Three weeks on the cliff above Coxos
The Ericeira house faces west, which means the kitchen is dark when you wake and the kettle is the loudest thing in the room. That is the shape of this programme. You come down in a fleece, water already on the boil, and the first pour of Fèng Huáng Dān Cōng (凤凰单丛) — Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) cultivar, picked last spring in Guangdong by Chen Hui Yi’s network — sits on the table while you check the swell window on the tide chart taped to the wall.
This is not a retreat. There is no schedule on a chalkboard, no morning circle. It is a three-week winter programme built around the way an Atlantic dawn actually unfolds in February — glass-off at first light if the wind hasn’t filled in yet, a one-hour gōngfū session on the terrace before the offshore turns, then boards in the van and ten minutes north to Coxos. Mid-morning, when the tide is right and the locals are still home, the point holds its shape long enough for two hours in the water.
We house twelve guests per week. The rhythm repeats — sunrise tea, surf, late breakfast back at the house, an open afternoon, an evening session with Amgalan Chin on a single tea theme. The themes are sequenced through the three weeks. Week one is rolled oolongs from Henan and Fujian, where the body of the leaf opens slowly across eight or nine infusions and pairs well with the long fatigue of paddling cold water. Week two is aged white from Fuding — Chen Hui Yi has set aside Shòu Méi (寿眉) cakes from 2014 and 2017 for side-by-side pouring, the kind of comparison that takes ninety minutes and ends in silence. Week three turns to puerh.
The Friday tasting on the final evening of each week is the anchor. Aged sheng from a private cellar — three cakes per session, the oldest a 2003 Yì Wǔ (易武) that has spent most of its life in a Kunming warehouse and the last four years here above the cliff. Amgalan Chin leads. We pour in a quiet room, the windows cracked so you can hear the sea below, and we do not talk much for the first three steepings. The cake wrappers are passed around. You read the names. You hold the weight. Most people stay until the leaves are spent, which on a good evening is past eleven.
The surf programme is run with a local guide who has watched Coxos through twenty winters. He decides each morning whether we paddle out at the point or move south to Ribeira d’Ilhas — the call is made over the second pour of tea, and we trust it. Boards, wetsuits, and a roof on the van are provided. Bring your own if you prefer.
Full details on the cellar selections, the guide’s bio, and the cold-brew bottle that comes with every stay are on tea.travel — the booking flow there handles dietary notes and arrival transfers from Lisbon. The leaf programme for each week is also catalogued on puerh.app for guests who want to read ahead. If you’d like to extend the brewing practice once you are home, the gōngfū sets we use on the terrace are the small Yixing line from tea.equipment.
Winters here are quiet. The cliff is empty by four. We think this is the right pace for a tea programme.
What changes
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Sunrise gōngfū sessions on the terrace before the offshore wind fills in — one hour with Amgalan Chin, one tea per morning.
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Mid-morning surf at Coxos or Ribeira d’Ilhas, called fresh each day by a local guide of twenty winters.
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A Friday aged-sheng tasting from a private cellar — three cakes per evening, the oldest a 2003 Yì Wǔ (易武) brick.
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Twelve guests per week, no group programming after the morning pour — afternoons left open for the cliff path or the house library.
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Cold-brew bottle and a cliff-house leaf allocation included, drawing on selections catalogued on puerh.app.
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Boards, 4/3 wetsuits, and van transport to the points provided — guests fly in with hand luggage if they wish.