In recent years, white tea has been very popular, and the number of people who drink white tea has gradually increased, changing the situation of white tea being unknown in the market more than ten years ago. Among the six major types of tea in China, white tea is a relatively unique tea, usually using Fuding large white tea, Fuding large tea, native vegetable tea and other tea varieties, not fried or kneaded, made by withering, drying process. Most people who like it like its almost natural temperament.
Fuding people love white tea, and their marriages, funerals, marriages, and marriages, and old age and illness and death are inseparable from white tea. Fuding has a folk proverb: "The married woman does not seek the official eunuch's family, but only asks for peonies and silver needles." "Both peony and silver needle are grades of white tea, namely white peony and white silver needle. Among them, the white silver needle is bud tea, which is of the highest quality. Leaf tea is divided into three grades: white peony, gongmei and shoumei.
△ The soup color of white tea will change with the increase of the year
The tea soup of white tea is lighter in color, especially new tea. Three years of white tea soup is bright yellow, smells of flowers, and feels sweet on the tip of the tongue and throat. These characteristics make it easy for first-time tea drinkers to accept. It has its own spirit: idyllic, timeless, not impatient, and implied internal strength, quite a gentleman's style.
Tea is like its people, the character of Fuding people is the same as the white tea produced here, gentle and simple, intelligent and sensitive, innocent and rich.
Large tea is tasteless. In Fuding, there is no shortage of tea and human stories.
01
The children of tea farmers in the tea ocean
In 2005, Lin Zhenchuan, who started as a tea business in MalianDao, Beijing, in order to find a new breakthrough in his career, ran back to his hometown in Fuding, Fujian Province with the 8 million yuan he earned, contracted a long-abandoned tea garden in Heshan Village, Guanyang Town, and established his own organic tea base. At the same time, the Fujian compatriots who made tea in MalianDao were more practical, and used the money they earned to buy 12 houses in Beijing. Lin Zhenchuan's approach to madness was ridiculed by his friends as a neurosis: "After earning money, I don't buy a house to enjoy the blessings, but I run home to repair the earth." ”
Lin Zhenchuan didn't care much about what others said, his mind was on tea. This time contract tea garden, he wanted to make white tea. At that time, Fuding white tea had a pitifully small share in the booming tea industry.
△ Organic tea garden located in Heshan Village, Guanyang Town
In fact, Fuding's white tea has long gone out of Fujian. The town of Bailin in Fuding has historically had 36 tea houses and tea businesses, making it a famous tea distribution center. Tea is usually transported from here and by coastal road to Fuzhou. In the 22nd year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1683), the Qing government set up a trading port and a white tea export bureau in Shacheng Port, which was specifically responsible for the export management and taxation of white tea. In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745), the big tea Jia Wu Yingdi spent 640,000 taels of silver, and after 13 years, built four mansions of Yuan, Heng, Li and Zhen in today's Bailin Town, Fuding City, and most of his descendants also lived on tea. Lin Zhenchuan's ancestors moved from Anxi to Fuding and lived in the village next to the Wu family. There is a romantic name here, called Chayori, which means "ocean of tea". The Lin family has been growing tea and making tea for a living for generations, and his grandfather named the eldest grandson "Zhenchuan", hoping that he can "revitalize white tea and pass on the torch".
△ Old photo of Tea Ocean
In 1974, 6-year-old Lin Zhenchuan began to follow his mother to pick tea in the tea garden of the production team, earning work to supplement the family. At the age of twelve or thirteen, he began to learn to make tea with his family. On weekends, he would pick up his homemade tea and sell it at the market. However, at that time, there was no market for white tea, and most of the black tea was sold. At the end of the harvest, tea farmers usually make some white tea to keep at home - the local family regards old white tea as medicine, and if the family catches fire or catches a slight cold, they will add honey or rock sugar to boil old white tea to drink.
In the early days of reform and opening up, Lin Zhenchuan did rough processing of green tea. Due to the popularity of credit accounts at that time, after a whole year of hard work, not only did not make money, but lost tens of thousands of dollars on the books, and owed a bunch of debts. Unwillingly, Lin Zhenchuan ran to Fuzhou to find a tea merchant, and accidentally found that his tea leaves were processed into flower tea and sold to Beijing. This actually opened up a new idea for Lin Zhenchuan, he did not stop, put together 1,300 pounds of tea, found a manufacturer to process into jasmine tea, bought a train ticket, took the goods to Beijing, and sold flower tea himself!
