Our Story
HOLLIN was founded by Dian VAULTIER, a soprano born in Hunan, China, who came to France in 2019. The maison brings together her two heritages, care for raw materials from the farming world and the rigour of the operatic stage, in teas often named after opera. See also About.
FROM THE STAGE TO THE TEA HOUSE
I was born in Hunan, China, into a family closely tied to the agricultural world. My father founded and built his business there in the agricultural sector.
I grew up with a simple idea: before a product, there is an origin, a raw material and the work of those who produce it.
In 2019, I came to France to pursue an Artist Diploma in operatic singing. I then performed on stage as a soprano.
At first sight, the agricultural world and the world of opera seem very far apart. Yet these two heritages are at the origin of HOLLIN.
From one comes my attention to the origin of materials, to their quality and to what they can express without artifice.
From the other come rigour, a sense of composition, precision of gesture, but also a certain way of building an emotion.
HOLLIN was born where they meet.
Tea became the starting point because it brings together what matters most to me: material, gesture, time and culture. Between China, where I grew up, and France, where HOLLIN was born, it became a way of connecting these two perspectives.
At HOLLIN, everything begins with the choice of materials: tea, but also flowers, fruits, peels and spices, carefully selected and then blended to find their balance. Most of our creations keep to these ingredients; a few, such as L’Éclaircie or Jardin d’Aube, use an essential oil sparingly to highlight a more expressive note.
MUSIC AS A GUIDING THREAD
Classical music has never disappeared from my work.
It runs through the house, even in the names of certain teas: Rosenkavalier, Madame Butterfly, Les Pêcheurs de perles, but also Apparition and Green, two songs by Claude Debussy.
These names are not simple cultural references added afterwards. They are a creative point of departure.
A work has a colour, a rhythm, a tension, sometimes even a texture. I try to translate something of that atmosphere into the cup.
Composing a tea then follows a logic close to that of a score: each element must find its place without erasing the others.
A flower, a fruit, a spice or a leaf must keep its own voice.
THE NAME HOLLIN
The name HOLLIN was born from a first idea: All-in, committing fully to what one undertakes.
The Chinese characters « 好联 » (hǎo lián), whose sound echoes the name HOLLIN, then offered it a second reading. « 好 » evokes what is good or right; « 联 », the bond and the act of connecting.
Together, we interpret them as the idea of a right connection: between an origin and a creation, between a material and an emotion, between what one receives and what one passes on.
For me, HOLLIN is therefore not a break with music.
It is another way of composing.
Founder of HOLLIN