The Qi was founded by Lisa Li, who grew up northeast of Beijing drinking herbal teas with her grandmother before moving to the United States at 14. After more than a decade working in the fashion industry left her burned out and depleted, she returned to those childhood rituals as a source of healing. A 2017 trip with her mother to Yunnan, the birthplace of tea, led her to the Shangri-la rose the locals drink as a sipping tea, and from there to thousands of miles of sourcing travel and over a hundred flower tastings. The Qi launched from that journey.

The brand's core products are whole dried edible flowers, sourced directly from small family-owned farms across Asia and hand-picked at peak bloom. Each flower is dried on the day it's harvested to preserve its nutrients, then individually sealed. The lineup centers on flowers with long histories in Eastern herbal tradition, including rose, chrysanthemum, and blue lotus, all naturally caffeine-free and used in the line as both a sensory experience and a wellness practice. The Qi also carries blooming green teas and a line of functional layered teas.

The Qi operates on a direct-trade model, paying equitable prices to the farms it works with and conducting its own third-party lab testing in the United States. The brand has donated to several local nonprofits, including CAAAV and Heart of Dinner, as part of an ongoing commitment to community giving. For Li, the teas are an entry point into a broader philosophy: that the wellness practices of the East, rooted in daily ritual and whole-plant nourishment, offer something that most modern routines don't. Sonnet 4.6