“It’s a release not having to makeup to come to work. I can be my true self.”

Olivia Lui

When you place an order at Tea Hong, whether it is for wholesale or online, it is Olivia who makes sure it is properly processed and sent to you. Behind each nicely packed tealeaves, the whole process of how the delicate product — whether the extremely fine powder of matcha or furry free form leaf buds, is handled in storage or packing is also managed by her.

Initially, Olivia was trained and apprenticed under Leo as one of the eight new recruits in 2005 to reinforce the main front team for fine tea evangelists at Leo’s first tea brand. When the well trained and passionate team was suddenly dissolved upon Leo’s dramatic departure from the brand, she spent a couple of years as an editor, and later as the Project Coordinator in the Research Centre for Translation of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her management and administrative skills were subsequently proven in 10 years of being an Executive Officer in the Hong Kong Government. This is why she has taken up the oversight of all the administrative systems of Tea Hong.

Giving up a much higher compensation package at the government to join Tea Hong in 2023 may seem a little too irrational to some, but to her, it was an important breakthrough.

Olivia holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biotechnology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Master of Arts in Language Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.

Leo Kwan

Leo at the Royal Academy, London

Looking for the right quality tea and talking with those who produce it is not a job to Leo, but an enjoyable hobby. It was in 1998 when he began doing that in the mecca of Fenghuang Dancong — Wudong (Black Rock Peak) in Fenghuang (Phoenix), and later to all those other wonderful origins that you can see in this website.

Leo sees himself as a tea evangelist. While telling people about things is human nature, communication and education themselves are both an art and a science.

He first learned about that in a summer job as an instructor in a children’s Chinese calligraphy class when he was 15, and later in his early years as a freelance photographer/illustrator during a personal photo documentary project in a child care centre through observing the teacher-children interactions. He had a lengthy discussion with the teachers there and decided that something in the education system needed to be changed. At 26, he was pioneering and coordinating two communities in the Department of Education for changes in Art Education in Hong Kong.

Before committing his abilities into tea advocacy, Leo ran a communications design consultancy for major international corporations, trade organisations and the government for their key communications projects. He had previously served as a regional Creative Services Director for a major agency, and had taught visual arts in Hong Kong and the United States.

Leo holds a Higher Diploma in Communications Design from Hong Kong Polytechnics, a Teacher’s Certificate from Hong Kong Technical Teachers’ College, a Master of Fine Arts from Illinois University at Chicago, and a Best Young Photographer’s Award from Life Magazine (the most popular pictorial magazine before killing by the internet)