Tea Garden: Puerh
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FroGames — Moments You'll Remember
Someone places a courtier and shakes their head. Someone assembles puer tiles and counts bonuses. At the end of the round, everyone counts the score markers twice, because now there's too much to keep track of.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
The expansion that takes Tea Garden where casual players dare not tread
Tea Garden: Puerh is the expansion that Tomáš Holek designed for those who wanted more. Not more content — more complexity. More choices. More places where points come from. Published by Capstone Games in 2025, Puerh adds the Court of Nobles and the puer tea market, increasing the available actions from five to seven. And with them come the imperial decrees: cards that turn games upside down.
At the table, this means: you place courtier meeples in the Court's rooms for immediate bonuses and majorities at the end of the round. You build chains of puer tiles that cascade when you add a new one. You plan not on three axes but on five. The base game was a solid mid-weight. Puerh takes it into expert territory, without apology.
What they say abroad
Puerh is not for everyone. It's for those who found the base Tea Garden too constrained.
— FroGames
The expansion that doubles strategic depth without touching the theme.
— FroGames
Tea Garden: Puerh
The expansion includes dedicated components for solo play, with an automated opponent system that manages the Court and the puer market. The experience is complete and maintains the tension of optimization, but it obviously loses the race for majorities at Court, which is less dramatic against a bot.
FrogScore · FroGames editorial rating · based on rulebook, international reviews, and play sessionsWhat it adds to the box
The four pillars of the expansion
Court of Nobles
New action: place courtier meeples in the Court's rooms. Immediate bonuses when you enter, points at the end of the round if you control the majority. A parallel race to the main game.
Puer Market
Second new action: assemble puer tiles into chains. Each tile activates when you add a new one next to it. Bonuses cascade. Long-term planning is mandatory.
Imperial Decrees
Event cards that change the rules during the game. Some reward specific strategies, others penalize those who don't adapt. They add tactical unpredictability.
Solo Components
Complete system for solo play, with an automated opponent that manages the Court and the market. It's not an afterthought: it's designed to work.
Recommended sleeves 1 card in 1 size ▼
If you play often, we recommend protecting your cards with transparent sleeves to make them last longer.
| Size | Quantity |
|---|---|
| 54 × 84 mm | 1 |
| Total cards | 1 |
In two hours you will have understood whether Tea Garden was enough for you or if Puerh was what was missing. The answer will be different for everyone.
A game in five moments
What happens at the table
Not the rules. The experience.
Setup longer than expected
First game with Puerh: read the rules for the new actions, set up the Court, prepare the puer tiles, shuffle the decrees. Those who know the base game say "wait, now there are seven actions?". Those who don't look at you as if you've opened Twilight Imperium.
The first courtier and the first doubt
Someone places the first meeple at the Court. They get an immediate bonus and potential points. Everyone understands that now there's one more race to follow. Someone asks: "But do they only give points at the end of the round?". Yes. And now you have to think about that too.
The puer chains lengthen
Mid-game: someone has built a chain of three puer tiles. They place the fourth and activate the entire sequence. They get wood, tea, money, points. The others count the bonuses twice to be sure. Someone says: "Ah, so that's how it works." Yes. And you had three turns to figure it out.
The imperial decree that changes everything
A decree is revealed: "Whoever has the most courtiers at Court gets 5 bonus points." Someone had ignored the Court until now. Now they know they lost that race. They try to catch up but it's too late. Decrees don't forgive those who ignore an entire axis of the game.
Point counting in three phases
End of game: count points from the base game. Then points from completed puer tiles. Then majorities at the Court. Then imperial decrees. Someone wins by 4 points thanks to a chain that the others hadn't noticed. Someone says: "Beautiful, but I don't know if I'll play it again right away."
How to play
The flow of each round (with Puerh)
Puerh doesn't change the round structure, but adds two actions to the pool and three new ways to score points.
Alternate turns, one worker at a time. Now you have seven actions to choose from: the five from the base game (cultivate tea, gather resources, sell, improve, build) plus Court and puer market. Each action can be blocked.
Basic actions work as usual. The Court gives you immediate bonuses and marks your presence for the majority. The puer market allows you to add tiles and activate retroactive bonus chains.
Count the majorities at the Court: whoever has the most courtiers in a room scores points. Reveal a new imperial decree that will influence the next turns. Reset actions. Repeat.
In addition to the normal points from Tea Garden, add: points from completed puer tiles (longer = more points), points from fulfilled imperial decrees, final points from the Court. Whoever has optimized on all axes wins.
Why it's different from the others
Six mechanics that make a difference
Dynamic majorities at Court
It's not classic area control. You place courtiers during the round, but majorities are only counted at the end. You can enter late and turn a room around with a single meeple if others have split. Or dominate a room and force others to ignore it. It's a psychological race more than a tactical one.
Cascading puer chains
Puer tiles connect like a puzzle. Each new tile activates all adjacent ones, creating resource and point combos. It's not Splendor: you don't buy cards for discounts. You build self-sustaining engines. Those who plan three turns ahead dominate the market.
Imperial decrees as a meta-game
They are not random events. They are public objectives that reward specific strategies: "Whoever has the most green tea gets 5 points." Revealed gradually, they force adaptation of plans. Ignoring them means losing 10-15 points at the end of the game. Following all of them means having no strategy.
Seven actions without downtime
Going from five to seven actions seems minor. But it means that each space is more contested, each choice has more alternatives, each turn has more suboptimal options. The paradox of choice becomes real: more freedom, more paralysis. Those who know what they want win. Those who explore waste time.
Vertical complexity, not horizontal
Puerh does not add new phases or rounds. It adds depth to existing actions. The Court is an action like any other, but it has implications over three rounds. Puer is an action like any other, but it requires long-term planning. It's not more stuff, it's more strategy.
Points from five different sources
Base game: points from sold tea, buildings, objectives. Puerh adds: points from Court majorities, points from puer chains, points from imperial decrees. At the end of the game, you count six times. Those who optimize only two axes lose. Those who optimize all win by narrow margins.
How it ends
How to win and how to lose
Puerh does not change the basic victory conditions, but adds three new ways to accumulate points. Ignoring even one risks losing.
Victory
- Control majorities at the Court in at least two rooms, accumulating constant points each round
- Build puer chains 4-5 tiles long, maximizing final points from completion
- Fulfill at least three imperial decrees during the game, earning 15-20 bonus points
Fatal errors
- Ignore the Court for the entire game and lose 20-30 points from majorities that others take for free
- Build short puer chains (1-2 tiles) that don't give enough points compared to the action investment
- Don't adapt strategy to revealed imperial decrees, losing 10-15 points that were within reach
Puerh is not for everyone. But if the base Tea Garden seemed like a great idea executed with too much caution, this expansion is what was missing. Complexity without bloat. Depth without cruft.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ about Tea Garden: Puerh
Do you need the base Tea Garden game to play Puerh?
Yes, mandatory. Puerh is an expansion, not a standalone game. It adds components, actions, and mechanics, but it does not include the base game. The complete Tea Garden is required to play.
How much does it increase in complexity compared to the base game?
The BGG weight of the base game is 2.3 (light-medium). Puerh brings the complexity towards 3.0-3.2 (medium-heavy). It's not a huge leap, but those who struggle with the base game will struggle with Puerh. Those who find the base game too simple will appreciate the upgrade.
Can you play with only some parts of the expansion?
Technically yes: you can add only the Court or only the puer market. But the imperial decrees are designed to interact with both, so playing Puerh partially loses meaning. It's all or nothing.
Does the solo mode work well with this expansion?
Yes. The expansion includes specific components for solo play, with an automa that manages the Court and puer. The experience is complete, although obviously, majorities at the Court against a bot are less dramatic than against humans.
Is it available in Italian?
This edition is in English, published by Capstone Games. The game has medium language dependency (cards with text), so knowledge of English or translated references is required. At the moment, no Italian editions have been announced.
Tea Garden: Puerh is the strategic expansion for 1-4 players (12+, 90-120 minutes) designed by Tomáš Holek and published by Capstone Games. It adds the Court of Nobles with a majority system, the puer tea market with modular cascading chains, and imperial decrees that modify games. Worker placement expanded from 5 to 7 total actions, with higher complexity than the base game (weight 2.3 → ~3.0). Includes official solo mode with dedicated automa. Available on FroGames.it.
Tea Garden: Puerh
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