AllMovie

David Lee Hoffman is a man who has devoted his life to tea. Hoffman is an importer who brings unusual varieties of tea to discerning drinkers in the United States, specializing in teas that have been grown organically and picked and dried by hand by growers who use experience and instinct as their guides. However, the bulk of Hoffman's most prized teas are grown by independent farmers in China, where the growth of industrialization and an increased demand for higher-yield cash crops is helping to put such planters out of business. Filmmakers Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht offer an in-depth portrait of Hoffman and the growers he works with in the documentary All in This Tea, which demonstrates how handcrafted teas are produced and how Hoffman struggles to educate drinkers about the finer points of a beverage that few have experienced in its most sublime form. All in This Tea was screened in competition at the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival.