How to let laymen know about Fenghuang Dancong tea? Some people will popularize its complex flavor and talk about the knowledge of the ten major fragrance types such as almond fragrance and honey orchid fragrance; some people will trace back to the place of origin and mention the ancient tea tree resources on Wugu Mountain. But today, as long as you start chatting with the duck feces-scented new tea drink that is sold all over the street and has a somewhat strange name, you can instantly arouse everyone's interest.
Phoenix single bush camellia
In fact, behind the instant popularity of duck feces, the quality and value of Phoenix Dancong tea are always separated by a layer of fog.
In order to cultivate a larger market and promote the industry to go global, it is necessary to penetrate this layer of cognitive fog. The reporter's investigation found that from the protection of ancient tea tree resources, to the establishment of the fragrance system, to the popularization of cultural connotations such as tea sets and brewing processes, local people have also found the password for industrial development in the process of embracing changes and spreading new knowledge.
The commanding heights of "chasing incense" are excellent, and the selection of individual plants promotes marketization
On the online platform, to the question of "what is the status of drinking tea in the minds of Chaoshan people", Gao Zan replied: "Even if you go to the other party's house to quarrel, you have to drink tea." This is not an exaggeration, in Chaozhou, whether it is a high-rise building, or a deep alley, you can always see people around the scene of drinking tea, "there is leisure to eat tea" has become a polite word that Chaoshan people often hang on their lips.
The tea drinking tradition of Chaoshan people has existed since ancient times, but the tea production in the Chaoshan area in ancient times was not high, and the tea they drank mainly came from the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the largest share of tea exported through Guangdong ports was also Wuyi tea, and the bulk trade of Wuyi Mountain was dominated by daffodil tea in northern Fujian. Since then, Guangdong tea farmers have set off a craze for planting daffodil tea on a large scale, and the made tea is called Phoenix Narcissus. By the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Phoenix Narcissus had become one of the 24 major famous teas in the country.
The name of "single cong" is due to the fact that the Phoenix tea farmers at that time did not master the method of asexual reproduction as early as the Fujian people, and they had to rely on single plant harvesting and single plant production to ensure the purity and stability of the quality of the finished tea. During the period from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, all high-quality phoenix daffodils that were picked and made by a single plant and stored separately were called single bushes.
In 1861, with the official opening of Shantou Port as a foreign trade port, many Phoenix people took the "red-headed boat" to the South Seas to make a living, which also made this wisp of tea fragrance waft to Southeast Asian countries. Lin Weizhou, chairman of Guangdong Nanfu Tea Industry Co., Ltd., said that more than 90 years ago, his grandfather opened Phoenix Tea Shop in Bangkok, Thailand, and his generation is already the third generation. According to Lin Weizhou's recollection, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state unified the acquisition and formulation of standards and grades, and divided Phoenix tea into three grades, from high to low for single bush, wave vegetable and narcissus. "At that time, the output of tea was not so large, and the grade was relatively single, because the unified purchase of tea could only sell for more than ten yuan per catty, and many people chose to plant rice. Lin Weizhou said.
After the reform and opening up, with the deepening of the marketization of Phoenix tea, the output of tea has been increasing. Data show that in 1959, the total output of tea in Fenghuang Town reached 2,195 quintals (one quintal is equal to 60 catties), with a total area of 4,364 acres. In 2000, the area of the tea garden developed to more than 30,000 acres, with a total tea output of more than 3 million catties and an annual output value of more than 60 million yuan, becoming the economic pillar of Fenghuang Town.
Overlooking the town of Phoenix
During this period, the Phoenix Dancong tea was accepted by the market, which was not unrelated to the optimization of the name of the tea. After 1990, Fenghuang Town set off a boom in grafting famous, excellent and rare tea varieties, not only breeding excellent single plants, but also creating a cultural wonder named after the fragrance type of Phoenix Dancong tea, which is widely spread and has been widely divided into ten major fragrance types such as yellow branch incense, zhilan incense, cinnamon incense, etc., and even has a strange name like duck feces incense. In order to continue the advantages of Phoenix famous tea, Lin Weizhou set up a nursery breeding base, which has bred dozens of new varieties since 1988, and tens of millions of tea seedlings.
Luo Jun, an expert in tea culture, told reporters that Phoenix Dancong tea is the commanding heights of "chasing incense" in Chinese tea culture, and the most special thing is the diversity of its aroma, "unlike many large-scale teas that take the industrialization route and pursue stability, each fragrance type of Phoenix Dancong tea is a sample, so we don't need to migrate the industrialized management system to it, but to let more people know it, protect it, and appreciate it."
Say goodbye to the live broadcast of "selling acquaintances" and open a new window for the dissemination of tea culture
In the Da'an Ancient Tea Garden in Fenghuang Town, the ancient tea trees with scattered branches and leaves complement each other with the village. The oldest ancient tea tree here is more than 600 years old, and every year when the spring tea is picked, many tea pickers climb the ladder to pick the tea for fear of breaking the branches and leaves of the ancient tea tree, and the local villagers gather under the ancient tea tree to hold a grand picking ceremony.
