Thursday January 23, 2014 | 9 comments
Cheap tea will not become a thing of the past in China. However, there is a rising desire for better quality tea that is beginning to drive the market trends. This demand change will make cheap, lower-quality tea harder to find, with quality decreasing in tandem with price. This trend can be seen happening with gunpowder green tea.
Gunpowder green tea has been one of the staples of Chinese exports, and 5 or 10 years ago it was possible to get some pretty good quality gunpowder with the bulk of it available with international organic certifications. Try finding the equivalent now. Good luck. Pesticide use goes hand in hand with cheap tea because lower altitude summer leaves, which are plagued by pest problems, are sure to be used.
Probably the biggest buyer of gunpowder is Morocco, and when I talked to the head of the Moroccan Tea Council at a conference in China earlier this year, he asked me why it was so hard to get gunpowder. Not just good gunpowder, but simply enough gunpowder to meet the needs of the Moroccan market. This scarcity of product is because the biggest gunpowder producer in 2006 in Zhejiang no longer makes very much, and what they do isn’t profitable. Instead, they are making organically certified higher quality Longjing, and it is excellent.
At some point, Chinese tea producers started asking themselves, “Why make tea that wholesales for a couple of dollars when I can make tea that sells for a couple of hundred?” The Chinese domestic market supports the option of higher quality at a higher price as the middle class grows and is looking for a better quality of life. That wish goes hand in hand with being able to buy tea that had always been reserved for the nobility. This is a trend that will not change. Once you have tasted the good stuff, for most people there is no going back. It has become a matter of exposure and education, and a willingness to pay more for tea. Still, at today’s prices, even the most expensive tea is a bargain compared to fine wine.
This question is not only being asked in China, but it is also already being asked in India, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, where the majority of growers are small holders who can pivot easier than large plantations. It is wrong to think that the world’s tea drinkers will not follow that trend. There are producers who are trying white tea, and wulongs, as well as green tea. There is no reason that I can see that tea which requires greater skill and cultivars focused on quality rather that quantity, will not spread everywhere as it has with fine wine.
Tongmu Village invented black tea that became so popular, in its many forms, in the rest of the world to the degree tea is now the most consumed beverage after water. Tongmu hasn’t grown though, nor will it. Their village economy has prospered through innovation and applying their knowledge to produce incredible quality tea. They did that in a market place that had never existed before, and not once but twice. First by making the best out of a bad situation and inventing black tea, and then by taking things to a new standard of excellence with Jin Jun Mei to elevate their invention to the highest level ever reached by a black tea.
This is the final post in the series The Demise of Tongmu Lapsang Souchong. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 by clicking on each link.
Photo courtesy of the author. Image 1: Lainge Junde, inventor of Jin Jun Mei.
Austin Hodge is the founder of sevencups.com.
Thank you so much Austin. I’ve enjoyed this series tremendously. It’s very helpful to read about the evolution of Chinese tea, specifically Lapsang Souchong, and how it impacts us – the buyer and drinker – today. It’s not surprising that as the Chinese economy evolves, the price and availability of good quality tea will increase. I think the improved standard of excellence will benefit everyone. As long as I can re-steep my green teas 4-5 times throughout the day, it will remain a bargain and a delicious one at that.
Michelle, I’m glad you enjoyed my article. Tongmu is a timely village, and never was a major source so people really won’t be able to notice much of a change. There is still a lot of very good Lapsang Souchong that is still produced in the traditional way in the Wuyishan area. I think the price of quality tea is still very low, when you compare it to fine wine and even some of the higher quality coffee. It took a long time for people to adjust to having to spend more that 25 cents for a cup of coffee and there had to be coffee that was better than the Folger’s they were used too. The also has to be a change it the biases that surround Chinese products, especially tea, as being somehow unsafe, which is really not the case, especially where good quality tea is concerned. It will also be decades before the tea producers outside of China get the technical skills necessary to produce the equivalent to Chinese tea, but that movement has already started in India. It is really inevitable that it will happen.
Austin these developments have prompted Chinese producers to close their factory visits to Indians – although there are very few Indian so far really going around in China – I will quote two incidences – one is Yunnan CTC another is Pu’er – very little is known of uneconomic production of CTC teas in Yunnan and very remote possibility of Pu’er production in India…but a veil of secrecy has already started to fall upon the concerned minds…it is sad.
This was such an interesting series on one of my favourite teas – and tea growing regions of the world. Rajiv’s mention of secrecy really takes one back to the early days of 19th century botanical espionage, when the British were trying to figure out how to grow tea in India. That’s what I like about tea – it encourages contemplation and the long view…
Rajiv,
Unilever is buying most of the Yunnan CTC. The machines are made in India, and installed and calibrated by Indians. The Yunnan producers are trapped in a losing proposition being forced to pay prices that are below market price as is demanded by Unilever. They can not compete in Dubai because shipping costs from Yunnan are high. Cost of labor is also high and all of the tea is hand picked. The tea is good though. I have not heard anything about puer being made in India I would guess that it would bet theoretically possible in Eastern Assam to have the right microbiology in the forest for puer to be possible. I would think that it would be a bit hard to sell. What I was talking about is green, wulong, and black production in India that could compare and compete withe the great Chinese teas. You are a good example of a producer that is moving in that direction.
I saw the failed and bitter experiment of CTC in Yunnan right from the beginning since pu’er market crashed worldwide and an enormous crop was waiting to be used somehow and CTC appeared to be the only answer. Current composition of big production facilities to make almost all types of teas under one roof – be it pu’er, black, green or CTC – of Dian Hong group, Menku Shuangjiang, Dai Tea, etc etc is a good proposition to support the small growers and a quantum shift from tea to coffee as a second generation crop. Present production of about 25 million kilos of high quality CTC which is pretty good in the cup and bought mainly by Lipton has not been able to satisfy the needs of Wahaha, Uni-President or Shang Piao Piao brands in China’s vast market.
Austin (and Rajiv),
I cannot begin to tell you how much I have learned from this series and how much I appreciate it. It is these very stories and explanations that have kept me so enraptured by tea and I can’t imagine a time when I will feel like “I know it all”. Thank you!
Thank you so much Naomi. It means a lot to me.
Nnaomi – like you I also learnt so much from this series and am equally thankful to Austin, likes of him only bring such hidden knowledge to the english speaking world. Look forward to more such write ups.