The Official 2024 Ku Cha House of Tea Gift Guide: Luxury Tea Gifts
Welcome to the 2024 holiday season! We think of the blur of merriment and cheer as much more than the month between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. November amounts to a procession of holiday-oriented pursuits, from shopping to baking to one of our favorite autumn events, Thanksgiving. The month’s 30 days are rich with planning for and anticipation of the heart of winter’s holiday highlights.
Across November and December, we will help guide you through the wonderful world of tea gifts, from teapots to accessories to some of the stars of our collection of more than 250 high-quality teas from around the world.
We begin the series with luxury tea gifts. Think of these treasures as special indulgences for loved ones and certain people who make a big difference in your life—that potentially includes a boss, teacher or mentor.
These are among the most important gifts of the season. As a result, we offer you plenty of time to consider our suggestions, browse our shops (both brick-and-mortar and online) and start collecting meaningful presents for important people.
Luxury Tea Gifts: Classic Teas
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Da Hong Pao
Da Hong Pao, or “Big Red Robe” in Chinese, is the most famous Rock Oolong tea from the legendary Wu Yi Mountains in China’s Fujian Province. Historians have found records of this spectacular tea deep into the 18th century. Da hong Pao is revered for its powerful fragrance, roasted taste, richness and its finish, which is pleasant and lingering.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Tie Guan Yin
This tea from China’s Fujian Province means “Iron Goddess of Mercy” in Chinese, and is one of the most well-known all China’s hundreds of teas. When brewed, Tie Guan Yin offers a sweet and floral fragrance, bright taste and smooth, sweet finish that lingers in the mouth. Multiple infusions are recommended to fully enjoy how the flavors and aromas open up after each steep.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Gyokuro
Tea connoisseurs admire Gyokuro, which means Jade Dew in Japanese, as the highest grade of Japanese green tea. Tea farmers grow the tea shrubs in the shade for 20 days before picking them carefully by hand—harvesting only happens once a year, in early spring. Then they immediately get steamed, dried and painstakingly rolled into distinctive shapes resembling pine needles. The delicate flavor and slightly sweet aftertaste makes Gyokuro a popular choice among green tea aficionados. This Gyokuro comes from Hoshino, Fukuoka Prefecture, which consistently produces especially flavorful, high-quality teas. This is a tea not to be missed!
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Dan Cong
This signature oolong tea from China’s southern GuangDong Province comes from a single grove. In fact, Dan Cong means “single grove.” Each grove of Dan Cong tea gets harvested and processed individually, resulting in a range of unique flavors and aromas. Our Dan Cong offers a sweet orchid aroma with notes of apricot.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Bi Tan Piao Xue
This tea, which means “snowflakes falling upon a jade pond,” is the most exquisite jasmine green tea on the market today. The name describes the appearance of the tiny, silver-lined tea buds mixed with tender jasmine flowers. But it also refers to the transportive experience of drinking this soothing, sweet and exquisite tea. The base tea comes from Mountain Meng, one of the most ancient tea mountains in China.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Dragon Well
A tribute tea once enjoyed exclusively by royal families in ancient China, Dragon Well, also called Long Jing, produces a golden brew with a distinct nutty aroma and a full, round flavor. This tea also contains the highest concentration of catechins (antioxidants) among Chinese green teas.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Dragon Pearl
Tea farmers and artisans in China’s Yunnan Province grow Black Dragon Pearl, a profoundly unique tea. Handpicked and rolled into pearl shape, this tea is smooth and malty, with a hint of cacao and spice.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Silver Needle White
Silver Needle White (also known as Bai Hao Yin Zhen) represents the result of tea buds that picked from the stem in early spring, fanned and dried in the sun and then lightly fired over charcoal at low heat. The process finishes drying the tea while preserving its beautiful silver color. The sweetest of white teas, Silver Needle will coat your mouth with a clean, honeyed smoothness. Since production is limited, this is a rare treat that is not to be missed!
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Silver Needle Jasmine
For this beautiful tea, tea artisans blend fresh jasmine blossoms with premium Silver Needle white tea up to six times, with each merging of the botanicals lasting from four to rive hours. The result? An intoxicating fragrance and rich, sweet infusion with a multi-layered, textured flavor. It is regarded as the king of all the jasmine teas.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Gu Yun Puerh
Ku Cha’s signature ripe puerh cake, Gu Yun produces an earthy brew that also yields an attractive sweetness. The tea, which means “ancient atmosphere,” comes from Menghai County in Yunnan Province, a region rich with ancient tea mountains. Fermented ripe puerh is famous for its many health benefits, such as lowing cholesterol, reducing blood lipid, detoxing, aid with diet and weight loss.
Luxury Tea Gifts: Functional Teas
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Organic Tulsi Twist
This caffeine-free blend is both deliciously sweet and tangy. The mix of tulsi, ginger root, lemon peel. strawberry leaf, marshmallow and lavender brews a rich red color and is perfect for any time of day. It is a delight both hot or cold. Something to twist and shout about!
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Bounce Back
The combination of ginger, cinnamon, nettle, strawberry and oolong tea makes for a scrumptious brew. But Bounce Back is also a recommended go-to tea when your joints are sore! Lightly spicy with a smooth finish, this tea helps bolster the bones, reduce internal inflammation, smooth out digestion and boost metabolism.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Immortal Tea
Interested in immortality? Join the club! Alas, sipping this blend won’t lead to an in-person celebration of the United States’ quadricentennial in 2176. But it will lend you the boost you need to at least feel immortal—without a caffeine assist. This blend’s strong peppermint profile balances a whisper of bitterness from Jiao Gu Lan and complements the sweetness from ginseng. Jiao Gu Lan, a vining plant related to cucumber that grows wild in Asia, is known for its potent antioxidant and adaptogenic effects yielding its title of “the herb of immortality.”
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Cloud Chaser
Combine this wonderful infusion of herbs with a daily ritual of gratitude, and witness the lifting of your mood and the evacuation of lingering clouds. All that’s left? Blue skies and a brighter outlook. Pro tip: as you breathe in the intoxicating aromas of lavender, marjoram, peppermint, rose petal and St. John’s Wort, bring to mind all of the things for which you are grateful.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Desert Rose
Suffused with notes of sagebrush, rose and lavender, this atmospheric tea has the power to transport you to the American Southwest or the Mediterranean. It’s a mellow caffeine-free blend that provides many health benefits, including boosting memory, reducing anxiety and lowering blood glucose. It also quenches thirst. But its power of spirit rejuvenation may be its superpower.
Luxury Holiday Tea Gift Guide: Night Time
Sleep is vital for happiness and health. But too often, it suffers. Sip this blend of chamomile, catnip, peppermint and valerian root to unburden your busy mind and drift into deep sleep. We recommend setting aside time in the evening with a warm mug of Night Time. By the time your head hits the pillow, your mind will feel relaxed and calm.
Luxury Tea Gifts: Cast Iron Teaware & Ceramic Tea Sets
Cast Iron Teaware
Our line of cast iron teaware represents extreme artisanship within the realm of teaware. Artisans craft these strong, heavy, decorative teapots not just for years of daily use—but for generations. They enrich kitchens by their mere presence, and get passed down from mothers to sons, from fathers to daughters. These are especially styles of teaware, and our offerings present gift-givers with rich and rewarding options.
Ceramic Tea Sets
Nothing beats brewing tea in ceramic, and then sipping the elixir from ceramic cups or mugs. We offer a tidy range of ceramic tea sets that we find particularly fetching and inviting. Offer one of these sets to a favored gift recipient, and they will thank you every time they pour a cup of tea.
