 |
a Chinese tea expo (photo provided by Cary) |
I've been seeing online content about tea perspectives in China, about how producers and vendors approach tea themes, and how consumer perspective is changing. As an example, So Han Fan, the owner of West China Tea, regularly discusses this sort of thing. It's a fascinating subject, to me.
The questions I wrote as part of an interview form exploration cover a lot of scope. They're answered here by a tea vendor based in China, who I've tea from, Cary of Oriental Leaf. He has been posting a little about tea themes in China, on Reddit, which was a second starting point for considering this kind of background. Learning more about their vendor theme and perspective probably works best through an About Us section of their website.
It's worth pausing to consider how we receive information on how tea culture works out in China in "the West." Vendors pass it on, either those based in China, or who visit there. The more exposure you get to that scope, especially from different kinds of sources, leads to hearing different kinds of stories and takes. The owners of a local Bangkok Chinatown shop, with tea making and vending family in Fujian and Hong Kong, tell much different stories than actual Chinese friends, who typically aren't that into tea, in the same kinds of ways. Vendor and producer friends living in Fujian and Yunnan convey different perspectives. The varying input doesn't conflict; it's that tea is taken in different ways.
This interview style input drills down into that, with more focus on modern changes, variations in demand, and social media inputs and effects, than on ordinary consumer or "tea enthusiast" perspective.
Cary is a tea enthusiast. You can tell. There's nothing wrong with vendors picking up a commercial interest in tea without continually exploring the subject, and self-defining through it, beyond the scope of ordinary appreciation, but it's helpful when the interest leads to ongoing deeper learning. Only a tea enthusiast would live out the cultural changes to be able to answer these questions in this depth. I hope that readers enjoy learning from it as much as I have.
-Has the Chinese tea market remained the same over the last few years? How would you compare it to the Western tea market (related to types preference, overall demand, or other themes)?
Market-wise, the Chinese tea market over the past two to three years—especially following the end of the pandemic—has been experiencing a downturn, with fairly notable declines across major tea categories, particularly Puer, white tea, and rock tea (Yancha), which had previously seen significant market hype. The Chinese tea market can roughly be divided into two categories: business/gifting use and personal consumption.
Regarding the first category, due to the softening of China's economy in recent years, most industries are going through a slump, leading to a cliff-like drop in business gifting demand. To give an example, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival used to be peak seasons for gifting, with massive shipments leaving the tea market as vendors stocked up specifically for these two periods. However, this year's Dragon Boat Festival saw very poor performance in the tea market, and shipments for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival have also fallen short of expectations, remaining rather sluggish. Furthermore, budgets allocated per batch of tea are now being trimmed down to cut costs.
As for the second category—personal consumption—traditional offline tea shop channels are withering away because online live-streaming has captured an increasing market share over the last few years. Live-streaming channels sell well-known premium teas at extremely low prices, though quality cannot always be fully guaranteed. A few months ago, China Central Television (CCTV) exposed a live-streaming ring in Yunnan that sold fake "famous mountain, famous village" Puer teas and faced heavy penalties, which is a prime example of this phenomenon. Aside from Puer, manufacturers of other tea categories are also aggressively deploying online channels, as live-streaming sales seem to have become a major channel for most people to purchase tea.
Regarding tea selection, Puer tea remains a primary choice for personal consumption, and of course, seasonal green teas are also vital consumption staples during their respective windows. White tea is gradually declining after peaking five or six years ago, while oolong tea—especially rock tea—still holds a relatively important position in the high-end market. Fuzhuan brick tea and Liubao tea are still considered niche categories in China, though their markets are slowly climbing. That being said, jasmine scented tea and black tea still boast massive consumption volumes; it is simply that they generate less noise in the market.
 |
well-designed booths turn up in Bangkok, only relating coffee (Chinese expo photo from Cary) |
-Can you describe Chinese tea preferences related to generally corresponding to local version preference (eg. the main local types), to often matching up with standard forms (Longjing, Tie Guan Yin), to some other types expanding in awareness and demand, or somewhere in between? Of course this would vary by person, and individual awareness, so the question relates to standard forms of tea appreciation and broad trends, and how this changes over time.
There are no obvious tea products from a specific origin or particular tea categories showing exceptionally strong performance, nor is there any observed special consumer preference for local teas.
