Accolades

Critiques

"Five Mountains' obsession with source origin heirloom varietals and traditional crafting techniques results in a purely unadulterated form that leaves you feeling as if it's the first time you've ever tasted tea."

Ian Cauble

Master Sommelier, Court of Sommeliers

Top U.S. Sommelier of 2011, Guild of Sommeliers

Jeunes Sommelier World Champion, Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs

"The passion, knowledge, respect and commitment that Five Mountains has for tea, you cannot find anywhere else."

Katrina Parlato

General Manager, Quince Restaurant and Cotogna Restaurant

"[Five Mountains teas] have been favorites amongst our customers and we believe they represent some of the best Gilt Taste has to offer."

Gilt Groupe, NYC

"Having my mind blown by some sun ripened pu'er tea from Five Mountains. This little tea co. is serious."

Jordan Graham Mackay

San Francisco Magazine, NY Times wine & spirits critic, author

Winner of the James Beard Award

"Five Mountains has created something special with their extensive knowledge and expertise, passion for sourcing, fanatical commitment to tea education and superior customer service."

Travis Rea

Manager of Gourmet Food Development, Williams Sonoma

Former Pastry Chef at Gary Danko

"It's rare in any industry for experts in a given field to openly share their craft with honesty and humility. I am continually floored by them, their passion is obvious and the proof is in the product. Five Mountains is the real deal!"

Brain McClintic

Master Sommelier

The Court of Master Sommeliers

Media

Five Mountains was featured in San Francisco and Houston Magazines covering the story of how this venture began. "San Francisco's Five Mountains tea, a small upstart company founded by two fellows with a taste for travel, Eastern philosophy, and, of course, tea." Also Five Mountains discusses their focus on organics and heirloom cultivars in the Southeast Asia Globe. Click on any cover to read the article.>

Featured on Gilt Taste

FIVE MOUNTAINS is now the featured tea purveyor of the GILT Groupe's new online gourmet marketplace/online magazine called GILT Taste. The site features artisan products and ingredients with the stories and recipes of food specialists and top chefs. It's editorial advisor is Ruth Reichl and editor Francis Lam formerly of Gourmet Magazine.

Establishments

5 Mountains caters to establishments that focus on the integrity of their ingredients. Our clients include Michelin Star and critically acclaimed restaurants, to small neighborhood cafes and eateries as well as markets, spas, hotels, museums, campuses and workplaces.

Design Patent Awards

5 Mountains Design Studios creates progressive and classic tea-ware. 5 Mountains has been awarded multiple design patents for their work in innovative tea-ware design. The double wall or "jacketed" glass process was invented by Scottish scientist Sir James Dewar in 1892. Dewar took boroscilicate glass created just years earlier by the German glassmaker Otto Schott and made a vacuum enclosure for storing liquids in the laboratory.

Boro-glass became popular in tea in the late 80's in Asia, specifically Japan and Taiwan. The single wall glass pieces were favored for their resistance to heat and cold, non porous nature, and clarity of the unfurling leaves. As holding the water temperature in the tea steeping vessel is paramount double walled boro-glass seemed the next best solution. We have been experimenting with tea-ware and double wall glassware since 2000 and come up with some beautiful and practical designs that actually help improve the tea making process.

Culinary Institute of America Lecture

FIVE MOUNTAINS conducted its first tea seminar at St Helena's CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and was invited to hold this annually. The lecture for graduating students covered the unwritten history of tea, parallels to wine and tea, cultivars and varieties, tea service and ceremony.

Creation of the 1st 100% Home Compostable Tea Packaging

In 2009, Five Mountains introduced the first 100% biodegradable and home-compostable whole leaf tea packaging, made from renewable resources (below right). This year, this has been taken a step further with a fully biodegradable and home-compostable retail tea caddy (below left). The reusable tea container is made from renewable bamboo. Both the inner tea packaging and outer label are also biodegradable and home-compostable. Traditionally, natural materials such as earthenware and bamboo are used for tea storage whereas metal is avoided due to its negative effect on tea quality

5 Mts. Sponsors NYC & SF Gourmet Culinary Events for a Cause

Five Mountains was invited to be a sponsor in Taste—A World of Flavors, "a celebration of the best global cuisine benefiting City Harvest, an organization dedicated to feeding the hungry. On November 7th, New York’s most influential food-lovers, finest chefs and celebrated restaurants will gather together to travel the world one bite at a time."

5 Mts. is also happy to be a sponsor in The Seedling Projects, Good Food Awards in San Francisco honors the Good Food Award recipients who push their industries towards craftsmanship and sustainability while enhancing our agricultural landscape and building strong communities. The Seedlings Projects "specialize in getting projects off the ground and building an activated and diverse community around each project to ensure it flourishes" They have "brought together a nationally renowned group of food producers, food writers, grocers, farmers and chefs to create" this annual event.

Pu'Er "Cakes" of the Legendary 5 Mountains

This collection is sourced from the Five Mountains of the Lan'Xang region in Yong'De. This area boasts the oldest wild and cultivated tea trees in the world, the oldest being over 3,200 years old. These 2010 Sheng (raw/green leaf) cakes are ideal for aging for future use. Cakes usually need over 7 years of maturing before they are ready to drink, reaching their "peak" anywhere from 20-60 years-old on average. Pu'Er cakes are tea's version of wine collecting. The 5 mountains selected for this collection are Mang Fei, Mei Zhi Qing, Min Feng, Wu Jia Zhai and Da Xue Shan. Look for these cakes' arrival this season.

5 Mts. plants tea at The Farm, SF

The Farm, located the Mission/Potrero area in San Francisco, California began in 1974 as remarkable rural oasis. An autonomous zone that housed farm animals, performance space, theater and a music stage. The Farm also provided a place for community gardens, an art gallery, child daycare center and a multicultural community space. Adults and children from neighboring schools would visit The Farm on field trips or after school. The Farm consisted as a two-story building; the lower story contained an actual farm, with vegetable gardens, chickens, geese, rabbits, and goats. Up stairs was a library, an art gallery and the bottom level was a pre-school. The Farm was also famous for hosting DIY music shows. Now it serves as a school, live/work spaces, studios, workshops and galleries. As a research and tea cultivar project for 5M we have started growing tea attached to the community garden here.

37.7 °N 122.4°W

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