Understanding the Yuan Archive Score: Our Five-Tier Tea Scoring System
When you browse our collection, you will notice that every single tea carries a specific score and a unique tier designation. We do not use arbitrary marketing buzzwords like "Imperial" or "Supreme." Instead, we rely on the rigorous UN archive scoring system to evaluate every batch that crosses our path.
Our tiers are designed as a single visual landscape. If you read them from the valley floor up to the misty summit, you are tracking a journey from excellent, honest daily drinking teas up to the rarest, most unrepeatable lots on Earth.
谷晴 · Gǔ Qíng (Open Valley) | Score: 70 to 79
The Feeling: A clear day in the valley. Honest, unhurried, asking nothing more of itself than what it is.
This is our foundation for everyday enjoyment. To even qualify for this tier, a tea must meet a strict baseline: clear regional provenance, pristine processing, and a clean, consistent character. These are pleasurable, well-made teas that are perfect for your daily morning ritual, tasting menus, or casual workshops. They are priced accessibly so you can enjoy high-quality leaves without hesitation.
晨云 · Chén Yún (Morning Cloud) | Score: 80 to 87
The Feeling: Elevated but moving. Refined and clear, without claiming to be permanent.
If you are new to our shop, this is our recommended entry point. Teas in the Morning Cloud tier offer strong provenance, a highly defined varietal character, and excellent aromatic clarity. While a minor variation in one technical criterion is acceptable if the other traits compensate beautifully, these teas make a powerful, undeniable case for themselves. They represent the vibrant, exciting middle ground of exceptional tea craft.
静山 · Jìng Shān (Still Mountain) | Score: 88 to 94
The Feeling: The mountain at its most present. Everything unnecessary has fallen away.
This is the very tier that Tea by Yuan is built upon. It represents the gold standard against which every single new arrival is measured, and it justifies our highest premium pricing. Still Mountain teas must be entirely exceptional across all five of our evaluation criteria. Each lot features a specifically named estate or individual producer, fully documented harvest dates, and official certifications under rigorous national standards. There is no guesswork here, only pure clarity and flawless execution.
孤峰 · Gū Fēng Lone Peak | Score: 95 to 100
The Feeling: The fleeting moment before the valley below has woken. A quality that arrives once, from a specific tree, in a specific season, and cannot be reconstructed.
This is the absolute pinnacle of our archive. We reserve this designation for masterwork teas that score at or near maximum across every single metric, meaning no individual category drops below 90 percent of its possible points. Fewer than four lots worldwide receive this designation in a given year. When we find a First Light tea, it enters our permanent archive as a historic reference point. These are true collector pieces.
What Doesn't Make the Cut?
Transparency means being honest about what we reject. Any tea that scores below 70, or suffers a critical failure in even a single evaluation criterion, is completely excluded from the Yuan Archive. We record the data internally for our own learning, but we will never offer it to our community.
How to Use These Tiers
- For your daily ritual: Look to the honest simplicity of Open Valley.
- To explore new horizons: Begin your journey with the clear character of Morning Cloud.
- For the ultimate expression of craft: Invest in the flawless execution of Still Mountain.
- For a once in a lifetime experience: Keep watch for the rare arrival of First Light.
By anchoring our collection to these numbers, we ensure that you always know exactly what is in your cup, who made it, and why it matters.
Here is what these numbers mean, how we evaluate them, and how to find the perfect tier for your cup.