From the heart of Beijing to the edges of the global stage, you're at Roundtable.
I'm Niu Honglin.
For centuries, tea was a staple, the quiet ceremonial background note to Chinese life.
But in 2026 the spring harvest has transformed into a high stakes economic engine, triggering a massive mobilization of labor capital and live streamed commerce.
Have you ever considered making your next trip tea themed?
Let's talk about it.
For today's show, I'm joined by Yushan and Steve Heatherly.
Now pull up a chair and join the conversation.
Spring in China certainly wakes up flowers and birds, but it also wakes up the tea economy.
No, I'm not only talking about the harvesting during spring period.
The tea industry is getting much more integrated today.
We have younger consumers embracing tea as their everyday routine, part of their everyday routine, and international buyers ordering through e-commerce platforms and travelers heading to tea mountains for immersive cultural experiences.
So tea here in China at this period of the time is definitely something very important, has something to do with almost everybody and almost a trend when it comes to the tourism and travel industry.
Something quite interesting.
But it all begins with the fact that this is a primary time for tea harvesting, the pre-Qingming period or the early stage in spring.
And that has been there for a really long time.
Yeah, I was chatting with Steve earlier while we were thinking about this topic that it's like spring recruitment or autumn recruitment.
We also have like spring tea harvesting and autumn tea harvesting.
That's um the two major seasons, but you know tea it can genuinely be harvested in all four seasons.
But here the spring tea, as you mentioned um homeland that It is usually considered the highest quality harvesting period where the tea tastes the best, because after a full winter of dormancy the tea plant accumulates the highest level of nutrients and make its flavor kind of like its most original and tastes as its prime.
So this results in a rich aroma mixed with a fresh, sweet and well-balanced flavors among all different varieties out there.
So yeah, spring tea, it's not really a particular type in case you're wondering, Steve.
It's a It's a term that simply means that tea harvested from the first time of the year in the spring.
And that usually lasts from February to April.
I'm not a tea guy per se, because tea culture in Canada, I mean, it's there.
When I was growing up, my parents drank tea from time to time.
But I don't think it's fair at all to compare tea culture in Canada to tea culture in China.
That is for sure.
Tea drinkers take their tea as seriously as coffee drinkers take their coffee.
You'll hear coffee drinkers talk about different types of beans and aromas and flavors and things like that.
How it's roasted, levels.
Right, right.
And for non-coffee drinkers, they listen to that and go, okay, I'm sure you're probably right.
You're talking about the beverage snobs.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But for me, who's had tea plenty of times, of course I can't really tell the difference, the subtle differences in flavor and aroma.
Oh, good.
Me neither.
Oh, well, that's comforting to know.
Yes.
Well, because when it comes to, I think it doesn't really confine to only tea because, no matter what the commodity is, once it's got the kind of scale like tea or coffee and it's something that is so common in people's everyday life, you got to have the luxurious part of the commodity.
You got to have the tea snobs or coffee snobs that Steve has mentioned.
That is, they can tell the difference between different types of tea.
They can even um, tell you all the history related to the making of the tea, the brewing ceremonies um, the fact that in ancient china we even say, only the most beautiful and innocent young ladies are supposed to be on the tea mountain to pick, to harvest the tea leaves.
Because it's Their aroma, their vibe is pure enough so they do not contaminate the purest pureness of the tea, and also their hands are so soft and tender and they would not break, harm the tea leaves at all, so that batch of tea leaves would be able to have the highest price tag on them.
So you you, you understand the level of snobness we're talking about here, picked by the prettiest girls in the field, and the idea is that once a commodity is with the popularity as tea it have all those different characters it's, It can be appreciated by regular people.
It can also be appreciated by the most wealthy or those who really really view tea as something that is that important.
So spring tea doesn't refer to one specific type, but are there any types of tea that are most well known for being delicious during this type of time of year?
Like green tea, for example, is it a time for that?
Good pick.
Longjing and Bi Luo Chun.
They're the most representative ones and they all fall into the green tea category.
They're known for their freshness and delicate aroma, and spring is the best time for them to really get onto the market as fresh harvest.
And also, there's white tea.
One of our colleagues in the same room that we're working.
She is the firmest believer of white tea that i've ever seen because well, i learned this from her that white tea is capable of healing a lot of inflammatory reactions in your body.
And Right now, like the fooding, white tea is also lighter and more natural, featuring the flavor, and it's also a superstar among the spring tea season.
Also, there's oolong tea.
For a long time, I used to mistake oolong tea as part of the green tea variety, but it's not.
So oolong tea is of its own.
And there are a lot of variety under the oolong umbrella, such as the wuyi rock tea, the phoenix danzong all bring a complex aroma and a taste kind of in between of green tea and black tea, but it's like deeper and it has a more rich of a roasted smell, as far as I've noticed.
