Tourists stop to drink tea at the Baiyun Cave Scenic Spot in Gushan, Fuzhou, Fujian. Photographed by Jiang Kehong, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

May 21 is the "International Tea Day" established by the United Nations. Tea is one of the three major drinks in the world. It originated in China and is popular in the world. China is a big country in tea production and consumption. In recent years, more and more people know and love tea. The tea industry has diversified and tea consumption has become younger.

Enjoy the tea flavor and charm, and share the beautiful life. At the arrival of the "International Tea Day", the reporter walked into tea gardens, tea factories, tea enterprises and tea shops to observe new trends in industrial development and new phenomena in the consumer market.

——Editor

Small group tea meets new tea

Our reporter Wang Yinxin

Open the applet, select tea soup and small ingredients in order, determine the sweetness, and place an order. But in three or five minutes, a new cup of tea will be made.

"You can take it when you arrive, and drink while walking." Ms. Lin, an office worker near Xinhe Square in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, ordered a cup of milk tea for an afternoon walk. When going out, it has become a new habit for many consumers to order a cup of milk tea, fruit tea and other new tea drinks based on the original tea.

"The tea selected from this milk tea is very special. It tastes fresh and sweet, which is very suitable for my taste. I have bought it back several times." This tea base, which is loved by Ms. Lin, is called Zhangping Narcissus. It is a small tea produced in Zhangping City, Longyan, Fujian Province. It belongs to the Oolong tea category in southern Fujian Province with Tie Guanyin. Compared with mainstream tea varieties, the output of minority tea is relatively small. Zhangping has planted more than 50000 mu of narcissus tea, with an annual output of more than 6000 tons, less than 1/10 of the annual output of famous teas such as Wuyi Rock Tea and Anxi Tieguanyin. Previously, most of them were consumed by local people, but in recent years, they are very popular with tea brands, and many "hot money" tea drinks have been produced.

There are so many kinds of tea, why is it Zhangping Narcissus? Liu Suhui, director of Zhangping Tea Industry Development Center, believes that it is because of the special taste of Zhangping narcissus. "The advantages lie in the mellow taste, pleasant flower fragrance, moderate fermentation, bright orange and yellow soup, and cooperation with tea brands." Liu Suhui said that the competition in the new tea market is fierce, and behind each "popular" is the continuous exploration of unique flavor.

Now is the spring tea making period of Zhangping narcissus. As a traditional Gongfu tea, Zhangping narcissus used to drink very carefully - people sat around, warmed their cups, heated their cups, and tasted them separately... "Unexpectedly, now Gongfu tea can also be held in their hands and drunk while walking." Zheng Wenhai, the inheritor of Longyan municipal intangible cultural heritage of Zhangping narcissus tea production technology, experienced the "popularity" of this small group of tea. Three years ago, when a tea shop approached Zheng Wenhai to discuss cooperation, he was still very surprised. Over the past three years, his 400 mu tea mountain has steadily cooperated with two leading tea brands in China. Of the more than 50 tons of narcissus tea produced annually, more than 20 tons are directly supplied to tea brands, which not only doubled his own sales, but also drove the income growth of more than 100 surrounding tea farmers.

Not only the narcissus in Zhangping, but also the new type of tea brings huge growth to the original tea market. According to the High Quality Development Report of New Tea Drinks in 2022 issued by the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the market size of the new tea drinks industry in 2022 will exceed 290 billion yuan, and the purchase of upstream tea raw materials will exceed 200000 tons, directly driving the value-added of the tea industry to more than 10 billion yuan.

"The popularity of new tea drinks reflects the youth of tea industry consumer groups." Guan Xi, associate professor of the School of Economics and Management of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, believes that as the main force of future tea industry consumption, young people do not love tea, but their tea drinking preferences are different from the market positioning of traditional brewing tea drinks. "They are more in pursuit of unique taste and convenient access. The new type of tea drinks can be taken as soon as possible, coupled with the unique flavor of minority tea, which accurately touches the consumption habits of young people," Guan Xi said.

How to guarantee the quality of products after they become popular? Zheng Wenhai introduced that in the process of cooperation with tea brands, the brand will give clear standards - there are strict regulations on the season of tea, the quality of tea, the steps of fermentation, and how to mix. "After passing the evaluation, the tea is packed and transported to each store through the cold chain to ensure the quality of tea," Zheng Wenhai said.

"Behind every new product, from milk tea, fruit tea to the new Chinese style health tea, there is potential and space for a small group of tea." Guan Xi said that China has a wide variety of tea, and almost every region has its own unique tea varieties and local flavor. The new style tea drinks have brought more small groups of tea into the public's view, making more young people know, understand and love tea, We should improve the supply capacity of minority tea through technological transformation and resource integration; At the same time, strictly control the quality, avoid short-sighted behaviors such as "shoddy", and promote the sustainable development of minority tea industry with good quality and good reputation.

New traffic from tea culture tourism

Our reporter Zhang Wenhao

After the rain, the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains in Xinyang, Henan, is covered with green tea gardens. On the mountaintop sightseeing platform, Mr. Zhang from Kaifeng, Henan, looked at the 10000 mu tea garden in front of him and said, "Yesterday I drove here with my friends for this cup of Maojian new tea."

Half way up the mountain, sporadic tea farmers are picking with bamboo baskets. Since the new tea came into the market, tourism has flourished. The teahouse on the top of the mountain and the outdoor tent are surrounded by tourists from all over the world: buy a tea ticket, take the shuttle bus to the top of the mountain, taste the new bubble tip, and enjoy leisure time.