This crisis has actually made Lin Zhenchuan. At that time, he did not know that this trip to the north would lay the foundation for him to build his own white tea brand in the future. He could not have imagined that he would change from a local tea farmer in Fuding to a tea merchant who sold tea leaves all over the country and even overseas. At that time, he had only one very simple purpose: to sell the tea leaves and pay off the debt.
It was July 1993, when Lin Zhenchuan came to Beijing with large bags of tea leaves and began to go door to door to sell his flower tea to the tea shops in fujian province. The traditional friendship of Fujian merchants has become the best stepping stone. At the end of the year, all the tea was sold, a little money was made, and most of the arrears were paid off. More importantly, running the tea market in Beijing for half a year gave Lin Zhenchuan hope. He found that as long as the tea is of good quality in Beijing, it can be sold for a good price.
△ Lin Zhenchuan opened a tea shop in MalianDao, Beijing in 1998, which was then named Yipinxiang Tea House. The image was taken in 2002.
To this end, he returned to his hometown, contracted a tea garden in Guanling Town, built a tea processing factory in Nodding Town, formed his own supply chain, and tried everything to find tea experts, hoping to improve his tea making level. Later, through the introduction of his father-in-law, he visited Wang Yisen, the deputy director in charge of technology at Fuding Tea Factory at that time, as a teacher, and concentrated on learning the production of flower tea and white tea. This also laid the groundwork for his future development.
△ Lin Zhenchuan and Master Wang Yisen in conversation
02
The brand road of Fuding white tea
At the end of the 90s, the export of white tea began to become popular. At that time, Lin Zhenchuan had also cultivated a strong skill and became the inheritor of Fuding white tea making skills. The white tea making technique he learned from his master Wang Yisen played a useful role - white tea production time is short, and it is sold to foreign trade companies immediately after it is made, although the profit is thin, but the payment is fast and the income is fast. With solid tea making skills and many years of sales experience, his white tea was exported to Europe and Southeast Asia in large quantities, and white tea also became a famous "export tea" at that time. However, although white tea has earned foreign exchange, most of it is only exported as raw materials, and it does not have its own brand, and it is even more lonely and unknown in the domestic market.
Doing foreign trade allowed Lin Zhenchuan to discover the potential of the white tea market, but as a Fuding person, he deeply believed that he should carry forward the tea in his hometown - not to mention that his Ancestors of the Lin family had grown tea and made tea for generations. At this time, Lin Zhenchuan had already solved his livelihood, and he decided to make white tea as a career. Therefore, he established Pinpinxiang Tea Industry Co., Ltd.
△ The old appearance of pinyin tea factory located on the outskirts of Fuding City. Lin Zhenchuan's Pinpin Xiang Tea Industry Co., Ltd. was established here.
At that time, Fuding white tea, due to the lack of unified management, the quality is uneven, some white tea even if it is the same product, but also due to different batches, the taste, aroma, taste of the difference is great, damage to the "Fuding white tea" public brand image. Lin Zhenchuan, who saw this situation, believed that only by doing a good job in the public brand of "Fuding White Tea" could we truly do a living industry. Lin Zhenchuan is well aware of his ideals and mission, he is not only satisfied with being an inheritor of the traditional skills of white tea, but also to revitalize the cause of white tea in his hometown. From building a tea garden to building a factory, from forming a team to completing the production and sales of white tea, he has come a long way.
On this arduous road of brand development, the first task is to develop the standard of white tea.
Lin Zhenchuan, as a member of the National Tea Standardization Technical Committee and a non-hereditary person of Fuding white tea production technology, participated in the formulation and revision of national standards, local standards and industry standards for white tea as the main promoter. The establishment of standards has become an important time point for the development of the white tea industry.
△ Classification of white tea
A good white tea should meet the standards of color, aroma, taste and shape. The new tea soup is clear and crystal clear, and the old tea after five or six years has an amber color. New tea smells a faint orchid aroma, while old white tea that has been stored for five to six years can smell lotus leaves, and old tea that has been stored for ten to fifteen years will have a jujube fragrance. After smelling the fragrance, take a cup of tea, take a sip of white tea, feel sweet, soft and mellow. The shape, on the other hand, has different judgments according to different tea leaves, such as white silver needles to be full of white, silver buds to be thick, and white peonies to have one bud and one leaf.
