Just my cup of tea

By Li Huayu (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-08-20 08:46

Snuggle into an overstuffed chair, sip my favorite iced tea, and journey to Shaanxi, a province in western China. With just a hint of soothing green tea aroma, I feel refreshed and enlivened from the long trip from Shanxi, another inland province.

It's my first time here. Grown up in Fujian Province in East China, the hometown of Chinese teas, I am a tea aficionado. Thus, whenever I travel, my first thing is to scout local marketplace to find teas to my taste.

According to my knowledge, Shaanxi is also a famous tea-producing area. Different from the warm and humid Fujian, Shaanxi features a dryer climate and a higher terrain. Will teas growing here be different too? I decide to find the answer.

Just my cup of tea

On sale at major local tea shops there are a variety of tea products, most of them packed in bars, gift bags, cans and foil boxes. A salesgirl tells me there are eight famous local brands - Wuzi Xianhao, Dingjun Mingmei, Hanshui Yunsuo, Ziyang Maojian, Ningqiang Queshe, Pingli Yipingxiang, Qinba Wuhao and Shangnan Quanming.

I pick up a can of Wuzi Xianhao. Being the highest grade of Wuzi green tea, Wuzi Xianhao is well processed with new buds and epicormic leaves plucked before Pure Brightness (the 5th of a month on the lunar term).

Once made in a glass, it looks like an orchid and turns emerald green. With fragrant aroma, it tastes mellow. The tea, containing various trace elements such as Zn and Se, is said to be able to nourish one's body, besides quenching the thirst. The aroma is stronger than green tea produced in Fujian. Good, it's my cup of tea.

Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd, founded in 1998, is an enterprise that integrates green tea technology, culture, trade as well as planting, production, processing and sale. With a green tea production base of more than 200,000 mu (13,333 hectares), the company has introduced international standards and plants, processes and sells green teas in line with the requirements of the ISO9001.

To better promote its products, Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd implements an integrated marketing strategy, carries out market segmentation and consumer segmentation, and sticks to a market-oriented marketing practice.

Up to now, Wuzi Green Tea, as a famous brand in Shaanxi, has set up more than 160 sales outlets and franchised shops across the province. Besides, the company has passed five quality certifications - the ISO9001 international quality system, the ISO14001 environmental management system, the qualification of organic foods, the qualification of green foods and the QS food safety certification.

Currently, Wuzi green teas are available in many cities nationwide and some foreign countries. During the move to go beyond Shaanxi, Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd encounters some difficulties. First of all, Wuzi Green Tea is not widely known yet.

My sample interviews with about 20 local residents in Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi, show that 2/3 of the interviewed either have never heard of "Wuzi" or mistaken the name of "Wuzi" as "Ziwu".

Asked of what teas they drink, many local residents, however, do not drink local teas at all because they haven't ever heard of those brands. Among 10 people who claim themselves to be tea lovers, only one can figure out the eight famous brands.

Secondly, though "Wuzi" green tea is a registered trademark, many teas produced with tea leafs from the Wuzi Mountain are named "Wuzi." Therefore, Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd is now struggling for a solution to help consumers better distinguish its brand from others.

Thirdly, at present, most Chinese teas are exported in bulk as materials for foreign tea brands. To establish Wuzi brand image abroad, Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd is trying to export its packaged products. As a result, the export volume is not high yet.

Wuzi Green Tea Co Ltd has included brand development into its 11th Five-Year Plan (2005-2010) and established a brand management department in the hope to build Wuzi Green Tea into a Chinese Top Brand and a brand widely known abroad.