An aerial view of the Tribute Tea Museum of Tang Dynasty in Changxing county, Zhejiang province, where the Zisun tea-making technique, a national intangible heritage, is preserved. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Crushing tea leaves, sifting tea powder, adding hot water, and stirring with a whisk until thick bubbles appear … A special tea party was held at the Tribute Tea Museum of Tang Dynasty in Changxing county, East China's Zhejiang province.

By restoring this ancient ritual, Zheng Funian, a national intangible heritage bearer of the Zisun teamaking technique, together with his apprentices, was celebrating the addition of China's traditional tea-making to the intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO in late November.

Manjuelong village in Hangzhou is one of the core production areas of China's renowned Longjing tea. From picking to roasting tea leaves, tea maker Tang Hejun has made tea by hand for years

"More than a thousand years ago, our ancestors had already painted or written on the tea foam, which is even more sophisticated than today's latte art," Zheng says, adding that the processing of Zisun tea has existed since the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Since tea was discovered and utilized by the Chinese people in ancient times, China's culture of making and drinking tea has become popular all over the world, and the culture has also been developed and spread more widely.

A thousand-year legacy

Manjuelong village in Hangzhou is one of the core production areas of China's renowned Longjing tea. From picking to roasting tea leaves, tea maker Tang Hejun has made tea by hand for years.

Longjing tea makers have to adjust the roasting time and technique depending on the moisture content and quality of the tea leaves, making each pot of tea unique.

"We have to deal with the 200 C pot everyday," Tang says, adding that roasting tea is "tough work". As more people left the tea villages for big cities and machine-roasted tea sells much cheaper, manual tea roasting skills were once in danger of being lost.

The villagers have come up with various ways to pass on the tea art. This year in the Longjing tea production area, a course on manual tea-making techniques has attracted more than 200 people, mostly youngsters, to participate. Fu Bo was one of them.

"Compared with machine-roasted tea, handmade tea has abundant flavor. Different tea makers will give the tea unique tastes, which is the charm of Chinese tea," Fu says. He grew up in a tea garden, through which he got to know the essence of tea culture.

ALSO READ:The Chinese chicken that spread its wings

Fu says tea has become a common interest among young people, and learning how to roast tea is a new trend among the younger generation.

In Wengjiashan village, another production area of Longjing tea, Sun Bin, the village's Party secretary, has launched courses about tea brewing, tea processing and other related skills.

"About 50 young villagers came to participate in our courses, of which the youngest was born in 2013." Sun feels relieved that more young people are willing to learn tea production techniques.

Rebirth of oriental leaves

The participation of the young generation has injected fresh blood into the Chinese tea industry.

A new Chinese tea shop called "Lu Yu's Tea" has recently become a hit among young people in Hangzhou.

"Youngsters in China may be familiar with Starbucks, but very few know about Lu Yu," says Liu Yanli, the manager of the brand. Tang scholar Lu Yu, known as the Sage of Tea, wrote The Classic of Tea, the first treatise in China in which knowledge of tea and related practices were elaborated upon systematically.

Liu says they opened the tea shop to offer customers a range of fresh and healthy Chinese tea-based drinks to encourage more people to learn about traditional tea culture.

They use local tea leaves as the base, and mix the tea with fresh milk and fruit, such as pears and peaches, to create new flavors, which will be "better accepted by young consumers".

Data released by China's e-commerce platform Meituan shows that in 2021, the volume of China's tea beverage market was 10.9 times that of coffee, and those born after 1995 have become the main driver of tea beverage consumption.

Tea is not only a daily drink welcomed by more young people, but also plays a more important role in their social life.

In a teahouse on an ancient block of Jinhua city, Zhejiang, people gathered around the owner, who chatted with the guests as he brewed and poured tea for them.

"As people's understanding of tea culture deepens, more of the traditional culture will become fashionable, and China's tea culture will incorporate more new elements," says Yin Junfeng, a researcher at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Spreading around world

In recent years, with the help of the Belt and Road Initiative, China's tea exports have grown steadily. Customs data showed tea shipment from China reached nearly 370,000 metric tons in 2021, with an export value of about $2.3 billion.

The coastal province of Zhejiang is an important exporter of tea, with its tea products reaching over 110 countries and regions.

Fusheng township in Shaoxing city, Zhejiang, is a major production area. The factories export hundreds of tons of semifinished matcha products to Japan every year.

With a dream of "making the top Chinese matcha", tea makers in Fusheng have now built up over 400 hectares of organic tea gardens and obtained international certification, making them one of the top quality matcha producers in China.

"In the early years, we exported low-quality tea and semifinished products, so the returns were low," says Xia Yan, an export salesman from Shaoxing Yuchacun Tea Co. Now, as tea quality and production have improved, the company exports high-quality tea, mainly matcha, to markets such as the EU, the United States, Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

In 2021, the company exported nearly 200 tons of organic matcha, with a value of $2.5 million, and the average price was about five times higher than that of ordinary exported green tea.

"New types of tea drinks are an important driver in promoting Chinese tea to the world. In the European and North American markets, beverages made from Chinese tea sell like hotcakes," says Liu Zhirong, chairman of Shaoxing Yuchacun Tea Co.

According to Wang Yuefei, director of the Tea Research Institute, Zhejiang University, there is great potential for high-quality tea exports.

"With Chinese traditional tea-making techniques inscribed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, and new tea drinks becoming popular overseas, a greater number of people will have a better understanding of Chinese tea culture," says Wang.