Your Questions, ANSWERED here
The FAQ Page.
You’re here because something didn’t add up, or you’re checking for the catch. Good. Here are the answers — the dose numbers, the cancel button, the price.
MECHANISM & DOSE
Does it actually work?
Will this actually wake me up the way coffee does?
Short answer: yes — and the numbers say why.
One morning session of the Sheng Pu-erh delivers about 80 to 110 mg of caffeine (estimated, pending our spring lab assay) — above the roughly 75 mg at which caffeine is shown to sharpen attention. The dose is there.
The difference is the curve. Espresso dumps its caffeine in one hit — you spike, then you drop. Gongfu brewing releases the same kind of dose in steady pulses across five short steeps, so your body takes it in gradually, the way it handles caffeine best. Alert, without the 11 a.m. cliff.
Not sure if it’ll land for you? That’s what the First-Cup Guarantee is for. If your first cup doesn’t replace your morning coffee, we'll refund you, and you keep the tin.
Isn't the L-theanine science overstated?
Often, yes — and we’d rather tell you that than oversell it.
Here’s the honest version. Caffeine is the engine: it’s the part with regulator-backed evidence behind the alertness claim. L-theanine is the suspension — it smooths the ride. The in-the-moment effect of a single cup is well supported. But a 28-day study looking for a lasting, built-up effect didn’t reach significance.
So we claim only what one cup actually does: it changes how that cup feels. We leave the month-long brain promises to the brands that won’t show you the study.
I drink three or four cups a day. One cup of tea won't cover that.
Right — one cup wouldn’t. That’s why it’s three.
The protocol is built for a heavy day, spread across it:
- Morning — Sheng Pu-erh (~80–110 mg)
- Midday — Da Hong Pao (~60–90 mg)
- Afternoon — Aged Shou Mei (~15–30 mg)
That’s roughly 155 to 230 mg across the working day — in the range of a two-to-three-cup coffee load, delivered in pulses instead of three big hits. You keep the same caffeine. What changes is when and how fast it arrives. The 3 p.m. that usually feels like a wall starts feeling like late morning.
THE TRANSITION
Will I survive switching?
Will my work suffer while I transition off coffee?
This is the fear that keeps most people on coffee, so let’s be precise.
You’re not quitting cold. The morning Sheng Pu-erh delivers caffeine at roughly the level your morning espresso does — you swap the delivery and keep the supply. There’s no zero-caffeine day to white-knuckle through a sprint review.
One well-documented tracked-quit case saw sleep and recovery scores go up in the month after switching, not down. We can’t promise you’ll be sharper — that depends on you. We can promise there’s no built-in performance hole you have to fall into first.
Want extra insurance? The gravity steeper at checkout makes sure the equipment can’t be the thing that goes wrong on day one.
Do I have to give up my espresso machine?
No. Keep it.
Hui Gan is built for the weekday mornings you run on autopilot — the cup you drink because you have to, before the day starts. That's the cup worth changing. The Saturday espresso you actually enjoy, on the machine you chose? Keep it. You'll enjoy it more, honestly, when it's a choice instead of a dependency.
You're not becoming a tea person. You're taking back the mornings that were running you.
Last time I cut back, the withdrawal headache was worse than the problem.
That headache is real, and it has one cause: removing caffeine. So we don’t remove it.
The morning Sheng Pu-erh delivers roughly the caffeine you’re already getting from your morning espresso (estimated, pending lab assay) — just released gradually instead of all at once. No cliff. No zero-caffeine day. Not because we eliminated the caffeine — because we replaced it.
We won’t promise you’ll never feel a thing; everyone’s different. But there’s no withdrawal day designed into the protocol, because there’s no day where the caffeine drops to zero.
I don't have time for the morning protocol prep.
The entire protocol is less than 12 minutes, and it isn’t 12 minutes of standing over a kettle. It’s about 90 seconds of hands-on work, spread out — pour, wait, pour again.
The waiting runs in the background while you do what you’d be doing anyway: clearing email, reading, getting dressed. Less a ritual, more a process running behind your morning. Five short steeps, most of them while you’re not even looking.
