In this conversation, Don Mei talks about how tea slowly drew him away from a career in music, the ideas people still get wrong about tea, and why paying attention to your own taste matters more than following rules.

The story of Taiwan’s tea is, at heart, also a story of women’s work. When tea exports surged in the mid-1800s, especially after the opening of Tamsui Port, the island’s hillsides filled with new plantations and busy sorting sheds. This boom drew women out of domestic life and into waged labour for the first time.

Because when it comes to plastics in tea bags, there’s more going on than most brands admit. And as that conversation grows, we think it’s important to cut through the spin and share what’s really happening.