And yeah, all of these tea, they come from different parts of China and they taste very differently, but they all kind of prime during springtime.
So if this is one of the most important harvest seasons for tea, then this has to be one of the most important harvest seasons for farmers too, I would think.
Yes, they would even call it a golden window, because this is the very short but crucial time where they can get the best tea without the buds growing older than they should be.
And if it grows a bit older it will be a bit bitter, which is not the taste they're aiming for.
And I think that is part of the reason that this period is so closely related to the tea farming industry, to the tea farmers, to those places that is full of tea mountain resources.
And now we're looking at the fact that this industry is expanding a little bit and with the development of technology.
Not only are we looking at new technologies that are helping farmers to harvest the tea even better, they are also using it as a golden marketing window, showing people how the best of the best tea is harvested and how come we can Put them in a package that can perfectly make sure that the flavor, the smell and everything is really closely sealed in that little package.
And we're able to deliver that package to you through Internet or WhatsApp, letting you know the fact that we're doing it through internet, and then deliver it to your dining table through the cold chain transportation system.
And now we're looking at the fact that These, especially pre-Qingming tea, is getting a really high price.
This is the time, as a matter of fact, as we are speaking this week, that's right before the Qingming Festival.
It's really the time when tea farmers all over China, they get really busy harvesting their tea.
I was randomly speaking to a Fujian tea farmer yesterday who owns a tea farm of his own family's name.
It's not a brand.
It's only a family farm.
He says that you arrived at a very perfect time last week.
We are at our peak right now to harvest everything, because this two weeks window is really precious, as we call it, a precious as gold kind of time.
To harvest tea, because it's the freshest time and the tea buds grow during this period are plump.
Extremely tender and rich in aroma.
So what that tea farmer from Fujian told me is that his entire family, the elders, the children, they all go out and they hand pick the leaves.
And that's quite an experience.
It's one of the busiest season for them to go out and actually harvest tea tea, because of the Mingqian tea.
It's on its own a brand, a best-selling spot for many of the teas that they're selling.
For example, there's also the pre-Qingming spring tea.
That's usually the most expensive tea as well, according to Shanghai observers, who noted in 2025 that these type of teas, the prices mostly range from 3000 to 6000 yuan.
Whoa.
Yeah, that's very expensive comparing with usual loose tea purchases.
That's roughly 420 to 830 US dollars per kilo.
So with some tea variety... For tea?
Yeah yes wow, that's the luxury.
I didn't know.
I didn't know it could become that expensive.
Imagine that hand picking time, the efficiency, how they're really rushing, beating the time in order to harvest everything, plus the cooking with the factory.
So yeah, that's what i learned very freshly last week too.
There are ways when everything is done in a very traditional, manually handled way you roast it and ferment it and cook it yourself, or leave it to the machine.
So that comes with different tiered prices too, regarding how it's processed.
So is that the upper end then, that you'll you would pay, or does it get even more expensive than that?
Well, it depends, because very specific very, very specific type can be even more expensive.
And when you view it as a luxurious good, it's no longer purely about the cost.
It has something to do with the brand.
It has something to do with even who cooked it, because a master.
If this master is doing it by hand, well you would know it can get very expensive.
But I want to ask you this, Steve.
Have you ever been to a tea mountain?
Yes.
Not in China, but I've been to tea fields before.
Then you must know the fact that the tea trees are not that tall.
No, they're like bushes.
Yes.
And there are huge fields and you go and kind of...
Well, where I went, you have some time to walk around the fields and take some pictures.
And the bushes go up to about.
Well, I'm six feet tall, so they go up to about your waist, maybe around there.
And there's paths separating them.
It's quite picturesque, I suppose.
And then the place I went also had like a shop where you could go in and buy the tea there.
And then they had these pretentious tea tasting.
For me it was like come on everybody, like chill out, you know what I mean.
Um, but it was a cool experience for sure.
Oh, that is already a tea themed travel experience you just shared.
We can talk about that later, because Chinese people are definitely upgrading that part of the tea industry as well.
But, just like you said, the tea bushes are not that tall, meaning that you have to bend to get the tea.
So it can be a bit arduous.
And, at the same time, most of the tea plantations and mountains here in China.
They're on, Like I said, mountains.
So you have to climb the mountains.
So it can also be a bit hard to travel as even farmers.
And that is why now we are looking at a lot of robots coming in, designed for the height, designed for the level of tenderness, tea picking.
And it is also helping the farmers.
Well, I'm sure that it's helping, but I bet there are some tea purists out there who don't like it right.
Because you've already told me that historically...
The very romantic story of having the beautiful ladies in the field to pick the tea and the purity, and all this.
And here we are in 2026 and Chinese culture is now employing robots to go out and do that job.
