Beijing: A cup of hot Chinese tea is not just steamy but alluring and savory and surely leads to a lingering taste experience. Tea is one of the greatest inventions by China and a priceless gift to the world, contributing immensely to the health and civilisation of humanity. Chinese tea, with an ancient origin, can be traced back to the era of the enigmatic ruler, Shennong, a man who is renowned as the 'Father of Chinese Medicine'.
According to Ghana News Agency, fueled by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Shennong is said to have immersed himself in the dews and humidity of the wilderness, meticulously documenting some 365 medicinal plants that formed the bedrock of traditional Chinese medicine. Shennong, which means 'God farmer' or 'God peasant', is said to have ever suffered 72 poisons in trying herb medicines until he identified the therapeutic properties of tea, detoxifying, revitalising and purifying the body. Following Shennong's experience, people began to utilise tea leaves, making use of their medical values as well as their edibility and drinkability. Rich and colourful tea cultures of various nations were formed then.
Research by the Academy of Chinese Studies confirms that the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) originated in China, and that the Chinese were the first to discover that the leaves could be used not only for medicinal purposes but also as an aromatic beverage. Over the years, the varieties of tea leaves from the country have been disseminated eastward to Japan, Korea, southward to Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, westward to central Asia, the Mediterranean and western Europe, northward to Mongolia, Russia, and eastern Europe, as well as to the Americas through the Silk Road. Historically, in 1690, Chinese black tea began to be sold in Boston and tea-drinking habit was established in America. Tea was the first commodity to be traded between China and America.
'From its origins in China, tea has spread across trade routes over centuries, becoming a key global cash crop and providing livelihoods for millions of smallholder farmers,' says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). The UN's apex agricultural body adds that the different varieties of tea have become a favourite beverage of more than half the world's population. There are numerous methods for categorising Chinese tea, and the relatively prevalent one is to classify them into the basic, reprocessed and deep-processed categories. The basic tea category is divided into the six major classes of green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, dark tea, and white tea, according to their processing methods.
Green tea is the tea class of the biggest output and the highest consumption in China. Its quality characteristics are clear infusion and green leaf, delicate aroma and refreshing savour. Notably, Chinese black tea is the tea class of widest distribution and largest sales volume in the world, accounting for 10-15 per cent of the global black tea production. Its quality characteristics are red leaf, red infusion and strong-brisk flavour. Black tea is classified into souchong black tea, congou black tea, and CTC black tea. In 2024, the total tea yield of China accounted for 53.42 per cent of total tea yield all over the world, ranking first, while the tea export volume reached 33,741,010 tonnes, according to data from the Chinese Customs. The main exported teas include green tea, oolong tea, black tea, scented tea, and dark tea, among which the export volume of green tea accounts for 86.57 per cent of total export volume of tea.
'Global tea production continues to grow. After water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world,' says the UN's FAO. What then is in this all-important beverage called tea that has become the favourite of many people across the world? Cheng Dong, a Chinese civil servant, is a regular consumer of black tea. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he says that type of tea remains his favourite due to its rich and robust flavour. 'I like taking black tea because the tannins present in it give me a mild astringent effect, helping to soothe the digestive tract and alleviate symptoms of digestive discomfort,' he tells the GNA.
The tea industry is a green industry that has a long-standing history and is beneficial to human health. Nutritionists say the tea leaves contain a lot of beneficial components for the human body, and that, to utilise their benefits, one needs to drink the tea in an adequate and scientific way. Professors Jianan Wang and Runhe Zhang, both of the Department of History of Science and Scientific Archeology, University of Science and Technology of China, in a scholarly paper, 'Tea in Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Research Trend of Tea Medicine', indicate that tea and traditional Chinese medicine are intertwined. 'Tea comprises alkaloids, including caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, which can stimulate the central nervous system, providing a refreshing effect to the brain, alleviating fatigue, and exerting cholesterol-lowering and anti-atherosclerotic effects,' the paper notes.
Over 700 kinds of compounds have been comprehensively analysed by scientists, and identified from tea leaves, mostly with biological activity. For instance, tea polyphenols, the aflavins, tea polysaccharides, amino acids, alkaloids, aromatic compounds, vitamins and mineral elements, have been established to provide nutrition and health benefits to the human body. Additionally, new research suggests that tea could be more than just a pleasant drink humans reach for when they get a tickle in their throat. According to data presented at the Sixth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health, drinking more true tea, specifically, may offer cognitive function support, cardiovascular health benefits, and more. The symposium shared the latest research on the relationship between certain health aspects and tea consumption. It was held virtually on April 26, 2022, hosted by the Tea Council of the USA, and co-sponsored by professional organisations, including the American Cancer Society and the Oregon Sta te University.
'Tea of Chinese origin, with its freshness and naturalness, has brought health to nearly one-third of the whole world's population, and with its peacefulness and comity, has made a huge contribution to the progress of human civilisation,' Linda Wang, the Vice General Manager, Hunan Tea Group Company Limited, tells the GNA while on a visit to the company. The company, located in Hunan, the hometown of the Chinese tea, has worked assiduously to develop a professional manufacturing chain for tea planting, production, processing, scientific research, trade, and culture propagation, and currently engaged in internal and external trade.
'At home, we have established four Chinese well-known trademarks, as well as four international famous trademarks. We rank the second in terms of the operating scale in China. Our total operation volume, occupying 60 per cent of the Hunan province, and tea sold in border areas, accounting for half of the country, ranks number in China. We are also ranked number one in tea export for foreign exchange, tea exported to the European Union (EU) market, and organic tea export,' the Vice General Manager notes.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has affirmed its commitment to continue to invest in tea production, providing the requisite incentives to stakeholders in the supply and value chain to boost its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Ms Hua Chunying, the Vice Minister of China's Foreign Ministry, on her recent working visit to Jinping, in the Yunnan Province, during which she interacted with some smallholder farmers, pointed out that 'tea remains the Asian economic giant's priceless gift to the world'. 'Nowadays, tea stands first in the world's three top non-alcoholic beverages and is reputed to be a healthy and civilised drink of the 21st Century,' she noted, assuring that the Government had resolved to inject the needed resources into the industry to create wealth and improve the livelihood of farmers.
Lee Zheng, a 36-year-old tea farmer, in an interview with the GNA during a familiarisation tour of her farm in the Yunnan Province, lauded the Chinese authorities for its massive investment in research and technology to further develop the Chinese tea brand. 'With our long history of tea production dating back to some 800 years, and a wide spectrum of tea varieties, we believe the Government will sustain its supportive efforts to help us maximise the full benefits of the product for generations to come,' she stated.