Try it Risk-Free
Will I get trapped or punished?
$129 for three tins — how do I know that's fair?
Price it against what you already spend on the cup it replaces.
The Three-Tin Set is $129 and lasts about 30 days of full three-tea brewed sessions. That’s around $4.7 a day. Your ONE morning Starbucks costs about $7. The set also costs less than the roughly $140 you may have already spent on MUDWTR that didn’t last.
So this isn’t a premium on a new habit. It’s a discount on the one you’re already paying for.
Is this a subscription trap?
No, and the cancellation is how you know.
Start with what you’re actually buying: the Three-Tin Set is a one-time purchase. No subscription, no auto-renew, nothing to cancel. A subscription exists only if you choose it later, after you’ve already tried the tea.
And if you do subscribe and want out? One click from your account page. No email to send. No chatbot. No “are you sure?” screen, no retention call, no offer to win you back. We built the cancellation to be the opposite of the brand you last had to fight to leave.
What if I cancel and you keep charging me?
Then we refund it automatically — you don’t have to chase us for it.
Here’s the policy, plainly: if you’re charged after you’ve cancelled, Hui Gan refunds that charge on its own. You don’t file a dispute, you don’t call your bank, you don’t prove anything. Fixing it is on us.
Below is the actual cancel button from your account page — the real screen, not a mock-up. One click, and you’re out.
The First-Cup Guarantee
If your first cup — brewed with the included protocol card and the gravity steeper, if you added it — doesn’t replace your morning coffee, we refund you and you keep the tin and the steeper. 30 days, no return required. The risk is ours.
In Practice
How do I actually use it?
What if it tastes terrible, like mushroom coffee did?
You won’t get it wrong, because the instructions ship in the box.
Gongfu just means brewing a higher leaf-to-water ratio for short, repeated steeps — more concentrated, more times, instead of one big mug. Every tin includes a protocol card that walks you through it step by step. You can also type your email address below to receive the electronic version of the 5-steep protocol for every tea.
We teach it. We don’t expect you to already know it. By the second morning, you won’t be reading the card.
I don't know what Gongfu is and I don't want to get it wrong.
No, and the cancellation is how you know.
Start with what you’re actually buying: the Three-Tin Set is a one-time purchase. No subscription, no auto-renew, nothing to cancel. A subscription exists only if you choose it later, after you’ve already tried the tea.
And if you do subscribe and want out? One click from your account page. No email to send. No chatbot. No “are you sure?” screen, no retention call, no offer to win you back. We built the cancellation to be the opposite of the brand you last had to fight to leave.
How long does the Three-Tin Set last? How is it shipped?
At the gongfu cadence — three short sessions a day — the Three-Tin Set lasts about 30 days.
It ships in friction-fit tins with an inner foil seal to keep the leaf fresh, in a magnetic gift box with the brewing card. Shipping follows our standard terms; you’ll see the timeframe and tracking at checkout.
Will the tea go stale before I finish it? How do I store it?
No, and two of the three teas get better the longer they sit.
You'll finish the set in about three months at the daily protocol, so going stale isn't really on the table. Storage is simple: keep each tin closed, somewhere cool and dry, away from light and strong smells. The powder-coated steel tin and inner foil seal handle the rest. No fridge, no special canister.
Here's where loose-leaf beats coffee, which is past its best a week after roasting:
- Sheng Pu-erh keeps for years and only deepens — it mellows and rounds out the longer it rests.
- Da Hong Pao is at its best within about three years; the charcoal roast settles and smooths over time.
- Aged Shou Mei is already years rested — five, on the current harvest — and it keeps developing honey and dried-date notes.
So the set isn't a clock you're racing. Sealed in the tin, it's quietly getting better on your shelf.
What's your return / refund policy?
The First-Cup Guarantee, plus a standard 30-day backstop.
If your first cup — brewed with the included protocol card and the gravity steeper, if you added it — doesn’t replace your morning coffee, we refund you, and you keep the tin and the steeper. No return to ship back; the tea’s a consumable. You have 30 days. The risk sits with us, not with you.