Tea

Tea Farm
Anhui Province, China

Tea Farm Anhui Province

We are familiar with two tea producing areas.
First, the small and relatively new Hawaii Tea.
Second, the mother country of tea, China.
Here are comments on both.
1st, the small, new comer.

Hawaii Tea

Is there a future in Hawaii for a new agricultural product such as tea?

One organization, the fledgling Hawaii Tea Society, votes 'Yes' and is working hard to make this dream a reality. The Hawaii Tea Society is a group of approximately 40 backyard tea farmers who are optimistic about Hawaii Tea. We are too. We hope, some day soon, Hawaii Tea will enjoy a market place success similar to that of Kauai and Kona coffee.

We believe in the Future of Hawaii Tea

We believe in Hawaii Tea and believe Hawaii can become a profitable producer of quality tea. This is starting to happen. Further, we believe the Hawaii Tea Society is going in the right direction. Hawaii tea has potential. While this potential is quite small when compared to the volumes produced in major tea producing countries, it is large enough to generate profits, create jobs, establish a new, sustainable agricultural economic base for Hawaii farmers.

Now, with humility and limited knowledge, our I Love Honolulu team presents our experiences with the Chinese tea industry.

China Tea

Our China Tea Journey

In the summer of 2005, our we traveled in four of the tea-producing Provinces in China with the purpose of learning about the Chinese Tea Industry. We started in Guangzhou China, at the grandmother of all Chinese Trade Fairs, the biannual and world famous, Canton Fair. There, we spoke to and learned from representatives of more than 20 of China's major tea processors and exporters. We asked questions and listened and took notes. Several of these firms provided us samples, which our Chinese friends and ourselves tasted and tested.

Then, before starting our journey, we visited the three most famous Tea Markets in Guangzhou. In these, we spoke with the shop owners and workers, asked questions, bought samples and took notes. Then, after several in house meetings and discussions, we planned our trip. We selected four tea producing firms to visit. They happened to be located in three separate Chinese provinces. We chose these firms because we felt they had the quality and expertise we desired.

From Guangdong Province, we traveled to Zhejiang Province where our first stop was the Chinese National Tea Museum in Hangzhou. From there we visited tea farms, tea gardens, tea processing factories, tea warehouses, tea wholesalers and tea markets in Zhejiang, Anhui and Hunan Province. We witnessed various processing procedures and spoke with numerous professionals at various levels in the Chinese tea industry. The large tea processors and exporters in China normally operate under the umbrella of the national government or a provincial government. These quasi government conglomerates grow some of their own tea, but generally buy most of it from a multitude of small scale, local farmers.

A bridge on Xi Hu (West Lake) in Zhejiang Province

Asking Questions

In each Chinese Province we visited, we asked questions concerning the quality and special characteristics of the respective local teas.
We asked the local experts why they considered the teas from their Provinces to be the best in China.
In addition, we tasted numerous teas and tried to be attentive to their various characteristics.
We started our adventure, with a very basic layman’s knowledge of tea. At the end, while our knowledge improved, we know it is still basic.
We do now have, however, a much greater appreciation and interest in tea and have a desire to learn more and more and more.

Tea Knowledge

We find the experts disagree on virtually every aspect of tea beginning with the basic tea classification categories. We learned tea is a very subjective item to judge.
We have learned there is NO best tea in China
nor anywhere else for that matter.
Opinions and tastes vary greatly. Upbringing in a particular area where a specific tea is popular
has a permeating impact and total influence on a taster’s opinions. We learned numerous characteristics to be attentive to when inspecting tea and other features to consider
when tasting or drinking tea. We learned the critical importance of Timing.
Timing in the production of quality tea; Timing in the planting;
Timing in the plucking;
Timing in the processing.
Unfortunately, with eagerness
to make short term profits, the various factors including Timing can (and more often than we like to believe) easily be ignored.

Tea Expertise

A tea expert:
One who knows
he can sometimes be deceived
Be careful of those
who claim otherwise.

Who has it?

Tea has played a major role in the history,
culture and customs of China.
During the Canton Fair and our journey,
we spoke with dozens of tea experts.
Some have been in the tea business
for decades. Others have work experience,
as well as advanced degrees in tea
and related agricultural subjects.
These people have basically studied,
worked with and lived with tea their whole lives.

Tea Considerations

As mentioned above, tea testing and judging
are highly subjective activities.
In addition, tea qualities do vary greatly.
Factors related to tea quality
include the geographic area where it is grown;
the soil quality; the weather;
the sensitivity to timing during
the picking and processing;
the actual processing procedure
and the storage methods.
All of these factors may or may not
influence the appearance of the tea.
The inexperienced eye can be easily deceived.

Wall Chart
Chinese National Tea Museum

Dragon Well (Long Jing) Tea Village
Zhejiang Province

Well and Chasm

After talking with the tea experts and
comparing their information and recommendations
to our experience in the Guangzhou Tea Markets,
we found a chasm of difference between
the knowledge and recommendations
of the professionals and
the actual operating practices in the marketplace.
This leads to our concern when buying tea.

The Perils of Buying Tea

While we, admittedly, have limited knowledge of tea,
we do have some two dozen years of experience
with large American retail firms
where inventory management and
logistical issues are a daily concern.
Consequently, we are very conscious
of product freshness concerns;
inventory control procedures;
FIFO (first in; first out) methods;
warehousing systems, and
quality control procedures.
We are also very conscious of the value of training.
Visiting long established Tea Markets
we noted very little awareness of these issues
and very little concern about managing them.
We observed limited concern with
preserving tea freshness and tea quality.
We observed large apparent overstocks of tea.
We observed many clerks with very scant,
cursory knowledge of tea.
We found much potential
for misrepresenting and mislabeling.
This led us to the conclusion
there is much potential for fraud
and, it occurs regularly .
Our observations were made in China,
the birthplace of tea and many Chinese
consider themselves to be experts in tea.
Yet, we observed many
deceptive circumstances and practices.
Consequently, we issue a caveat emptor
warning when buying tea. Be careful.
We also question the conventional wisdom
concerning the knowledge claimed
by the average tea buyer.

Market Staff

By and large the many stalls in the Tea Markets are staffed with young girls from the countryside.
(For those of you, who bow to American P. C. mantras,
please be aware: In China, single females,
who are under 25, prefer, and many firmly insist, to be called girls. Some become very indignant
when referred to as a woman or a lady.
They perceive the speaker to be insinuating
they look very old. As we are referring
to these individuals here, we respect
and bow to their P. C. requests and
avoid being accused of ramming
our cultural imperialistic attitudes upon them).
These young females, while pleasant and attractive,
have little basic education and
virtually no schooling on tea and tea culture.
Some of the larger tea chain stores
do provide their staffs with short courses on tea.
While we laud this practice we are also aware
80% of the courses teach the attendees
how to sell tea and only 20% is devoted
to basic tea knowledge.

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