Marketing plays a massive role in tea selection, especially when it comes to choosing specific types of tea. The rise and fall of Puer tea over twenty years ago, the rise of white tea over a decade ago, and the decline of Tie Guan Yin ten years ago all saw marketing play a huge part. Every year, roving tea expos are held in dozens of Chinese cities, with some cities hosting two a year. These serve as a great window for observing trending fashions in Chinese tea, where one can clearly sense that Puer and white tea have been on a downward trend in recent years. Although there are indeed very good, high-quality white and Puer teas on the market, people always harbor a sense of suspicion due to market chaos and a lack of information transparency, meaning these two types of tea do not make as much noise at the expos as they did a couple of years ago.
When it comes to choosing tea, consumers are quite diverse: some prefer local green teas out of long-standing taste habits, while others are influenced by internet information, chasing after the types of tea that everyone is recommending, especially on platforms like Xiaohongshu (RED note) and Douyin.
-Is tea used as an investment? Does this apply at all beyond pu’er type scope? How has this changed over the past few years? There’s an understanding that a tea investment bubble of sorts collapsed in the last year or so; is that accurate?
Puer tea is frequently used as an investment vehicle, particularly in places like Fangcun in Guangzhou and Yiwu in Zhejiang. White tea has had an impulse in recent years to be crafted into an investment product, but it hasn't been as "successful" as Puer, while other tea categories are rarely viewed as investments.
Among brands, Da Yi has received the most criticism in this regard, often dubbed "financial tea." A few years ago, the secondary market prices for Da Yi tea would fluctuate dramatically even within half a day. Over the past year or two, along with the softening economy, many people who previously stockpiled tea have been dumping their inventory, triggering a crash in the Puer tea market. This is indeed the case: the Fangcun market in Guangzhou, which was previously the hottest speculative hub for Puer tea, is now exceptionally quiet.
-How are hybrid styles or production of different teas in different places developing?
Such attempts are very common. For example, Fu brick tea now comes in "Golden Flower" versions across almost all six major tea categories—Golden Flower green tea, Golden Flower oolong, and so on—though the taste leaves much to be desired. Of course, there are also items like peach oolong, jasmine-scented black tea, Yunnan oolong, and chenpi white tea. I believe these are efforts made by tea factories to boost sales; every factory is innovating in the hope of igniting a specific market growth point, which might appeal more to young people, especially those who primarily buy tea via the internet.
 |
Oriental Leaf Fu zhuan (hei cha, with golden flowers fungus) |
However, looking at the current landscape, it seems that no single blended or crossover category has achieved massive success yet. On the other hand, regarding production in non-traditional origins, some teas may have been produced elsewhere for a long time—such as Longjing tea produced in Sichuan or Wuyi rock tea produced in Yunnan. But since this kind of practice is inherently deceptive, nobody talks about it openly.
 |
Henan origin Dong Fang Mei Ren (OB) from Wanmu (from this review post) |
-If tea demand has decreased has this related to decrease in production? Is there a change-over in demand type and forms produced instead (eg. expanding Chinese matcha production)?
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in 2026, China's tea production in 2025 reached 3.92 million tons, a 4.8% increase. The production end of tea does not appear to have decreased. I believe the decline in demand is primarily driven by economic factors. Furthermore, aside from personal consumer purchases, various modern milk tea/boba tea chains now consume massive quantities of different types of tea. Recently, CHAGEE (a Chinese milk tea brand) launched a Fuzhuan brick tea milk tea in the five northwestern provinces of China, which received quite positive reviews. The milk tea industry indeed consumes a substantial amount of tea.
-How do you place the Western emphasis on Gongfu ceremonial brewing in relation to standard Chinese tea appreciation? Are there equivalent “tea enthusiasts” in China, who use a different range of brewing approaches, or embrace aesthetic themes differently, or is tea known of and approached differently in certain areas (eg. in tea production areas)?
Tea-drinking methods in China are diverse. Gongfu tea originally only popular in South China (such as Guangdong and Fujian), and it has only been adopted nationwide for about ten to twenty years. Even now, many Chinese people still brew tea in simple glass cups. In the pre-internet era of the last century, different regions truly had distinct brewing methods: the Northwest boiled brick tea with milk, Yunnan and Guizhou roasted tea over open fire, and Fujian and Guangdong practiced Gongfu brewing. Naturally, these traditional methods still exist today.
