Ritual elaboration is not so great as in Japan. Nevertheless, courtesy requires the host to pour the tea and present the cup to his guest with two hands. The guest is expected to receive the cup in the same way.
Black tea is to be served with a saucer under the cup, similar to the Western style. Lungching, a world-known special tea from Chekiang province, should be served only in a glass. The guest then can see the natural color and take note of the tender sprouts as they steep in the hot water.
Serious Chinese tea drinkers are finicky about utensils. Wealthy families usually keep several different tea sets. Usage will vary with the prestige or social status of guests. Highly prized is a Meng Chen set comprising a teapot smaller than a golf ball and cups not much larger than a thumbnail. These are made of earthware and may be heirlooms that have survived many generations. The price of a set made in the Manchu Dynasty (1644-1911) is US$100 or more.
A Meng Chen set is used only in serving the finest quality tea to a highly respected guest. Much as with a connoisseur of old brandy, the guest "tastes" the aroma and does not gulp the tea. Conversation about the delicacy of the flavor provides an easy introduction to the other topics. The host uses larger tea sets in the course of ordinary entertaining.
Most Chinese take tea as an after-dinner drink. Some also regard it as medicinal. They say it cuts the oil of Chinese cooking and reduces the feeling of repletion after a heavy meal. Others maintain tea cleanses the digestive track. Herb doctors prescribe it for fever and as a preventive for diabetes. Incidentally, the Chinese never take tea with sugar.
Aesthetes among tea drinkers are fastidious about the water. Rain water is said to be best. Then comes water from mountain springs, from streams, and from wells in that order. Tap water is not in the running. Chlorine may be good for purity but not for tea.
Just any old fire is not good enough. The best fuel is supposed to be olive pits. Runner-up is sugar cane dust. Then comes charcoal of acacia confusa. The fire must not be too strong.
With the best tea, proper water, the ideal fuel, and prized utensils, a tea-appreciating host is ready to extend an invitation to the most highly respected guests. It is a solemn occasion. Both host and guests must be properly dressed.
Steeping of the tea is important. When the water has boiled for five minutes, it should be quickly poured over the leaves. This first tea is to be poured off after 30 seconds and the pot again filled with boiling water. After steeping for three to five minutes, the tea is ready to pour.
Most foreigners don't like tea leaves in their cups. But the Chinese enjoy them. They like to watch the unfolding sprouts and to taste the stronger aroma that comes from steeping tea as contrasted with that which has been poured off the leaves.
Tea has been grown and i drunk in China for almost 2,000 years. The caravan routes stretching across Asia and into Europe carried tea along with precious silks and the spices of the South Seas.
On Taiwan, island province of China, the growing of tea has a history of only 250 years, but recent development has been rapid and quality is excellent.
Taiwan tea is grown only in the foothills of the north, where the air is cool and the humidity is high. Plantations are concentrated in five counties: Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Nantou. Southern Taiwan is not good for tea. The humidity is too low and the monsoon hampers the plucking of leaves during summer.
Exports Soar
Tea began to take hold as an industry at the end of the 18th century, when the Fukienese migration to Taiwan became numerically important. Expansion owes much to a British merchant, John Dodd, who visited Taiwan in 1865 and thought the island would be hospitable to tea. He brought a number of choice plants from Fukien. Dodd exported Oolong to Macao, made a handsome profit, and then tried his luck in the American tea trade. His shipment of 1,270 kilograms (2,794 pounds) of tea to New York in two sailing craft was profitable. It also was Taiwan's first tea export to the New World.
Liu Ming-chuan was appointed governor of Taiwan in 1885 and did much to encourage the growing of tea. Acreage was expanded and the first guild of tea processors was organized. By 1894, exports had soared to a record of 18 million pounds.
Oolong, a tea between green and black in color and flavor, is a specialty of Taiwan and Fukien. So is Paochung, which is between Oolong and green tea. When Oolong began to meet strong competition from the varieties of other countries, Paochung was processed in Taiwan with the help of specialists invited from Fuchow.
A partially fermented tea, Oolong occupied first place among Taiwan's tea exports from 1920 to 1940. Annual exports to America once reached 15 million pounds. Sales began to dwindle with the advent of Ceylonese and Indonesian black tea. They dropped farther during World War II. Chinese merchants have tried to recover the lost market but without much success. The present Oolong export level to the United States is only 350,000 pounds a year.
Tea taster is a crucially important person. If he errs, processor loses money, reputation (File photo)
Oolong first became popular because it combined the advantages of black and green tea. The half fermentation retained the rich color of black tea, which is fully fermented, but without losing the delicate fragrance of green tea, which is not fermented.
In 1920, Paochung began to outsell Oolong in Southeast Asia, the main market of the time. The heyday of Paochung was between 1920 and 1933, when exports averaged 7.5 million pounds annually. Since World War II, exports have been maintained at a level of 4 to 5 million pounds.
Paochung tastes like Oolong unless jasmine is added. But that frequently happens; "flower tea" is a favorite of overseas Chinese.
Black Tea for Japan
During the Japanese occupation, black tea was added to Taiwan's export list. The first intention was to supply the Japanese market, but the new variety soon found worldwide markets. From 1934 to 1941, exports averaged seven million pounds annually. A record was set in 1954, when more than 20 million pounds was exported.
