About the federation

The United Federation of Tea Taxonomy is the umbrella under which a small network of independent tea references convenes. Each member is a single-subject institution: one site for one leaf, researched and edited on its own. Constituted in 2026, the Federation is, by a comfortable margin, the youngest institution in its own register; its members date themselves, variously, to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and what none of them kept until the Federation was one another's address. The Federation does not run a shared newsroom, it does not publish subject articles, and it does not speak for the members. It maintains the taxonomy, keeps the register, and points a reader to the right leaf. It considers this a full docket.

The one rule

Every member is chartered to the same editorial rule. Say something true and useful that a knowledgeable tea drinker would respect, and cite where it comes from. A member would rather publish less and be right than publish daily and be filler. Nothing is invented: no story, no quote, no figure, no source.

The offices are a manner of speaking

Each member speaks as its own institution: a Ministry, an Authority, an Order. The institutions are a manner of speaking, kept with a straight face; the facts are not. Every claim on every member site is cited to a real source, no human is ever invented, and each member discloses plainly, on its own About page, how it is made. The Federation regards the distinction as the most important line in the charter.

A register, not a newsroom

The Federation is a register and a statement of method: single-subject institutions, each devoted to its own leaf, sharing a charter and a standard of sourcing. A member links here, to the Federation, and the Federation links back out to the member. That is the whole of the relationship, and the Federation is pleased to report the borders quiet.

What the charter requires

Every member holds its pages to the same passage: a real source under every load-bearing claim, a primary document in preference to an encyclopedia, and a check against the record before anything publishes. Members read their published pages again as the standard sharpens, and a revision that changes what a page says carries a dated Updated line.