Chafolio Brings Authentic Chinese Tea to California Farmers Markets

February 27, 2026

Joey Zhou grew up in the Fujian province of China, which is known for its production of world-class white,  jasmine, oolong, and black tea. When he decided to study in the United States, he discovered an opportunity to introduce his hometown’s tea to an American community that had never tasted real, loose-leaf tea before. 

At the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, shoppers can pick up Chafolio’s handcrafted specialties like Magnolia Green Tea and Peach Oolong, all grown by small family farms in the birthplace of tea, along with a selection of herbal and botanical blends. 

Introducing SoCal Taste Buds to True Tea

In 2018, Joey moved to the United States for college and settled in Los Angeles to earn his MBA. He was curious about how he could bring the tea he grew up with to his new community in California, a goal that didn’t seem to be within reach until he introduced his family’s tea to his professors and classmates.

“They were surprised by the quality and smell of the tea, and they asked me, ‘Can I buy your tea? You can ship from China. I’m willing to pay shipping and everything.’ That day, I realized there are a lot of people who actually love tea, but they have no idea where to get this high-quality, loose-leaf tea,” Joey says. 

Once he realized that there was a demand for the tea his family had been selling, he started doing tasting and meditation events as market research, where he received even more positive feedback. At the events, people wanted to buy the samples they tasted, and in 2021, his retail business began.

Carrying Tea Traditions from Fujian to California

The name of the company is a portmanteau of the Chinese word for tea, “chá,” and the last half of the word “portfolio.” For Joey, creating tea and crafting blends is an art form that carries the deep heritage and history of his hometown of Fu Zhou.

China is the world’s largest producer of tea, and within the country, the majority of tea comes from the Fujian province. Though a sizable portion of Chafolio’s inventory comes from the Zhou family’s farm, their stock is also made up of tea leaves from other small family farms inside the same province. “It’s surrounded by tea gardens,” Joey says. “I’m so proud to bring this culture to people because it’s part of my life.”

“We have a very strong relationship with a lot of tea makers in China. I will stop by and visit them, to talk with them, to understand their story and concept, and how they formulate tea, how they make the tea, to make sure the product is amazing and is really safe for our customers,” Joey says. 

For Joey, shared knowledge from his hometown provides him with an understanding of how to produce nuanced and comforting flavors. He says that the best tea comes from younger tea leaves, which are more packed with amino acids. In the Camellia sinensis plant, whose leaves make the basis for all teas, young shoots have a higher concentration of amino acids, which lend young tea leaves a touch of umami flavor.

“We use the whole leaf. We don’t want to cut our tea leaves into tiny pieces. It will reduce the flavor and nutrition. There’s a gap in the tea industry because people usually just drink tea bags,” Joey says. 

In their herbal blends, most of those additional ingredients also come from China, but some are grown in California, like jujubes from Thy Châu Farm in Los Angeles. “When we started doing farmers markets, we met a woman who grows a lot of jujube trees in her garden, and her story really impressed me. We saw how she manages her garden, and we decided to work with her,” Joey says. 

Growing a Tea Community at the Farmers Market

One of the challenges of operating a tea business in California is educating shoppers about what differentiates high-quality tea from what they’ll find in a store, both in price and in quality. 

“I think that’s the biggest challenge, for us to deliver our value to customers and help them understand how much time and effort we put into our tea, how we form our tea, and how our tea makers make all of those teas, because we don’t use machines,” Joey says. 

Unlike typical tea bags that contain microplastics and lose flavor quickly, loose-leaf teas can be resteeped three or more times and produce less waste overall. In addition, because Chafolio’s teas are all handcrafted, the precise and exacting labor of all of the small family farms involved and the cost of shipping tea from Fujian to California are factored into the price of the tea.

On Chafolio’s their blog, tea makers they work with share about the process of making tea. These processes often include sifting harvests by hand to preserve the most flavorful parts of the tea while removing flakes and broken stems. In a post about Jasmine Pearls tea, the team writes, “One flower that opens too widely can ruin the batch. One leaf with slightly wrong moisture can break the balance.”

Farmers market shoppers who come to understand the value of their loose-leaf teas often become regulars who give feedback. This community-centered feedback is central to Chafolio’s process of crafting new flavors. For example, this winter, Chafolio created a Dragonfruit Ginger Tea based on feedback from customers who craved ginger during cold weather. Their Lychee Black Tea was created based on an online vote posted to their Instagram profile.

“Our brand is developing our product line to cater to customer needs. That’s what we really appreciate, the farmers market allowing us to do a lot of research and get a lot of feedback from our customers,” Joey says. 

Most importantly, Joey and the team at Chafolio hope that every shopper understands that they don’t need a special, complicated setup to enjoy the sensory experience of steeping, smelling, and tasting high-quality tea. 

“Everyone can drink tea. Tea is very pure and simple. And we bring this tea from our tea farm, made by our hands. If you have a cup, if you have water, you will have a really good cup of tea in front of you,” Joey says.

Find Chafolio at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Chafolio at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Topics: Global, Small business