Almost every village in Da'an Village has ancient trees, everyone knows how to grow tea, and many villagers have built two houses: one for living and one for making tea. Guo Zhiming, the person in charge of the tea industry in Anjuzhuang after the 90s, has dozens of acres of tea trees in the ancient tea garden, and since he is sensible, he will go to make tea when he has time. In Guo Zhiming's view, the most critical factors that determine the quality and price of tea are the age of the tree and the tea-making process. "The tea leaves in Da'an Village are dominant in terms of age, but even if the tea itself is made of good material, it is not done well in the processing process, and the quality is still not satisfactory. ”
It takes nearly 24 hours for a good tea to be made from picking, and it takes nearly 24 hours to dry it after picking in the afternoon, and it is necessary to touch the green every two hours that night, and it is basically three or four o'clock in the morning when the end of the green touching, and a series of processes need to be completed by hand. According to Guo Zhiming, the funding gap for tea farmers mainly occurs during the tea picking season in March, when they have to pay a large number of wages to tea pickers and tea makers, but in addition to such seasonal capital needs, they also have the need for mechanized inputs. In the past two years, he has renovated the old factory into a new one, purchased tea-making equipment, and now part of the process such as kneading and frying can be done by machine.
In the manufacturing process of tea, the taste buds of consumers also play the role of a weather vane. Guo Zhiming observed that with the younger group of tea consumers, young people generally do not like the taste of heavy fermentation, so they basically focus on light fermentation in tea fermentation to retain the fragrance of tea to a greater extent.
The sales side of tea is also undergoing earth-shaking changes. In the past, most of the tea shops opened by Fenghuang people in the streets and alleys of Chaozhou were "one family, one household" type of individual management, relying on the network of acquaintances to sell tea, and the sales scope was often limited to local residents around the tea shops. Nowadays, almost everyone in Fenghuang's tea farmers and tea merchants has a Douyin account, using tea culture as the traction and using live e-commerce to promote their products to other regions in China. Taking the Nanfu brand founded by Lin Weizhou as an example, the sales of the highest live broadcast were more than 1.8 million yuan, and the products were sold to Shandong, Shanghai, Beijing and other places.
In this regard, Luo Jun analyzed that the variety of varieties and aromas of Phoenix Dancong tea has created its "small and beautiful". "This is difficult to promote on traditional e-commerce platforms in the past, because it is very rich in knowledge, not a simple SKU data can be included, now with the help of live e-commerce, local tea merchants can popularize more tea planting, tea making and tea brewing knowledge, in order to drive the sales of Phoenix Dancong tea. ”
Tea garden
"Duck feces incense" is popular, and the local exploration of the development path of characteristic industries
According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 chain brands in the new tea drink market have launched duck feces fragrance series drinks, among them, Uncle Qiu, LINLEE, Tart Lemon, Ningji and other brands have duck feces fragrant lemon tea as the main product. Duck feces incense has become an Internet celebrity in the field of freshly made tea, and it has also brought new opportunities for the development of the industry of Phoenix Dancong tea.
However, compared with other semi-fermented oolong tea varieties such as Anxi Tieguanyin and Wuyi Rock Tea, Phoenix Dancong Tea is also a veritable niche tea in terms of the industrial scale of tea, as well as cultural and market influence, and it also faces various problems such as lack of funds and talents, and opaque trading markets.
According to the data, in 2022, the tea planting area of Chaozhou City will reach 241,200 mu, with an annual output of more than 30,000 tons of dry hair tea, an output value of 7.318 billion yuan for hair tea, and a total output value of about 26 billion yuan. At the end of 2022, the "Overall Plan for the High-quality Development of Chaozhou Phoenix Dancong Tea Industry (2021-2025)" was officially issued, and in terms of specific goals, it was proposed that by 2025, the city's tea garden area will develop to 250,000 mu, the tea output will reach 30,000 tons, and the total output value of the tea industry will reach 40 billion yuan.
The reporter learned that the capital needs of Phoenix Dancong tea enterprises are concentrated in two major aspects, the need to advance funds in advance when purchasing tea, and the lack of timely payment in downstream sales resulting in tight funds. Huang Sichao, vice president of the Chaozhou branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, told reporters that the Agricultural Bank of China has innovatively launched a series of products such as agricultural leading loans, rural revitalization industry loans, and implementation of main loans to support the operation and development of the tea industry;
The top of Phoenix Mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist
Huang Sichao said frankly that in the process of financial services for the tea industry, there are still problems that production and transaction factors such as planting area and operating income are not fully data-based. In the next step, Chaozhou Agricultural Bank will actively promote the work of digital empowerment of the tea industry and continuously strengthen financial innovation.
The local government is also actively promoting the industry to become bigger and stronger, and promoting the sharing of tea flavors. Zhang Liming, full-time vice president of the Guangdong Tea Industry Association, introduced that Chaozhou has worked "quality tea, science and technology tea, brand strong tea, and cultural tea" in accordance with the development path of the distinctive, differentiated and branded tea industry, and has transformed and upgraded the "three chains" of industry and supply value, giving full play to the traction, integration and creativity of the tea industry, expanding its comparative advantages, and making every effort to promote the high-quality development of the Phoenix Dancong tea industry.
Text: Reporter Huang Ting, Cheng Xinghuan, Dai Manman
Photo: Reporter Yan Jincheng
Planning|Wu Jiang Sun Jing
Co-ordinator|Dai Manman, Cheng Xinghuan