It's quite the juxtapose to imagine those two scenes next to each other.
But still, that's where we are.
And yeah, it would make it a whole lot easier on the farmers for sure.
Yeah.
For example, if you go to a barber shop, there's going to be at least three different price variation given to you, depending on who you go for to get your haircut.
Similar with tea brands and tea farmers.
They put out all different options of different price varieties.
And I'm sure in those process The tea harvesting assisted with machines is a crucial way for them to lower the cost.
For example, I think it's in the West Lake in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, where this robot, the M20 wheeled-legged robot Fancy and tacky that sounds.
Wheeled-legged robot and also the X-30 quadruped robot.
They navigate the local sea fields with surprising agility.
They name it the mountain cat.
Imagine them crawling around the very tiered landscape and collecting tea very flexibly and running in between the bushes.
And really it facilitates a lot of man, resources and handpicking process and then shortens the time.
Because in Hangzhou that Longjing tea is known as the pre-Chin Ming tea.
Worth is weighting gold because the delicate leaves must reach processing workshop within one hour of picking.
So I am sure these mountain cats, quote unquote, are really facilitating with that.
It's different regions too, right?
I mean, it's not just one area of China because we talk about it.
You know, some fruits are almost specific to some regions in the country, but for tea, tea is grown in many different parts of the country and harvested in many different parts too.
Definitely.
We have different parts, including southwest China.
You see Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and these places are famous for tea.
They're even known as the origin of tea.
And there's also South China, Guangdong province, Fujian.
I have visited a tea plantation area in Fujian.
They're famous for the jasmine tea.
And jasmine tea, the highest end of jasmine tea.
In that area, category or that product, you cannot find any jasmine flowers because the jasmine flowers are used as a product to give the tea leaves a jasmine scent, and you remove the tea, the jasmine flower buds entirely, just to show that you have used so many, so so many Jasmine buds as a sidekick, just to make sure the main character is still the tea.
Sorry, quick question.
Culturally speaking, is there a bit of a competition, I wonder?
Like our tea is better than your tea from region to region.
For sure.
We see that in advertisement all the time.
But I think the key element here is that, with all these different regions and areas and all the different brands, all the different types of teas competing with each other, they are also up-leveling their game in the sense that yes, we traditionally have already had the high-end tea for a really long time, but for the industry to continue to grow, they can create other very creative product to meet the needs of young consumers as well.
For example, in these day and age, milk tea is definitely something that people enjoy a lot.
But milk tea does not require the highest, highest end of tea because milk tea you can use the kind of tea leaves that are not that perfect, shred them into little pieces and use that little pieces to brew out the essence of the tea and then use that as an ingredient for the milk tea, which can be pretty good.
It depends on a consumer's request.
Some consumers want the very rich ones, while others maybe they're consuming tea during afternoon time, so they do not want the caffeine level to be so high.
They want the relatively light-hearted type, maybe with a little rosy scent or a little refreshing feeling, without jeopardizing your ability to go to sleep at night.
So, with all these different needs, we have manufacturers or tea farmers developing different types of tea and making sure that they can, with the most cost effective way, meet the needs of all these different consumers.
That's so precise because I remember when I was younger, my dad used to arrive in different parts of China and buy tea at this time of the year and then come back home with see, this is the freshest Longjing.
See, this is the freshest Tieguanyin I just got from a friend, or I just purchased from a shop, I know.
But now, as we look at the domestic market, the spring tea is no longer just a seasonal product for senior tea drinkers.
It's becoming more daily consumption oriented among young people too.
Even in China with its long tea history, Up until now tea drinking was kind of associated with the older generation, more so than the younger generation, or not so much.
I don't think that's the case for today's young people anymore, because the conception or the identity of tea is also changing a little bit.
Yes, for some people, tea is still definitely tea.
But for others, milk tea is a kind of tea.
Tea mixed with coffee is a kind of tea.
So with that broader, more general understanding or notion of tea, I think it's part of people's everyday life.
Yeah.
The reason I asked is because in Canada and America I think it's still safe to say that tea is somewhat associated with older people.
You would maybe rarely see a teenager, a 19 year old at a tea shop, for example.
But that wouldn't be true in England, of course.
So it just depends.
This is a North American thing, but that's where I'm from.
So that's why I asked.
But yeah, now with younger people in China, with so many options out there, I guess.
The reputation that I see from the shops seems to be kind of like hip and trendy and young and cool all at the same time.
That's the image I get from when I see the tea shops these days.
And that's also partly because tea is presented in different scenarios as well.
We talked about well, Steve mentioned his tea travel or tea plantation trip a little already, and I have visited Fujian to see the well.
I experienced more than just tea picking.
It was the entire thing the brewing, the fermenting and the separating them into different categories.