On the basis of the traditional process of white tea, Lin Zhenchuan summed up the four key steps of "opening and closing refinement" of white tea: "opening" that is, opening green and withering. Withering means that the fresh leaves of the tea that have been picked are evenly cooled on the bamboo sieve to dry; "he" is a sieve, first two sieves to put together a sieve, and then more sieve to spell a sieve, evenly walking water, so that the tea leaves are evenly micro-fermented; "fine" is refined, the old leaves, red sheets, yellow flakes, coarse stems and non-tea inclusions are selected; "into" is incense, dried at low temperature by charcoal fire, so that the aroma of the tea leaves is fixed. In this way, a qualified white tea is ready.
△ Manual screening in the process of white tea refining
Among these four key steps, withering and drying are the core processes in the white tea making process. Surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side, the climate is humid and rainy, and the traditional white tea production method of daylight withering cannot meet the standardized production requirements. In order to solve this problem, Lin Zhenchuan and experts from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, after long-term experiments, developed an LED light source withering production line, which can realize automated temperature control and humidity control, more accurate than manual operation, stable quality, high production efficiency and energy saving and environmental protection, so it has won the municipal science and technology progress award, provincial patent award and national patent. After the problem of the core process was solved, Lin Zhenchuan led the technical team to overcome the technical difficulties such as automatic selection of impurities, electrostatic precipitator, and cake pressing, and since then, the production of white tea has a complete automated production line. Lin Zhenchuan has pushed white tea from simple and original manual operation to the road of automation and standardization of industrial development.
△ LED light source withering production line
However, new problems lie ahead. Due to the light taste and weak aroma of white tea, it could not shake the high-flavored tea leaves that were popular on the market at that time. In the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai markets that are closer to Fuding, it is still the world of green tea. How to make light and elegant white tea also have more aroma? Lin Zhenchuan was inspired by the new process white tea developed by master Wang Yisen in The Fuding Tea Factory, and spent three years to develop a new white tea category: floral white tea, which became a breakthrough in the white tea industry, so it obtained a national patent.
△ Brew floral white tea
Once launched, floral white tea was first recognized by consumers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Slowly, the number of people drinking white tea gradually increased. With the popularity of the saying "one year tea, three years of medicine, seven years of treasure", consumers everywhere have begun to pursue old white tea. Old white tea does have the advantage of long-term preservation, and is the only two types of tea that can be preserved for a long time in the "only two" of the six major tea categories and black tea. But the old white tea on the market is mixed, true and false, and also lacks a recognized industry standard.
What to do? Lin Zhenchuan summarized consumers' doubts about old white tea into three aspects: whether the year is real, whether the grade is clear, and whether the place of origin is authentic. Also, how should old white tea be drunk? In response to these problems, he decisively launched the benchmark product of old white tea, "Sunburned Platinum": a small ladder-shaped brick pressed into chocolate, 5 grams for one grain, easy to carry, easy to drink, with a standard ID card of year, grade and place of origin. He also proposed the "old white tea boiled and drunk" drinking method, and revised the corporate standard of old white tea. As soon as "Sunshine Platinum" was launched, it received good market feedback. In 2020, the corporate standard of old white tea was upgraded to the group standard of the industry.
△ Lin Zhenchuan launched the old white tea products: sunning platinum
Today's white tea industry is developing more and more benignly. Originally, Fuding only had a dozen enterprises making white tea, and now it has grown to hundreds. On the streets of Fuding, the shops selling white tea are next to each one, and each signboard is hung with the four characters of "Fuding White Tea" handwritten by the famous tea scientist Mr. Zhang Tianfu, reflecting the identity of Fuding "National Geographical Indication Product Protection Demonstration Zone" and "China Tea Geographical Indication Product".
Lin Zhenchuan not only participated in the formulation of many standards and norms for white tea production, but also campaigned for the development of the Fuding white tea industry. Since 2004, whether it is a government or a non-governmental organization, as long as it involves activities in the white tea category, Lin Zhenchuan has rushed to the forefront. He sponsors industry forums, promotes white tea at his own expense, and does not even add his own brand to the advertisement. He just wants to tell everyone: white tea is a natural and healthy tea drink, the world's white tea is in China, and Chinese white tea is in Fuding.
Based on the concept of benefit sharing and revitalization of the white tea industry, Lin Zhenchuan, who owns a modern production line of white tea, has never hidden the automated production line he has worked hard, invested a lot of money and energy to build. Instead, he welcomed all his peers to visit. Because he knows that the "fire" of white tea is by no means because a certain brand is bigger and stronger, but to rely on the common cultivation and precipitation of Fuding tea people to jointly shape the public brand, in order to promote the development of the entire white tea industry.
