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| Overview |
 It
is a well known fact that next to plain water, the most popular drink
on earth is tea, and we are honored to make many of the world's finest,
rarest, and most highly acclaimed teas available to you at our tea houses
and here online. It is our privilege to invite you to experience the tradition
and artistry of one of life’s oldest and most rewarding pleasures
- known simply as the way of tea.
San Francisco’s
world-famous Imperial Tea Court is renowned as an exclusive source for
many of the most highly acclaimed and sought-after teas produced today.
Magnificently appointed by visiting Chinese craftsmen and opened on the
fourth of July, 1993 in Chinatown, Imperial Tea Court represents the life-long
commitment to the art and tradition of all aspects of tea of co-founders
Grace and Roy Fong. Their mutual love and respect for authentic, hand-crafted
Chinese teas (and their difficulty in obtaining them in the United States)
led to the initiation of direct relations with tea growers and producers
in China and Taiwan, and ultimately to the establishment of Imperial Tea
Court. |
| Roy Fong |
 Roy
Fong is the founder and proprietor of San Francisco’s Imperial Tea
Court, the first traditional Chinese teahouse in America. A native of
Hong Kong, Mr. Fong was introduced to tea early in life, and has spent
many years developing close relations with tea growers and producers in
mainland China and Taiwan. Each year he visits select tea gardens to supervise
all aspects of production - from planting and cultivation to harvesting,
processing and grading. In addition, he has built close ties with the
historic pottery workshops of Yixing in Jiangsu province and imports dozens
of exceptional “purple sand” teapots to the United States each
year - many of which are his own special designs and commissions.
During his term as Head of Research & Development for the International
Tea Masters Association, Mr. Fong spent several years directing and personally
over-seeing the award-winning "Lotus Heart" Dragon Well tea
program in the renowned West Lake area of Hangzhou, China. In 1997 an
international jury awarded his “Imperial Green” tea first place
at the Tea Masters annual conference.
In 1998 he was invited to participate in ceremonies commemorating the
restoration of the tea gardens at Jingshan in Zhejiang province - one
of the oldest and most significant tea sites in China, dating back to
the Tang dynasty (618-906). An account of the historic event was published
in the July/August 1998 issue of TEA magazine, for which Mr. Fong has
served as consultant and International Director, providing numerous articles
on a wide variety of topics including tea history, production and related
cultural matters.
Presently, Mr. Fong, an ordained Daoist priest, is endeavoring to reestablish
the ancient rite of tea dating back to the time of China’s greatest
tea master, Lu Yu, who lived during the Tang dynasty and wrote his famous
book the Cha Ching (“Tea Scripture”) around the year 780. Roy
is also currently working on his own book which will be a comprehensive
guide to the teas of China, including sections concerning the history
of tea in general, the origins of the varieties we know today, the various
methods of tea processing and detailed discussions of the different methods
of tea preparation and service.
Roy has been featured in numerous publications, including: The New York
Times, Forbes, Gourmet, Sunset Magazine, and has appeared on the National
Public Radio program “Talk of then Nation”. He, his wife Grace,
and their two daughters make their home in the San Francisco Bay area. |
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