Not a shop or a school in itself — a short map from six common questions to the constellation site that actually answers them. Whichever you’re after, this page points you to the right address, not a generic homepage.
six questions, six doors
The constellation is thirty-six sites wide, which is exactly the problem this page exists to solve — a newcomer should not have to browse all thirty-six to find the one that answers their actual question. In practice, almost every question sorts into one of six intentions.
Want to learn — tea.school runs structured courses from leaf identification through regional processing, taught by the constellation’s resident experts. Want to buy — shop.thetea.app for retail single-origin tea and teaware, wholesale.teamotea.com if you’re ordering case quantities. Want to talk to other drinkers — tea.community holds tasting notes and open discussion. Want to see where the tea comes from — tea.travel runs small-group trips to the source regions. Want the physical tools — tea.equipment stocks gaiwans, kettles, and clay pots. And want to attend something on a date — tea.events tracks workshops and tastings as they’re scheduled.
Amgalan Chin, who moves across most of these sites in his own work — sourcing in Yunnan, writing on puerh.app, teaching on tea.school — notes that most US readers land on this page with one of two questions specifically: “what should I drink first” and “how do I actually get it here reliably.” The first is better answered by tea.school’s introductory material than by a shopping page; the second has its own where-to-buy and customs and import guides on this site.
if you’re still not sure
Not every visitor arrives with a clean question. If you’re genuinely undecided, the honest advice is to start with tea.school regardless of what eventually interests you most — a basic sense of the six tea families (green, white, yellow, oolong, black, and the fermented dark teas that include pu-erh) makes every other site on the constellation easier to navigate, whether you end up buying, traveling, or just reading. From there, the paths above are all one click away, and none of them require committing to the others.