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Hi, welcome

Thank you for taking the time to read this and connecting to the heart of The Hive. The Hive is a single human operation, created and sustained by myself, Charlie Há Cheesman. I’m is a first generation so-called Australian born of Vietnamese descent. My mother migrated from Vietnam in the 1990s, having fled from Vietnam in the wake of war and poverty, in search for resource for her family back home. Quickly needing to assimilate into rural Australia and find her place in the working class, she struggled to settle into home while carrying her culture into the vastly indifferent environments of the country. This often cued a neglect of her cultural background.

I was born shortly after, into this environment without adequate backbone for cultural empowerment.I found it incredibly hard to step into my cultural identity at a young age. Afraid to be seen exposed in the open for the things I could not help or change, I took to oppressing parts of my identity that would been associated to my cultural roots.As one learns to harden to the outside world, a beckoning for softening did grow evermore present I have learnt however.The more I began to traverse the worlds of isolation growing up, the need for introspection paved ways to ally with myself and connect to interests and expressions that would inherently protect & allow me to hold something to that missing backbone.

I guess, the longer one proceeds on that path of enquiry and discovery, the more the path begins to purify- clearing the density and readily shining light on the core wounds that informs the ways one moves through the world. This would ultimately entice the acknowledgement of cultural neglect, rejection and the perpetuated suffering that trails behind such a path.This has very much became a way finder for me today.In this acknowledgement came a dire need to tend to. This would send me back to my mother’s homelands of Vietnam and soon into the mountains of the indigenous, known under the umbrella as the Bai Yue people.In this discovery of deep, deep cultural roots came to connection to tea, amongst other various mediums of belief, embodiment & intrinsic nature.
This soon blossomed into what The Hive is today.

intention

In offering The Hive, it comes with a desire reclaim the voice, action and way of our people.To provide resource in the purpose of ensuring the preservation of our ancient way.To find forgiveness, offer love and facilitate space for reconnection for our Western born of the East and our unspoken narrative growing up.

It is from those reckoning origins and empowerment in the reclamation of my culture, that I pursue this with a heart on fire.

While very much being an offering of tea, her interwoven relationship to the ancient cultures of Asia are something that are inherent. It is within my greatest intention for the Hive to exist in service of these ancient cultures and the traditional customs that possess the embodied understanding that has informed the way our cultures move through the world today. I intend to share their way and story to weave the connection of our ancient cultures into the hearts of the present.
 
The Hive is in service to the preservation of the ancient way, through the art, musings and wisdom of tea in ceremony.

who I work with

To adequately meet the vision that encompasses The Hive, I work exclusively with small villages, families and co-ops throughout Asia.
My intention is to keep it connected to source, and to cultivate genuine connection to the individuals and the land that is producing the medicine shared here. This is turn favours production across the board- it ensures quality control, preservation of traditional processing methods and will lay the foundations for future goals I hope to build towards.

you can read more about the beautiful individuals I work with below

Huong & Yen

Huong & Yen are a beautiful couple residing in the North of Vietnam, very much students of the middle way- Spending their Autumn & Springs producing tea in the deep mountain range of Tay Con Linh, whilst managing a teahouse in the city in the off-season.
They produce of our First Kiss, Vespertine’s Dream, Gentle Emptiness, Long Forgotten Mind & Way of the Wind tea.

Huong & Yen are passionately ensuring the preservation of local indigenous lifestyle atop Tay Con Linh Mountain. This includes the preservation of the local ecology through the manual growth, harvesting and production of tea exclusively from the old arbour trees in the region, through a specific few families that reside in the region. This is to ensure quality control, and the certainty of agrochemical-free productions.

They produce tea within a local village, which goes without name, home to no more than 15 families and one of the most beautiful sunsets one could lay eyes on.

Due to region’s prone tendency for landslides, Huong & Yen are the sole producers with a facility on the this side of Tay Con Linh Mountain.
Both stubborn and proud in their reflections, they would rather risk it to produce quality tea without compromise, than set up at the base of the mountain like their neighbouring producers.

Ger

Ger is an amazing woman who took me in upon a spontenous trip to the middle nnorth prior to my journey into the deeper north. From a 3 generation matriarch, Ger is a second generation hemp weaver, textile producer, jewellery maker, and all-round hustler from Hau Thao village- home to approximately 300 indngeous Black H'Mong people.

Upon arriving at 4am with no further thought in mind, we were greeted at the roadside by these bright, pure eyes of these two women from a neighbouring Black H’mong tribe.

While everybody on the bus scurried for their transportation and accomodation, we met with the presence of these two and entertained brief conversation over a bowl of tea.
They soon asked if we would like to visit their village and take them up on a day of trekking for a more than reasonable fee. Upon our decline, they smiled and gestured to come visit either way.

Without a single thought in mind, or honestly any further foresight of what we were doing here, we took trust in the purity of their eyes and made our way half an hour across the mountain side to their village.

Here, we remained for a week, in the company of elders, children, ducks, dogs and bison. It didn’t take long to dissipate into the village way. Days composed by the simplicity of sunrise & sunset, and the ins and outs of local village dramas. Throughout the day, it was common to see the women trancing out amongst the vasts of clouds and rice fields, creating hemp thread by hand. These days would go on to give life to their traditional garments, artworks and assorted other home decor.

The thought to find a way to have some fabrics for tea made became immediately apparent to me, and upon deepening our connection to the two that brought us here, I approached Ger with this in mind. To which she agreed gleefully.

We now maintain correspondance through the sweetest voice messages and have begun to open the door on new ideas including garments for tea, tea travelling packs & artefacts for the chaxi.

Mr. Phil & Mr Li Jia Cai

Some of the most helpful individuals I've met on my path of tea sourcing.
Phil has been guiding productions while Mr. Li Jia Cai has been responsible for sourcing throught Covid from his place in Guangzhou, China.

An advid vouyer of mountains, Phil spends most of his time travelling Yunnan and overseeing productions of our shou pu'er and dian hong red tea.

Xon

Xon is a local fellow of a Tay tribe in Ha Giang, we came to meeting in very peculiar ways. He is one of the sole individuals in the region educating on indigenous tea culture and the origins of the Vietnamese. After some time spent under the full moon, relating to our shared drives here, Xon was generous enough to share some of his collection of aged tea, white tea & maocha with me, which has gone to create our new releases- Dissipation Spells & An Ever Shifting Light Between The Passageways.

Tom

Tom is responsible for the production of our tea bowls, gaiwans and hopefully soon, some more tools for tea brewing and ceremony.
We've been working with Tom since the very first tea bowl was shared here.

Petr

Petr is responsible for the production of our pots. All woodfired and handmade from a local iron rich clay.