Helen is from Austria. She studies tea art in China and became a tea-culture blogger.
She systematically learns the six tea categories: green, black, oolong, white, yellow and dark tea. From identifying, brewing to tasting, she advances step by step.
Her videos carry Eastern elegance: picking tea in the mountains, arranging tea settings, conversing with tea masters. Tea ceremony taught her not just brewing but the wisdom of "slowing down", she says.
Vienna has coffee culture, China has tea culture — she loves both, she says. From the café to the tea table, she found a new spiritual home.
Helen is an Austrian girl fascinated by Chinese tea culture. She loved black tea with pastries in Austria; in China, the rich world of Chinese tea deeply drew her - she decided to drink her way along China tea mountains one by one.
Her journey: first stop was Longjing village in Hangzhou - learning to pick tea, discovering "one bud one leaf" holds the taste of spring. Then Wuyishan for rock tea, and Menghai in Yunnan for pu-erh. "Chinese tea: every landscape brews its own flavour."
Content: "an Austrian girl tea journey", "a day learning tea-picking in Longjing", "why is rock tea called rock tea" - telling Chinese tea stories with her lens. She also brews Chinese tea around the world with her own set.
Going viral: her "first hand-frying tea in a Hangzhou garden" video spread - clumsy yet seriously adorable. Viewers say "you can see real love for tea in her eyes."
Insights: "tea taught me patience - waiting for water to boil, tea to unfurl, and the return sweetness." Her Austrian friends started drinking Chinese tea because of her.
Significance: an international messenger of Chinese tea culture - through one leaf, introducing Europe to China landscapes, seasons and lifestyles.
Plans: she is learning Chinese, aiming to "discuss tea with farmers in Chinese". She plans a book, From the Alps to the Tea Mountains, recording her journey.
For readers: her videos make you want to brew a good cup - her lens holds the millennia-old charm and warmth of Chinese tea.
She has a special habit: from every tea mountain she brings a small pack home to Austria, sharing with friends. "Tea is the best travel souvenir - it carries the memory of mountains and water." She loves brewing with Chinese gaiwan, though hands sometimes get scalded - "tea that burnt your hand tastes better." She notes Austrians drink black tea with milk and sugar while Chinese tea honours original taste and sweet return - she loves both, like loving the mountains of two countries at once.
Her final word: "go brew a cup - no need to know cha dao, just give yourself ten minutes." Chinese tea taught her to slow down, to calm down, to wait for the return sweetness - like waiting for life delayed beauties. Her tea-mountain journey continues; next stops: Huangshan Maofeng and Xinyang Maojian. "China tea mountains are too many; my teapot is not big enough." Watching her, you will brew a cup for yourself and wait for the aroma.
