Chinese tea houses in vogue with new elements

A girl in traditional costume stirs tea soup with a bamboo brush. (Xinhua/Zhang Guojun)

Chinese tea houses in vogue with new elements

In recent years, young people have labeled new Chinese-style tea houses as "healthy," "classic," and "culturally confident."

When coffee and milk tea shops are becoming commonplace, exquisitely-decorated teahouses featuring healthy tea products have entered first-tier cities. Young consumers have taken to Chinese Kung Fu Tea, which is simply processed but still has rich flavors.

Innovation based on tradition

Contrary to the stereotype that "teahouses are only for the old," young consumers and entrepreneurs expected to bring something new through the Chinese traditions. Businesses began selling cold-brewed teas and introduced some less unknown tea types.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, robots that can automatically brew tea gained much attention. Many online short videos and live broadcasts also discussed how to pick and fry tea.

The 2022 Douyin Insight Report on E-commerce Tea Industry suggested China is the world's largest tea producer. Since 2020, the Chinese tea industry has expanded faster. Tea consumers aged 18-30 increased rapidly in 2021. Young people preferred herbal tea but also embraced oolong tea, black tea, Pu'er tea, and more.

Tea-drinking in funny ways

Customers selected different recipes based on their preferences in the physical stores of the up-and-coming tea brand FOOOOOOK TEA. If you are in a hurry, there is a quick-making recipe; if you want strong flavors, you can sit down and taste freshly brewed pure tea soup.

Tea'stone, a new tea brand, landed Shanghai recently. Despite Shanghai's obsession with coffee, Tea'stone hoped to change young people's inherent perception that pure tea is outmoded.

By providing a good experience, they will gradually make tea drinking a way of life. "We want to cultivate our customers' drinking habits, bringing tea culture into young people's lives," said Hu Yue at Tea'stone.

Tea'stone's employees described creating tea products as "inheriting before innovating." They preserved the essence of tea by adhering to traditional brewing methods and tea culture.

Furthermore, they selected 108 types of pure tea from the country's 18 core production areas, employing tailored craftsmanship for each tea type to showcase their distinct flavor.

Good products promote tea culture

A group of post-90s tea culture lovers established the "tea statement" brand. Chen Qian, one of the founders, said tea culture is also a fashion. As a healthy lifestyle has been widely advocated in our society, young people are expecting tea of higher quality."

Most of our tea came from Fujian and Yunnan. "I believe we should begin with the original leaf tea. Only by educating consumers on the essence of tea can we produce tasty tea and even allow consumers to create their own tea in a funnier way."

Source: China Youth Daily; Trans-editing by Guo Yao