The Revival of Chinese Tea
An interesting
article in The Huffington Post was forwarded to me this morning. In it, David Gossett, Director at the China Europe International Business School, speaks of the lack of branding in China's teas. All true. It wasn't too long ago that all the great tea in India was exported while the average man-on-the-street knew only of Brokens and CTC. He speaks of three conditions - consolidation of producers, the maturity and sophistication of the domestic market, and strategic branding. Unlike India and Ceylon where the manufacture of tea is much more vertically integrated, China has thousands of producers manufacturing small quantities. Time was that fresh leaf was collected and taken to one manufacturing facility with factories not growing any of their own leaf. Today, larger tea companies are owners of tea farms and grow their own leaf, manufacture it and export it. I am looking forward to seeing this in person next month on our trip to China to visit our suppliers.
An interesting article in The Huffington Post was forwarded to me this morning. In it, David Gossett, Director at the China Europe International Business School, speaks of the lack of branding in China's teas. All true. It wasn't too long ago that all the great tea in India was exported while the average man-on-the-street knew only of Brokens and CTC. He speaks of three conditions - consolidation of producers, the maturity and sophistication of the domestic market, and strategic branding. Unlike India and Ceylon where the manufacture of tea is much more vertically integrated, China has thousands of producers manufacturing small quantities. Time was that fresh leaf was collected and taken to one manufacturing facility with factories not growing any of their own leaf. Today, larger tea companies are owners of tea farms and grow their own leaf, manufacture it and export it. I am looking forward to seeing this in person next month on our trip to China to visit our suppliers.
