It’s tough to discover a higher collection of tea fans throughout the world than the remote, mountainous Chinese county of Wuyishan each November. Called after the well known Wuyi Mountains not far from the nation’s southeastern coast, growers here concentrate on rock teas, a few of the very best, most expensive, and a lot of popular teas in the world.
Every year, as fall develops into winter season, 10s of countless tea manufacturers, traders, and drinkers collect in Wuyishan to see, sample, and review each other’s teas. These occasions, called doucha huior “tea fights,” are suggested to identify the year’s finest ranges.
The stakes are high: Past winners have actually commanded costs up of 40,000 yuan ($5,600) per kg, while the strategies utilized in their production are rapidly mimicked by other growers.
“Wuyishan’s tea competitors resemble style week for rock teas,” states Huang Sheng, the creator of a neighborhood for tea lovers. “They specify the taste of rock tea each year.”
It’s an apt contrast. At a few of Wuyishan’s bigger competitors you’ll discover countless tea enthusiasts from around the globe roaming from stall to stall clutching small teacups in their hands, all trying to find the next huge thing.
Now that interest is assisting change rock teas from a forgotten afterthought of China’s previous royal homage system into an extremely rewarding money crop– even as some regional growers stress the rise in interest threats privileging trends at the cost of custom.
Black Bohea
Teas from Wuyishan were when amongst the best-known on the planet– what European merchants called “black Bohea.” The area’s tea culture was created through centuries of competitors in between regional growers– a custom that goes back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), when Wuyishan tea growers fought for the right to send their fruit and vegetables as homage to the royal court.
By the end of the 20th century, nevertheless, complex, difficult-to-produce rock teas had actually fallen out of favor with tea drinkers. “Back in the 1990s, 500g of tieguanyin oolong tea may cost over 1,000 yuan (then approximately $120), while rock teas cost less than 100 yuan,” states Liu Guoying, a widely known rock tea manufacturer and formally acknowledged professional of the art.
At the time, Wuyishan’s tea competitors were frequently restricted to market experts and had actually restricted impact beyond tea circles. “At some contests, individuals might not even taste each others’ teas,” Liu remembers.
Irritated by this state of affairs, Liu and other Wuyishan tea manufacturers promoted more recent, more public-facing competitors. In 2001, he accompanied a handful of others to release a brand-new type of doucha hui
“Prior to our effort, tea competitors just welcomed specialists to evaluate,” Liu states. Starting in the 2000s, nevertheless, competitors like Liu’s tossed open the doors to the general public, enabling anybody thinking about rock teas to appear and attempt the leaves available.
These new-style tea competitors have actually permitted rock tea manufacturers to acquaint themselves with teas from throughout the area. “When participants taste others’ teas, they comprehend why others win, and they return (various) the next year,” Liu states. He thinks that the competitors have actually played an essential function in motivating manufacturers to enhance their strategies.
That’s secondary to winning back the public. New-style tea competitors like Liu’s offer guests a vote, with their scores representing 20% of a tea’s last rating. Any individual can sidle approximately a table, attempt a manufacturer’s teas, and sign up with the argument about which is finest.
“The king of teas”
The rise in tea competitors over the previous 20 years has actually rejuvenated Wuyishan’s track record and driven costs up. It’s likewise brought in a wave of financial investment that can be difficult for Wuyishan’s little tea growers to handle.
As the expense of Wuyi rock tea increases, financiers are searching for methods to benefit off the boom. Their service has actually been to buy competitors with an eye towards developing a chawangor “king of teas.”
Historically, the barriers to involvement in tea competitors were low. In basic, manufacturers required just to send a little sample of their teas for factor to consider; they were totally free to offer the rest on the marketplace.
Lots of investor-backed tea competitors have actually embraced a various strategy. In exchange for the increased direct exposure guaranteed by these well-funded occasions, individuals need to send 10 kgs of any tea they want to have actually evaluated. The winners will be kept by the contest’s sponsors, while other individuals will get the majority of their tea back– generally around 80%.
Offered the sky-high costs commanded by triumphant chawangrunning tea competitors has actually ended up being an extremely financially rewarding proposal. The introduction of ever more doucha hui has actually not constantly been invited by residents and fanatics, who fret the brand-new contests might water down the rock tea brand name by flooding the marketplace with substandard chawang teas.
“The previous couple of years have actually seen a flood of brand-new tea competitors,” states Huang. “When business install the cash, they in some cases wish to call a chawang according to their own choices.”
A concern of custom
An increase of capital isn’t the only difficulty dealing with Wuyishan’s standard growers: Some of the tea manufacturers I spoke with grumbled that the competitors were fulfilling gimmicky processing strategies and pressing the market far from its roots.
Xiao Caiyu, who has actually been making rock teas in Wuyishan for over 40 years, thinks that lots of modern competitors work versus the longer roasts that when specified rock tea. “Real rock teas require to be roasted gradually and patiently if they’re to taste excellent,” she states. “If you utilize the brand-new strategies, the strength of the rock tea will not constantly come through.”
The language of rock teas can be daunting to outsiders, with brews evaluated according to a nontransparent set of requirements varying from “cinnamon notes” to its degree of beihuoor roast. Roasts, in specific, are essential at competitors, and light roast rock teas tend to be aromatic with clear aftertastes– a minimum of for the very first couple of sips. That usually makes them more tasty to individuals who did not mature drinking tea.
It likewise suggests they’re weaker, Xiao states: “They are light and aromatic, however the depth of taste is missing out on.”
The argument over what makes an excellent rock tea is not brand-new, and typically duplicates divides within Wuyishan’s growing locations. “It’s a fight in between terroir and strategy,” states anthropologist Xiao Kunbing– unrelated to Xiao Caiyu– who has actually studied tea culture in Wuyishan for over a years.
Timeless Wuyi rock teas need a really particular terroir. Those growers with plantations on the very best land, consisting of Xiao Caiyu, have actually generally commanded the greatest costs for their teas. If tea growers and manufacturers in more limited locations wish to contend, they need to count on roasting or other processing methods. The tea competitors have hence end up being a battlefield in between various interest groups aiming to advance their analyses of rock tea.
For manufacturers like Xiao Caiyu who inhabit the very best land, the tea competitors can be beneficial, however they are not an important part of company. As typical, her boy sent out samples of the household’s teas to the regional tea competitors in 2015 however kept their finest items in reserve. Xiao states that even their first-rate tea would have a hard time to win provided the present pattern towards light roasts, and they were positive that the terroir of their teas would command a high cost on the marketplace even without the chawang label.
For smaller sized or more recent brand names, on the other hand, the competitors use an uncommon opportunity to separate themselves from the herd. “New manufacturers still send their finest teas to competitors,” states Xiao Kunbing. “Their brand names are not popular, and they wish to go far on their own.”
In tea, as somewhere else, it’s still great to be king.
(Header image: A “doucha hui” kept in the town of Tianxin, Fujian province, November 2023. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone)