All the Tea in China

/ / Published in Black Tea, Green Tea, Lessons on Tea, Production, Tea, Tea Growing Regions

This and the next few articles will familiarise you with the major tea growing countries and regions which are mostly in the Indian Ocean rim.

It is essentially the same botanical source, but the differing tea products and flavours are created by the terroir, weather, method of processing and the expertise of the manager of the tea garden as well as the tea blender.

Let us start with the biggest producer China, who grows almost 37% of the world’s tea production.

However as most of China’s tea is consumed domestically it is not the world’s largest exporter, which is Kenya.

Tea has been a central part of life and culture in China for thousands of years for social, medical and meditative purposes.

The major provinces in China that produce tea are in the south of the country: Sichuan, Fujian, Yunnan, Hunan, Zhejiang and Anhui are the most famous.

The tea from each province has its own distinctive character, appearance and flavour.

Green tea (all provinces), Black tea (Keemun from Anhui, Yunnan), Oolong (Fujian), and Puerh (Yunnan) are the most well known.

It is essential that China tea is bought from reputable outlets to ensure authenticity, purity and quality.

Almost 40 years ago I realised that the quality of teas being imported into Australia were of poor quality. The proliferation of teabags and a pricing regime enforced by the major supermarket chains had led to a noticeable drop in quality. Elmstock Tea Company was born out of this background in 1979. I had started my working life at 17 in the Tea Plantation/Accounts Department of a large company in Colombo. My family had connections to the tea trade and prior to that coffee and sugar plantations in Ceylon since the 1840s – an unbroken and direct link of over six generations. Many of the plantations started by or managed by my great grandparents still produce some of the teas we buy today! After migrating to Australia in 1972 I graduated from Curtin University and qualified as an accountant (CPA). I worked and managed large public companies involved in the wool trade for many years and was also involved with the listing of public companies on the ASX. Elmstock have been wholesaling premium quality teas and herbal infusions sourced from the best plantations for almost 40 years. We decided over twenty five years ago not to deal with the major supermarket chains as we did not want to compromise tea quality and revert to the ‘mediocrity of the pack’ which is entirely price driven.

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