03
Sustainable development benefits the township
Fuding white tea has slowly developed, and the brand and market are showing a thriving trend. However, Lin Zhenchuan is thinking of danger in peace, and believes that if Fuding White Tea wants to base itself on the place of origin and do it for a long time, the most important thing is to protect the environment. The environment cannot be replicated, and good tea needs to be grown in a pollution-free natural environment. Only with a good natural ecological environment can the entire white tea industry continue to prosper.
Therefore, Lin Zhenchuan set his sights on the tea farmers.
Fuding produces tea everywhere, but this area is mountainous and the tea plantations are scattered. Lin Zhenchuan, with the company's technical team, ran through the villages and villages of Fuding, formed an industrial consortium, trained tea farmers, linked tea gardens, and implemented standardized management. In the management of tea gardens, organic management is realized to protect the ecological environment. Lin Zhenchuan often told tea farmers that varieties can be introduced and processes can be learned, but the environment cannot be copied. Only a good environment can grow natural and healthy good tea and win the reputation of customers. With word of mouth, the Fuding white tea industry will continue to develop healthily.
△ Lin Zhenchuan is at the tea farmer's house
More importantly, Lin Zhenchuan is the son of a tea farmer. He deeply understands the suffering of tea farmers. With the scale and efficiency of his business, he began to feed back tea farmers and increase their incomes. In the past, tea farmers would carry tea greens (freshly picked leaves from tea gardens) and walk a long way to villages and towns to sell them. However, due to fluctuations in market prices, there is no way to guarantee a stable income. With the establishment of the consortium, roads were built in the village, and a primary tea processing plant was established, and tea farmers could sell tea green at any time at their doorstep without worrying about the price. Gradually, the tea farmer and Lin Zhenchuan established a relationship of mutual trust. The standard of tea grown by tea farmers has been raised, and they can sell for a good price, and the purse has gradually bulged.
The establishment of the consortium has achieved a win-win situation. This is also an important step for Lin Zhenchuan to stand in the position of a leading enterprise in his own industry, revitalize the countryside, and benefit tea farmers. This has also changed the situation that white tea was once mainly operated by individual farmers, and it was difficult to form an industrial scale.
Fifteen years ago, the annual income of a fuding tea farmer per mu of land was only 3,000 yuan. Now, due to the establishment of the consortium, the income of tea farmers per mu of land has increased to 15,000 yuan, which is five times the original. Around Lin Zhenchuan Company, high-end communities have gradually formed a scale, and the main buyers are tea farmers.
△ Lin Zhenchuan entered the village to popularize the knowledge of quality and safety management of tea gardens for tea farmers
Lin Zhenchuan has established 41 consortiums. The purpose of uniting tea farmers is to create a community of interests between tea farmers and tea merchants. In the future, he will do more, he calls his plan "Rural Revitalization 3116 Strategy", that is, to unite 100 villages in three years to benefit 10,000 tea farmers and cover 60,000 acres of tea gardens.
Lin Zhenchuan in the tea garden, wearing a polo shirt that cannot be seen, stepping on tourist shoes, wearing a straw hat, walking a little hunchback. He looked at the tea tree and touched the leaf, looking like a tea farmer. But it is this tea farmer who has paid taxes for many years accounting for more than 30% of the Fuding white tea industry, and more than 500 employees have created a GDP of one million per capita. He is no longer the poor boy who took a long-distance bus, slept on the board, and sold tea in order to repay the money, but became an entrepreneur who was willing to create a better future for Fuding White Tea. Lin Zhenchuan is very confident in himself and confident in the future of Fuding White Tea. He feels that his mission is to "be a good person, make a good cup of tea, and make a good cup of tea beautiful for thousands of households." And his wish is still the revitalization of the entire Fuding white tea industry, he often said a sentence is: "Let Fuding white tea go to the world, let the world taste Fuding white tea." ”
Behind the white tea is the people's livelihood and responsibility, do this step well, in order to become the real tea big.
Bibliographic reference:
[1] In 2001, the varieties of white tea plants included in the "White Tea Standard Complex" of Fujian Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision and Administration were: Fuding Dabai Tea, Fuding Dahao Tea, Zhenghe Dabai Tea, Fuding Vegetable Tea, Fuyun No. 6, Fujian Daffodil, and Fu'an Dabai Tea
(Image source: Pin Xiang Tea Industry)
Planner: Triptych. CREATIVE
Producer: Shen Yichao
WeChat Editor/Design Typography: Xing Peng
Author: Yibu