Until recently, I never thought to share the story that I tell friends, family when they asked me how I was introduced to Baobacha… I torture them with my elaborate, long and detailed version of the story—that’s way funnier because of the way that I tell them—but, I’ll give you the shorter version…

In a nutshell, one of my friends forced me to try this “cool tea” that her mom brought back from Hong Kong. After she bugged me for a few months about how I needed to try it, I reluctantly finally tried her mother’s tea gift. I was immediately overwhelmed with the appearance, interactive nature (unfurling of ingredients), smell, and then taste of the actual tea–pleasant sweetness and unique flavors of each edible plant ingredient. In fact, I displayed a “Meg Ryan” moment (cafe scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally”—you can search YouTube for the scene I’m referencing).

Right then and there, I ran to her computer and had to track down the company who makes this tea—so that I could buy a dozen bags of it.

One year later, I set up an import tea business, TeaBling.com—working directly with the tea grower/processor/manufacturer/packaging company who made the tea that I first tried. I’ve been importing and selling their tea, here in Colorado, USA, since 2004.

I’m always amazed at how people not only found my website, but also how they too first discovered Eight Treasure Tea. Almost everyone has virtually the same story–similar to mine (maybe they didn’t respond QUITE like I did) but they have all experienced same charmed delight and became desperate to find and to order a dozen bags of this tea that they’ve never heard of or seen before, too.

My favorite type of story is from those who actually visited China, ate at some local restaurant, blindly ordered Babaocha, and were delighted by the very unique 8 Treasure Tea-serving performance that ends with the server in a pose called “Dragon Asking for Directions”, and magically pouring water from the spout of an 8-foot teapot, to fill their tea cup.