Many people also share their tea spaces and pursuits of tea aesthetics on Douyin, exhibiting drastically different aesthetic orientations, with each style enjoying a massive following.
I think the Western emphasis on the Gongfu tea ritual is quite normal, as people seek to capture the truest essence and flavor of the tea through ritual.
By comparison, I know some Chinese coffee enthusiasts who own a whole mountain of brewing gear—their grinders, powder distributors, filters, timers, and scales are extremely professional, likely surpassing the equipment sophistication of many Americans and Europeans. Many people in China criticize this approach as going overboard, even circulating videos of Italians making espresso very simply, without all these complex tools. I suppose the Western discussion around the ritual sense of tea is much like the Chinese debate surrounding coffee brewing.
-Can you describe how social media posting, online tea group discussion, and tea blogging work out in China; are there equivalent forms?
As we've discussed before, blogging is essentially dead in China, and BBS platforms or Discord don't exist there; social media is the main channel for tea-related discussions. Moreover, based on my observation, the atmosphere in Chinese tea communities is far inferior to that of Instagram, Reddit, or Discord. There is almost no serious discussion, and the space is saturated with marketing and metaphysical pseudoscience.
Platforms like red note, Douyin, Kuaishou, Zhihu (which is similar to Quora), and WeChat Official Accounts feature a massive number of tea-related bloggers, but it feels largely one-way—meaning bloggers transmit information to their audience, and user participation goes no further than leaving comments, while online community engagement remains relatively weak. Discussions among tea enthusiasts probably take place more often in offline gatherings or through word-of-mouth among friends.
-Can you describe how your business focus relates to a specific form of tea appreciation, and how it goes connecting with a consumer base with similar interests, or developing type awareness? Does that go differently in China and in the West?
If I were running an online tea business in China, it feels like I’d only have one real choice: live-streaming sales. I would need a mature streaming team to pull it off, and it would be utterly exhausting every single day. Offline business, on the other hand, relies mostly on acquaintance networks and suffers from severe homogeneity, making it hard to offer truly differentiated products and services. Both paths are draining, which isn't what I want.
 |
livestream tea sales (photo credit and background article) |
That’s why we chose to build an online business geared toward the international market. It allows me to reach global tea enthusiasts quite naturally, acquiring customers by sharing written content and imagery, and connecting with a broader community of tea lovers through niche influencers like you, and through online platforms. I much prefer my current state.
Regardless of whether it's domestic or international, I feel the tea business ultimately relies on reputation and repeat purchases. Good tea speaks for itself, driving customer retention and satisfaction. That’s precisely why we started with a relatively niche category like Fuzhuan brick tea. Being right here in its origin region gives us direct access to exceptional Fuzhuan, which is our core advantage.
The same logic applies to our Puer and Liubao teas. Years ago, I tasted some poorly stored Puer and Liubao teas, so I know firsthand what clean, natural dry storage actually means for dark tea. Because of that, we make it a point to convey this philosophy—and the superior tasting experience brought by dry-stored dark tea—directly to our customers.
My take on all of that
It seems very well-informed and insightful. The parts about tea practice being different in different places, and exploration of hybrid and new styles, all match what I've heard from others. My favorite Chinatown shop owners have mentioned following those online streaming tea sales before, commenting on how the teas can seem interesting, especially a time-dependent theme like early Longjing sales. But they also commented that you really can't tell what is what from on-screen appearance and description, so it's a gamble buying anything from them. The subject of some streamers being more reliable didn't come up in that limited discussion.
Tea vendors developing new business themes in China is also fascinating, mentioned somewhat indirectly here, related to their own experience. Not much about that carries over to Western exposure, so it's interesting when it does, and all the more interesting when it relates to positive new source options.
It makes you wonder why there aren't more commercial ties between Chinese sources and a Western market; that has been slow to evolve, in any form. Social media content sources never overlapped. There's the "great firewall" as a factor, but you can talk to people in China if they use a VPN, or possibly more directly if there are other connections (eg. they follow a Western blog).
It's all too much to summarize as conclusions here, or extend, and I don't have the expertise to do so anyway. I've appreciated learning from these ideas, across a lot of different tea oriented scope.
