Gong Fu Cha (工夫茶) Tea Ceremony Fundraiser
Calling all China-maxxers with big hearts and an appreciation for tea. Join us for an afternoon of 工夫茶 — gongfu tea in support of David Lee Hoffman, a tea collector, artist, and environmental experimenter who has spent his life making room for a different way of living. We’ll gather around three tea tables, followed by a film screening with continued tea service.
Meet your tea hosts
Violet Yang of Forest Well Tea is a Yunnan native and tea educator who regularly teaches gongfu cha at Duke Gardens. She’ll share her knowledge of her home region’s world-famous pu’er tea and pour with us for the afternoon. We met over tea at David’s place in Marin.
Jack Hyder is a Seattle-based tea community moderator with a love for aged sheng pu’er and introducing people to gongfu cha. He’s sent more than 100 tea samples to people he’s met through the forums—which is actually how we met, mailing tea to each other!
Becky Button is a San Francisco–based gongfu tea lover whose trips to China have taken her through Guangzhou’s famous tea markets, with a little baijiu along the way. She’ll pour on her custom-built tea tray synthesizer, a playable instrument that turns the gestures of preparing and sharing tea into music.
Why we’re gathering
For more than 50 years, David built The Last Resort on a hillside in Lagunitas: a world of handmade buildings, gardens, tea caves, and ecological experiments. Reclaimed materials became architecture, rainwater was collected for use, and worms turned waste into nourishment. People came for tea and left with new ideas about caring for the land.
To us, David embodies the inventive, independent spirit of old San Francisco and the Bay Area’s counterculture. The Last Resort is a piece of that history, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
On September 15, at 82 years old, David was evicted from his home of 53 years following a decades-long dispute over building permits and code compliance. We’re gathering to offer support and gratitude through something he has shared so generously: a table, good tea, and time together.
The afternoon
Noon–1 PM · Tea at three tables
Settle in, meet your hosts, and talk tea. We’ll pour selections from David’s collection, including specialty aged pu’er, alongside other teas our hosts have chosen.
1–2 PM · Film screening with tea
Tea service continues throughout the screening.
Tea tickets
• $30–$50 sliding scale · Full afternoon, noon–2 PM
Includes the opening tea gathering and continued tea service during the screening. Every amount includes the same experience—choose your contribution, knowing that paying more provides additional support for David.
• $20 · Screening-hour tea service, 1–2 PM
Join us for tea during the film.
Come get some tea!