David Lee Hoffman has been traveling the remote back country of Asia for more than forty years seeking out the world’s finest rare, organic, and wild pure leaf teas. He is the first American to work directly with tea farmers in China and to engage in joint ventures with old, established tea gardens. With an extensive background in vermiculture and soil fertility, he has worked in China with the prestigious National Tea Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Department of Agriculture to help them implement organic and sustainable tea farming practices.
Perhaps David’s most enduring legacy has been introducing the Western world to pu-erh tea, pioneering the import, sale and popularization of what has become one of the most treasured teas among a new generation of tea drinkers, decades before almost anyone else in the West.
The Tea Cave
The Last Resort Tea Cave is a naturally controlled environment sans electricity where pu-erh teas are stored optimally. Pu-erh tea comes from Yunnan province in southwest China. Historically, it was traded along the silk route and pressed into fermented cakes for easy transport. The tea is coveted by Yunnanese, Tibetans and Cantonese. As the cakes age their flavor deepens and is a wonderful complement to sumptuous, organically grown foods.
The Tea Cave is not open to the public.