And you see the machines, you see the handmade entire process.
And that was quite cool for me.
And for little kids, they can also enjoy tea related little games.
And there are so many different types of recreational product in different types of destinations related to tea.
So tea themed travel is making tea cooler.
Yeah, because nowadays if you think about tea farms and all that's offered that comes from tea, you can't always look at it from the product point of view, but also on how people want to seek the root.
And people are indeed nowadays. is no longer just about what's in the cup across China.
Nowadays, there are three key features when it comes to tea tourism.
One is the integration.
It brings together tea production with culture, with technology and tourism, and that's often as part of a wider rural development.
For tea, perhaps a three-day trip if you can manage.
And the second really key feature is how big of a scale it's covering nowadays.
The entire region of tea farms, nowadays they are turning themselves into travel destinations.
That's really attracting a large number of visitors every year.
And then there's also the immersive experience you get to have.
It's so immersive that, you know, I've never really been on such a trip before really been on one of those mountains where, like the tilted tea farms to handpick any tea myself.
But imagining that pick hand picking things and then cook it throughout the whole process and then taste the tea that you cook, you picked yourself, that would be quite cool and something that would I will be loving to share on social media to brag about as a matter of fact.
Just so you know.
If you are tasting the tea that you picked and cooked, it takes, you know, really long time.
I would imagine you have to be patient.
I was gonna say i think it just occurred to me when you compared tea and coffee, coffee doesn't seem like a lifestyle, But tea, I think, seems a little bit like a lifestyle when you really get into it.
Yes, because when you view tea as a cultural icon, it suddenly becomes something that can be both really cool because it's the new trend having tea themed travel but at the same time, the reason that it can be seen as popular and fun and enjoyable is because of the huge culture background behind it.
When you think of tea, you think of spring period, mist in the middle of a mountain, and you wake up in the morning and the tea scent is giving you the fragrance, is giving you this very chill and calm and almost therapeutic kind of feeling.
It takes you out of the ins and outs and buzzing everyday life and back to a state where you feel like you are really, really in the middle of the nature, without the a lot of alerts from your social media.
There's something peaceful and serene about the culture then, I guess.
Whereas coffee is more like, Hyper fast paced.
Yes.
And that's why, when thinking about visiting a tea plantation, staying there for a couple of days, enjoying oh you know, here in China, there's this one thing.
I don't know if it's a thing in the West as well.
That is, you have a theme for your entire life.
Event?
Meal.
Yeah, the entire, all of the dishes on the table is with one theme.
I don't know what you mean.
For example, if we're talking about a all fish dish related meal, it means that all of the sets have something to do with fish.
It can be fried fish, it can be Boiled fish, it can be a fish scent kind of cold dish.
Full fish meal all over the table.
Each dish has something to do with it.
Yeah, or scent related to it.
And in these tea plantation, you can even order a full tea meal.
It's like 20 different dishes, but all of them would... have something to do with tea.
So that is also an immersive experience.
I don't believe we do have anything like that.
Nothing comes to mind for me.
Yeah.
Before the show started, I was asking, and I found the answer to be quite surprising, I think.
I asked, why is tea so deeply ingrained into Chinese culture?
I wonder, what's the root of it?
Where did it all begin?
And what did you both say?
Nothing.
Right.
I don't know.
There was silence for a few seconds.
And then both of both of you said I don't really know, which I think is kind of interesting to know.
It's just kind of.
It is deeply ingrained into Chinese culture.
So deeply that you cannot name the reason anymore.
And it's like more than 5000 years ago tea was invented and got popular and got different form for different dynasties.
So it has been there and all that. is a part of the experience.
One, it is a study trip for little kids.
They can learn the history of tea, learn the literature related to tea and their parents.
As a parent, I love it when I feel like I'm combining fun with learning.
I don't know what the kids are feeling, but when they can get some hands-on experience, they enjoy it.
Yeah, and your conclusion draw just reminded me of something.
You know some local parts of China.
For example, I think it's in Guizhou province, where a county is named Shichen.
What they do locally is to preserve their thousands of years old tea trees.
And all of those tea trees share the same roots from, well, we don't know how many dynasties ago.
And the biggest selling point, the marketing locally is to label that these come from the trees that taste different.
Exactly the same or roughly more or less the same from a few thousand years ago.
That's perhaps an answer to your question of how it is inherited all the way here.
The trees are there and the taste remains and we see them in poetry.
We read about them.
We taste them wherever we go.
And it's like all covering poetry. throughout the different landscape of China.
So yeah, this is really part of our culture.
And with the involving of almost every stage of the supply chain of tea making, of tea related industry, I think we are looking at a lot more new opportunities for us to enjoy tea in different ways.
This is one of the oldest agricultural tradition, but it's getting its popular side.
