Hello Readers,
Today marks a change in this blog direction. While there will still be periodic reviews of
particularly good or bad teas (and as soon as my tea plant flushes a
demonstration), I believe the direction of the blog should take a more encyclopedic
approach. Every tea is different, and
while I enjoy writing and complaining about certain teas, I as an individual
don’t learn much. Further more, each of us brews are teas differently, and even
how teas are stored will affect the tastes. I'm bolding the facts that I found particularly interesting. Further more most of the data in this entry comes from the UN FAO website (http://faostat.fao.org/site/291/default.aspx) as this is one of the best un-biased sources I could find. However I question much of the validity of this information but until a better source, it will have to do.
So on that note, let’s start our brains revving as we start
to look at as un-biased approach as possible.
And where better to start than with a challenge. Thus this entry is China; Part 1
China, considered by many to be the home of tea, and it is
the world’s leading producer of tea.
According to FAO, in the year 2005, China out-stripped India in tea
production. While how accurate this is,
and certainly the FAO estimates coming out of China seem to be growing at an
impossible rate (but why would a capitalistic “communistic” country lie?). In 2010, again according to the FAO, China
accounted for 32.6 percent of the world’s supply of tea. India was at 22 percent. 5 years, to gain a 10% lead is
incredible. See graph for more reasons
to be skeptical. In 2 years China’s tea
yields have increase 15.1%
Graph 1, Note figures are in tonnes. Also to note much if this information was put in by hand, and while I have double check the top 3 producers there is still the possibility of error.
However China is where the basis of western ways of drinking
tea emerged. Yes the native people of
assam had a “brew of tea” and yes the indigenous Burmese have been preserving
tea leaves as a form of food for gosh knows how long, but the concept of drinking tea from dried
leaves is of Chinese origin. We could go
into the myths and legends that much of China likes to pretend about (see Cultural
Revolution and why I say “pretend”). But let’s jump straight in to the
different styles of tea production that emerged in China.
Tang Dynasty = This method is when teas were prepared by
compressing into bricks, that were then softened and could then be crumbled
with a mortar and pestle. The powder
from this was then mixed with ginger, onion and salt, and drunk like a
soup. The easiest way I remember this
method is thinking about Pu-Erh teas that are drunk in Tibet.
Song Dynasty = From the above method the teas were less
brick format, and instead turned straight into powder which was then whisked
into a white/jade foam. This is the
method that the Japanese Tea Ceremony represents.
Qing Dynasty = This is the final method, the method that we
recognize where the tea leaves are dried in the “modern day” format.
China has an absurd amount of area for growing tea. Quoting the Camellia Sinensis book Tea,
History Terroirs Varieties, they put the figure around 3.7 million acres (1.5
million ha). ((Just shy of the size of
Swaziland in Africa)). What is more
impressive is that this number is rapidly increasing, by about 100,000 ha a
year. As the 2012 figures are not out,
it would be safe to assume that area of production is now around 1.6 million
ha. What is even more impressive, is the
fact all this tea is being grown for export.
Already China vies for the number 2 spot in export list, (Kenya beats it
out), but as China population is not
growing, and tea is not a luxury item, I believe it is safe to say this tea is
being grown for export. Huge regions
are turning into cultivation, and sadly this does mean a significant decrease
in quality. However what this does
ensure that the price of tea stays low, forcing many other countries to
suffer. The other advantage China has,
is that the different regions all create different climates, so while quality
has been declining, differentiation is occurring at a rapid rate allowing for
maximum market exposure.
Quoting Camellia Sinensis book again (and I will be doing
that a lot, as it is one of the few tea books that has impressed me), they give
rough figures of 73.7% of total tea production is going to green tea. With black tea composing only 5.6%, and
oolongs composing 10.5%, and others (Pu-Erh, yellow, and white teas) composting
11.2%. If I was to predict variance in
these figures, I would expect that the other category, as well as the black tea
to increase.
Going off of the FAO website and Camellia Sinensis book
again, China’s exports increased by 2.02% in the years 2008 to 2010, totally
305,857 tonnes. It will be interesting to note in 3-4 years what the increase on exports will be, as I mentioned above China is rapidly expanding its land area of production. There is approximately a 3 year delay from planting to harvest as the tea plants mature. However returning back to the figures; the biggest
importers from China were:
- Morocco 61,309 tonnes (7.94% increase from 2008)
- USA 24,821 tonnes (32.03% increase from 2008)
- Russia 21,271 tonnes (16.23% increase from 2008)
- Japan 19,456 tonnes (-29.76% ((decrease)) from 2008)
- Uzbekistan 18,578 tonnes (-2.23% ((decrease) from 2008)
The marked increase in USA imports from China are one of the
reasons why I justify my belief that the specialty tea market in China will be
rapidly expanding. Furthermore as USA’s
tea market expands, China will most likely fill this void. Much of USA’s green tea history can be traced
to Japan. This is changing. I would expect to see this number increase
even more drastically in the coming decade.
The last component from the Camellia Sinensis book, and I
really enjoyed the fact that they pointed this out, was the importance of
beautiful teas to the Chinese market.
While in the west, taste has a higher influence, the way tea looks as it
brews is a crucial make-or-break component of teas for the Chinese market. How the teas sit in the pot, if they stand
vertically, how green and fresh they look (regardless of taste). Blooming teas are another element that is
becoming rapidly popular in the west.
However what will be interesting to see will be if this transitions to
the western market. Especially as China
ramps up its exports, how the west deals with Chinas over zealous tea production
will be interesting.
I hope the above information proves useful. Well it probably won't be useful to anyone, but it does put out some facts, and helps to set the stage. A China Part 2 will most likely follow in the future, but the next entry will be on....(drum roll).... India.
-Tea Fanatic
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