The history of Taiwan green tea is brief but dynamic. It begins in 1948 when mainland tea processors migrated to Taiwan. Green tea has climbed into second place behind black tea. The largest buyer is Morocco, which bought 7.5 million pounds last year.
Taiwan earned US$7.8 million from tea exports in 1961 and US$8.8 million in 1962. The livelihood of half a million people is involved. With four teas available, the island is an all-variety supplier.
The industry also has built-in shortcomings. Exports remain under the influence of Japanese firms, especially in the field of black tea. This variety often is exported for reprocessing abroad, sharply reducing profits. As for green tea, production costs are still higher than those of the Japanese. Processing and packaging equipment is poor. Exporters are able to turn out only one or two varieties, and thus cannot adapt to the changing demands of the world market.
The island has 375 tea packers, but only 70 have sifting and selecting facilities for high-grade processing. Only 10 first-class installations exist.
In the processing of tea, one of the most important steps is the "kneading" of the leaves, either with hands or machinery. This is a process to destroy the leaf's natural surface protection, so fragrance and color will emerge quickly in the steeping. Other processes are drying, frying, fermenting, sifting, and packing. Tea is not merely dumped into cartons.
Pruning is essential to growth of new tea sprouts (File photo)
Any tea leaf can be made into any variety of tea. It all depends on the processing. However, some species, such as Assam, are better for black tea, while others are more suitable for Oolong, Paochung or green. Taiwan has 70 varieties of tea plants, most of these introduced from the Chinese mainland.
Because of international market fluctuations and packers' inability to adapt themselves to changing demands, growers are overly conservative. They are reluctant to renew plants, use fertilizer, and make other improvements.
Most Taiwan tea plants are too old to yield a maximum of tender leaves. The average output per hectare (2.37 acres) is only 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds), compared with 2,460 kilograms in Ceylon, 3,150 in Pakistan, and 3,520 in Japan.
Government Aid
To increase tea production and export is government policy. Many government measures have been undertaken, among them a demonstration program that encourages farmers to fertilize and prune plants, so they will grow faster and put out more new leaves. Farmers are urged to intercrop with lupine, a green manure, and replace plants that perish.
Insecticides have been used on tea plantations with government subsidy and technical guidance. Tea growers have been organized and are now more receptive to technical advice.
Plucking of the tea leaves is monopolized by girls. The task must be done with the fingers so as not to damage the plants. The government bans the use of scissors to make sure that stems are not clipped.
However, the industrialization of Taiwan has lured girls to other occupations. Wages for tea pluckers are rising, yet they are hard to find. During the spring and summer, tea-plucking girls with their waist-high baskets often are seen working in the green garden on picturesque hillsides. The pastoral scene is a favorite of photographers, and the picture of the comely teapicking lass of Taiwan has been seen around the world. Girls sing as they work, usually of love, but more of them seem to go into textile factories than marriage. Those remaining are in such demand that they sing less and also pick less tea, the growers say.
The demonstration program has been a remarkable success for the eighth of island growers participating.
Average production of demonstration plantations in three counties increased 39.79 per cent in 1959, 52.97 in 1960, and 82.15 in 1961.
The government also has an eye to the improvement of processing and packing. A survey has been conducted by the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry looking toward the matching of leaf supply with processing and packaging facilities.
Capacity of processing establishments has run ahead of tea production. When the international market prospers, the processors vie with one another to buy tea from growers, who over-pluck their plants.
The government has designated a model processing center in each production area to train other technicians. Roving teams also have been organized to help processors check quality and improve management. A provincial tea improvement committee has been established by representatives of 17 government and civic bodies.
Marketing also is a priority task. Because Taiwan has the unique capability of supplying four varieties, its market covers 50 nations in five regions:
In North America, the chief buyer is the United States and Canada is second. The main varieties exported are black and Oolong in a total amount of five to seven million pounds. The tea bag has been developed for this market.
Europe Prefers Black
South America was once a promising black tea market. Chile formerly imported three to five million pounds a year. Beginning in 1954, the Chilean government began to buy tea on bids and Taiwan was priced out.
Exports to Europe amount to four to five million pounds, mostly black. Buyers are Great Britain, Holland, West Germany, Greece, Italy, France, and Denmark. Europeans want high class tea, and quality is the dominant factor in development of this market.
North Africa is a new but promising outlet. Morocco buys 6 to 12 million pounds of green tea a year at a cost of US$2 to $4 million. The second largest importer is Algeria, which used to buy green tea from Japan and the Chinese mainland.
Only girls are employed to pick the tender leaves (File photo)
In East Asia, Hongkong and Thailand are the chief buyers. Last year Hongkong bought 2.3 million pounds and Thailand 2 million pounds. Other importers are the Ryukyus, with 935,000 pounds, Malaya with 226,000, and Japan—which buys only the best black tea—272,000. This region is the main market for Paochung. Thailand, for example, imported 1.5 million pounds of Paochung but no black.
New tea plants ... a modern processing and packing industry ... more aggressive marketing. These are steps toward making Taiwan one of the world's top tea exporting areas. Both government and private enterprise are moving in this direction.
As long as tea service and consumption remain almost a ritual, there should be no concern about a sufficiency of consumers. But even if connoisseurs should vanish, a bigger market lies just around the corner. It is concentrated in the new generation that likes the ease and convenience of instant tea. Taiwan has begun to experiment with processing of the powdered product. In a classical sense, the beverage may not be tea, but it makes use of the tea plant and may be more profitable than the old-fashioned variety.