we don't know whether this format will be repeated in the future, so this year is the right time to join!

More details:
https://anshimtea.com/tea-experience/tea-tours

AN SHIM LIFE ESCAPE

For many years now, our work has extended far beyond the simple spreading of tea culture. Our continuous search for meaningful and refined ways to introduce people to tea has shaped a distinct style and an approach to our craft comparable to an art form. Each event is for us a singular moment: we pour our heart and soul into every detail.

This approach challenges us and pushes us toward growth and self-improvement, something we owe to our guests. Over time, some of them have come to join our approach. Together we evolve, step by step cultivating a sense of beauty within ourselves. The ability to be present, to remain open to the new, to practice gratitude and awareness is only a small part of what we aim to share through our example.
On March 20–22, on the day of the Spring Equinox, for several years now we have been holding AN SHIM LIFE ESCAPE, a three-day solitude by the sea designed to pause and consciously enter the new energetic phase of 2026 with a refreshed state of mind.

We will share tea ceremonies, cultural and aesthetic discussions on various themes, morning yoga, evening tea and cinema, homemade vegetarian meals, walks along the seashore, conversations by the fireplace, and a sauna with kubla under the starry sky.

A subtle thread running through the entire experience will be “Poetry,” reminding us that despite its fleeting and elusive nature, it is omnipresent and essential. LIFE LIKE POETRY is a deep immersion into something too long forgotten, into what touches the depths of the soul and fills our path with meaning.

Welcome!
Dates: March 20–22
Location: Tuja, Latvia

Registration:
https://anshimtea.com/tea-experience/events

IN PLACES OF POWER

One of the most vivid experiences from my travels to Korea was, as I mentioned before, life in Buddhist monasteries. The intensity of the memories made in the mountains didn’t fade with the years and they are still inspiring me today to invite people to join this unique experience.

In Buddhism, there are numerous techniques aimed both at cultivating and developing mindfulness, and at preparing practitioners for what awaits after death. Such methods are part of daily practice, and the locations of monasteries were traditionally chosen according to energetic principles and the laws of feng shui. Practice in such places acquires a completely different quality, something that can be felt even on a physical level.

One day as I was passing by, I decided to join the practice of a group gathered around the abbot of the monastery. The monk was chanting mantras while warming his palms, clapping, rubbing his fingers and forming mudras in a specific sequence. The people around him silently repeated the movements. When the practice ended, none of us could bring our palms together, they moved apart like two magnets repelling each other, and we remained seated in complete bewilderment. No matter how many times I tried to recreate the experience later, nothing similar ever happened again. I suspect that the place itself contributed to the intensity of the effect. It left a profound impression on me and confirmed that there is something greater, something that cannot be expressed in words.

The Buddhist belief is that through this and other practices, such as walking with closed eyes across stones through a river and meditating in the forest while chanting mantras, practitioners are prepared for what awaits after death, symbolically recreating the path the soul is believed to take. Within the walls of ancient temples, near monuments and pagodas, there is a distinct energetic presence that supports the search for answers to the most essential questions.

April 28th to May 6th 2026