At the foot of the tea mountain, in the new Chinese tea shop, Wang Yuhan, the clerk, skillfully made ice-cream with strong tea flavor and handed it to the customer.

In recent years, Xinyang has been working hard on tea, cultivating high-quality tea culture tourism routes, implementing the integrated development of tea tourism, creating a global tourism demonstration area at the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains, implementing the demonstration project of one hundred theme homestays in the Dabie Mountains, and cultivating a variety of new tea tourism formats and consumption scenarios.

Near noon, the Guizhuoyuan homestay in Haojiachong Village became lively. "We opened on the May Day holiday the year before last, and now we have become a tea manor integrating accommodation, tea tasting, and study." After that, Cui Jun, the operator, waved to the guests.

In Guizhuoyuan Tea School, a 60 year old tea stir fry master Qiang Yunguo and his wife taught tourists to fry newly picked green leaves by hand, and many students who came to tea mountain to study watched curiously. "The master is in a good position and admires the craftsmanship spirit." Li Haiqing, a student of Xinyang University, is from other places. This research trip gave her a deeper understanding of Xinyang tea culture.

The warm breeze in the afternoon brings bursts of tea fragrance. In Xinyang City Baihuayuan City Study, a tea themed study of nearly 300 square meters, several young people gathered around the table for tea. Yao Li, the post-90s manager, introduced that this is a new Chinese tea space created at the beginning of the year, which can be used to cook tea in a stove or make new tea drinks. "Compared with traditional teahouses, this is more suitable for young people's consumption needs".

At the beginning of the light, Xinyang Youth Camp was crowded, and a Maojian market activity was held here. Over 600 mu of green land, there are all kinds of intangible cultural heritage handcrafts, mellow tea drinks and modern refreshments. Ren Jun, Director of Xinyang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, said that Xinyang is stimulating the new vitality of tea tourism in the form of youth and innovation. Xinyang has tea gardens of more than 2.16 million mu and tea output of 90000 tons. Through the innovative development of tea tourism integration, the city has built 95 campsites, more than 50 tea themed homestays, 35 tea plantations and 67 research travel bases.

"More and more young people are looking for poetry and distance through tea culture." Guo Guiyi, a professor of Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University, believes that tea consumption has gone from traditional to modern, and tea cultural tourism has become more diverse. Tea source areas should catch up with this flow, supplement the weak points of supporting facilities, enrich tea cultural and creative products, and let tea tourism glow with youth and vitality.

Traditional tea changes into new packaging

Our reporter Li Maoying

Experiencing Pu'er special drinks, tasting rose Pu'er tea ice cream... In the tea shops of Changshui Airport in Kunming, Yunnan, customers are bustling. In the consumption space with the color of Pu'er tea as the background, there are many kinds of tea cakes with different flavors, as well as new tea products such as tea bags, small cans of tea, instant tea, freeze-dried tea powder, etc. for consumers to choose.

"I've only seen coffee with this kind of freeze-dried packaging before, but I've seen tea for the first time. With tea powder packaging, it's more convenient to take it out for travel and business trips. I can drink it at any time. I want to buy a box to try," said Ms. Liu, a customer.

In recent years, with the rapid growth of tea market scale and rapid iteration of products, consumers' enthusiasm for tea and tea consumption has continued to rise. "Young people are more and more fond of drinking tea, which is the result of the combined effect of culture, social interaction, personalized needs and consumer convenience. What is particularly critical is that with the improvement of living standards, young consumers' demand for health care drinks is growing, and natural and high-quality raw materials, such as fresh fruit, high-quality tea, etc., have become new selling points." Wang Baijuan, Dean of the Tea School of Yunnan Agricultural University, said.

Young people who love tea are influencing the tea market. According to the consumption habits of young people, traditional tea enterprises actively explore more possibilities of the tea industry and explore new product packaging design forms to meet the needs of consumers for quick and portable tea drinking in different scenarios such as outdoor activities, office work and travel.

"The traditional Pu'er tea cake is large in size and needs special equipment to access it, which has high environmental requirements for tea drinking." Shao Aiju, deputy general manager of Dayi Group Menghai Tea Industry Co., Ltd., took out a mini tea brick, each 5g in size, "This is the amount of tea that our tea masters have repeatedly measured and customized. Each time we drink tea, we only need to take out one piece of tea and rinse it, and one piece of tea can be soaked for a whole day."

At the recent China Yunnan Pu'er Tea International Expo and Trade Fair, many enterprises brought tea crystals, tea drinks and other new tea products to the exhibition. "When we do product development now, we will study the preferences of young consumers, and make efforts from the portability and taste. Tea crystal is the original tea extracted through intelligent fermentation, one is a cup of tea, and a cup of delicious Pu'er tea can be instantly dissolved in three seconds." Shao Aiju introduced. The young tea market has diversified tastes. Tea enterprises add gardenia, chicory, mulberry leaves, etc. according to the taste and different health functions that consumers like, and provide the market with instant Pu'er of different flavors through scientific matching.

"Whether it's traditional tea drinks in small packages or tea crystal extracted by intelligent fermentation, the market feedback is very good, and the sales volume has increased year after year. In 2023, the sales volume of mini tea bricks will increase by about 30% compared with the previous year. The sales of tea crystal products on e-commerce platforms are particularly good, with a high repurchase rate," said Shao Aiju.

Coordinator of this period: Guo Xueyan

Layout design: Zhang Danfeng

Share to let more people see