Capstone Games and Czech publisher Albi are partnering to bring Tea Garden to North America and the U.K.  The new game will release in May.

Tea Garden is a deck-building and hand management style game created by Tomas Holek (SETI:  Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Galileo Galilei).  Set in the Yunnan region of China at the dawn of tea cultivation, the game puts players in charge of their own tea gardens which they try to grow into fully fledged tea empires.

During the game, players cultivate six different grades of tea, then convert them through “fermentation” to produce aromatic tea blends.  Each round, a player may take up to four actions using the cards in their own deck of cards that they build during play.  In this way, they can plant new tea gardens, acquire new cards to improve their deck, trade with tea caravans, produce and ferment tea, or even attend university to take tea classes.

Tea Garden will see general release in May, while stores that pre-order will receive it in March.  It is intended for two to four players, and takes about an hour and a half to play.

Capstone is also bringing Holek’s Galileo Galilei to North America next year (see “Capstone Games Teams Up with Pink Troubadour”).