From May 9th to 12th, the 13th Sichuan International Tea Industry Expo was held at the Chengdu Century City Convention and Exhibition Center. In this year's Tea Expo, Yucheng District of Ya'an City brought the regional public brand of "Ya'an Tibetan Tea" to the Tea Expo, meeting friends with tea, appreciating the mellow fragrance of Tibetan tea, and showing the charm of thousand-year-old intangible cultural heritage.
traceability
Ya'an Tibetan tea has been passed down for thousands of years
Ya'an Tibetan tea is a typical representative of Chinese dark tea, named because it has been mainly sold to Tibet, Qinghai, Kham and other Tibetan areas for thousands of years. It has a history of more than 1,300 years since Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty entered Tibet in 641 A.D. and is known as the originator of black tea.
Ya'an is the oldest and largest Tibetan tea production base, and has the reputation of "the hometown of Tibetan tea in China". The public brand value of "Ya'an Tibetan Tea" ranks first in Sichuan black tea, ranks third in Sichuan tea public brand, and ranks first in the national black tea public brand. Yucheng District is humid and rainy all year round, the climate, water and soil are suitable for the growth of tea, and the tea production is quite abundant, it is one of the main places for the export of side tea, an important node on the ancient tea horse road and the Southern Silk Road, and an important link for Sino-Tibetan cultural exchanges, and it has been an important tea area since ancient times.
The production process of Ya'an Tibetan tea is unique, using the core production skills of the national intangible cultural heritage South Roadside Tea, and is made by specific processes such as finishing, rolling, drying, worn, refining, blending, and autoclaving, and has the unique quality of "red, strong, aged and mellow". Among them, the most critical Wudui (fermentation) process refers to the processing process of Tibetan tea wool tea in special places or mechanical equipment, through the natural environment temperature, humidity and other conditions, using microorganisms, enzymes, damp heat and oxidation, etc., to make the substances contained in it undergo a series of biochemical reactions, so as to form the unique quality of Ya'an Tibetan tea.
In 2008, the traditional production skills of South Roadside Tea (Ya'an Tibetan Tea) were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage. In 2011, the traditional tea production skills of Nanlubian were selected into the list of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage production protection demonstration bases. In November 2022, the "South Roadside Tea Making Technique" and "Mengding Mountain Tea Making Technique" were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
After continuous research and development, Tibetan tea series products have developed from 6 varieties of traditional South Roadside Tea Kang brick, Jinjian, Bud fine, Maojian, Jinyu and Jincang to more than 100 series products in seven categories, including pressed Tibetan tea, loose Tibetan tea, bag Tibetan tea, Tibetan flower tea, Tibetan tea powder, Tibetan tea concentrate and Tibetan tea decorations, and 12 invention patents and utility model patents have been obtained.
Inheritance
High-quality development of intangible cultural heritage for the millennium
As the core production area of Ya'an Tibetan tea, Yucheng District has vigorously developed Ya'an Tibetan tea in recent years in accordance with the "one green and one black" strategy for the development of the city's tea industry. Through the "six major measures" of building bases, creating parks, deep processing, expanding markets, creating brands, and promoting integration, we will strive to make great efforts in the green creation, clean production, standardized construction, market-oriented promotion, brand publicity, and integrated development of tea tourism, build a standardized sightseeing tea garden in Yuntai Mountain, carry out tea garden trusteeship, develop rural tourism, promote the green development, transformation and upgrading of Ya'an Tibetan tea, and do a good job in the integrated development of tea culture, tea industry, and tea technology.
At the site of the 13th Sichuan International Tea Industry Expo, Wu Zhongbin, chairman of Ya'an Helong Tea Industry Co., Ltd., fried Tibetan tea, combined traditional craftsmanship with modern techniques, and made exquisite bamboo Tibetan tea through blending, frying, screening, steaming, bagging, drying, packaging and other skills, which was more convenient to carry and attracted many visitors to buy.
"Ya'an has good mountains and good water, and good tea comes out. Ya'an Tibetan tea has a long cultural history of more than 1,000 years, and generations of tea culture inheritors have been practicing the mission of tea culture dissemination. Ya'an Tibetan tea has a good history, and it is a healthy cup of tea. At the scene of the tea fair, Wang Fei, a national first-class tea art technician, tea evaluation technician and senior tea maker, said.
In recent years, Yucheng District has set up a comprehensive agricultural service center in the tea fresh leaf trading market to provide high-quality fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, and agricultural technology services, popularize high-efficiency and low-toxicity pesticides, and advanced pest control methods to promote the quality and safety of Tibetan tea. Using the educational resources of colleges and universities, 150 tea farmers were trained, 8 professional and technical personnel of agricultural enterprises were trained, 10 webcast personnel were recruited, 200 farmer members were absorbed, and 2 farmer cooperatives were driven to promote the development of the Tibetan tea industry.
The implementation of the "four main and three" fresh leaf trading market construction, by the government to promote the construction, supply and marketing cooperatives to lead the construction, the main body of the enterprise construction, the village community in charge, the completion of the market to the village committee and the grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives in charge, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of towns and villages. Through the scientific layout, the full coverage of the tea production area market is realized, and the tea market in the whole region adopts the method of open market-oriented bidding, fine management, and fair scale, so that tea farmers and enterprises can rest assured.
Not only that, Yucheng District has also actively explored the interest connection mechanism of "Tibetan tea leading enterprises + grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives + village-level collective economic organizations + farmers' cooperatives (family farms) + farmers" to form a "one industry and produce hardware" model, so as to realize the collective income sub-fund, land transfer rent, base workers to earn salaries, shareholding and operation shares, and fresh leaves sold into cash, so as to drive the village collective to increase income.
Up to now, Yucheng District has a total of 300,000 acres of tea gardens, 200,000 acres of standardized tea gardens have been built, and 187,000 acres have passed the certification of the national green food (tea) raw material base, covering all towns and streets in the district. 69 tea products were certified as green food and 13 as organic food. The annual output of Tibetan tea is 32,000 tons, the total processing output value is 1.65 billion yuan, and the comprehensive output value exceeds 3 billion yuan. In 2023, it will drive more than 40,000 tea farmers in the region to increase their per capita income by more than 1,000 yuan.
In the next step, Yucheng District will take the "three teas" as the main line of work, actively integrate into the construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Shuangcheng Economic Circle and Sichuan-Tibet Economic Cooperation Zone, take the inheritance and promotion of human intangible cultural heritage as the starting point, always focus on the brand building of Ya'an Tibetan tea, continue to promote the construction of "six modernizations" such as brand efficiency, market diversification, enterprise clustering, tea and tourism integration, science and technology demonstration, and base digitalization, actively carry out brand publicity and market promotion, strive to cultivate and strengthen market players, and continuously improve the brand awareness, reputation and influence of Ya'an Tibetan tea. Accelerate the construction of a Ya'an Tibetan tea industry system that meets the requirements of high-quality development, and promote the high-quality development of the Tibetan tea industry.
Yucheng District Agriculture and Rural Bureau
Reporter Hu Yue of Ya'an Rong Media Center
Ya'an Rong Media Center Xu Yi