I advise you to try Guizhou Matcha, just one reason is enough!

Matcha ice cream, matcha latte, matcha yogurt... In summer, the refreshing and slightly bitter matcha brings a cool feeling.

When it comes to "matcha", it seems to always be associated with Japan, and many people even think that "the world's matcha is in Japan". But do you know that many of the matcha raw materials of the various matcha foods you eat on the market now come from Guizhou matcha?

The "European standard matcha" produced in Tongren, Guizhou, is exported to more than 40 countries and regions including the United States, Germany, Canada, and Singapore.

Matcha ice cream. Copyright image. Reproduction may cause copyright disputes.

Today is "International Tea Day". Let us talk about how Tongren, Guizhou became the "Matcha Capital of China" and the "World Matcha Super Factory"?

Guizhou

“The World’s Tea Source”

In 1980, an ancient tea seed fossil was discovered in Qinglong County in southwestern Guizhou. It is a tea seed fossil that is more than one million years old and is also the oldest tea seed fossil discovered in the world so far.

Tea seeds are the seeds of tea. The discovery of this tea seed fossil seems to show the fate between tea and Guizhou in the past and present lives - "The world's tea originated from China, and China's tea originated from Yunnan and Guizhou."

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, as of 2022, the tea plantation area in Guizhou Province reached 7 million mu, ranking first in the country.

Tea garden in Guizhou. Copyright image. Reprinting and using may cause copyright disputes.

Why is Guizhou so suitable for the growth of tea trees?

This has to do with Guizhou's unique geographical environment.

Tea trees prefer warm and humid environments and are not cold-resistant. They are best grown in monsoon subtropical climate zones, especially in foggy areas. During the growth period of tea trees, if the sunshine percentage is less than 45%, the quality of tea leaves will be better, and if it is less than 40%, the quality will be worse. Therefore, tea is suitable for planting in mid-high mountains, foggy and cool mountainous areas.

Guizhou is the only region in China that has "low latitude, high altitude and little sunshine".

Guizhou Province is high in the west and low in the east, and slopes from the middle to the north, east and south. The western part is 1,500 to 2,800 meters above sea level, and the central part is about 1,000 meters above sea level. The climate belongs to the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, which is warm and humid. The annual average temperature in most areas is around 15ºC. The atmospheric precipitation is relatively abundant, and the annual precipitation is mostly between 1,100 and 1,300 mm. There is relatively little sunshine, and the cloud cover is large. The annual sunshine hours are about 1,300 hours. The zonal soil belongs to the red soil-yellow soil zone of the mid-subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, and most of them are acidic or slightly acidic.

Especially Tongren at the foot of Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou.

As the "most Guizhou" golden ecological area in Guizhou, the western Pacific monsoon and the Indian Ocean monsoon roll over mountains and hills, converting into a large amount of water vapor that lands on the tea trees, nourishing the tea buds and leaves, making them plump, green and soft.

Fanjing Mountain shrouded in mist. Copyright image. Reproduction may cause copyright disputes.

According to the test of the Ministry of Agriculture, the tea polyphenols content of Tongren tea is 16.7%~31.5%, and the amino acid content is 3.1%~10.6%, forming the golden ratio of tea polyphenols and amino acids, which is far higher than the national standard.

From "Guizhou Tea" to "Guizhou Matcha"

Excellent tea quality is the condition for "Guizhou Matcha" to stand out, but the industrial transformation from "Guizhou Tea" to "Guizhou Matcha" initially had more realistic considerations.

According to the United Nations FAO database, China's tea production has ranked first in the world since 2010. Although my country's tea production is high, there has long been a problem in tea cultivation - the proportion of deep processing of tea in my country is very low, and the added value is low, which has greatly compressed the profit margin of tea.

As a deep-processed variety of tea, matcha has high added value. A report in Shaoxing Daily in 2019 stated that the average export price of matcha per kilogram was 140 yuan, and the export price of high-end matcha was more than 400 yuan per kilogram, which is more than 20 times the average price of Shaoxing's bulk tea exports.

The matcha market size is estimated at $4.25 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $6.68 billion by 2029. Image source: Matcha Market Size and Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecasts (2024 - 2029). Mordor Intelligence. Retrieved May 20, 2024

Moreover, Matcha itself has a close connection with our country.

Matcha was originally called "powdered tea". It emerged in the Tang Dynasty (some say the Wei and Jin Dynasties) and flourished in the Song Dynasty. At that time, people ground tea cakes into powder, then used hot water to dissolve the tea powder, and used a teaspoon to beat the tea soup to make foam, which also formed the "tea-fighting" culture. Since the Ming Dynasty, my country has begun to popularize the method of drinking tea leaves and discarding the residue, and the habit of drinking "powdered tea" has gradually faded out of people's lives.

However, this tea drinking habit was introduced to Japan through cultural exchanges, accepted and praised by the Japanese people, and became a cultural symbol of Japanese tea ceremony.

It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that Chinese scholars in Japan introduced the production technology of tencha from Japan, and matcha began to flow back into my country.

Therefore, to some extent, "Matcha" is definitely not an imported product for Chinese people, but a "Renaissance" of local specialties.

Tea-making performance. Copyrighted images from the photo library. Reproduction and use may lead to copyright disputes.

Guizhou began exploring the feasibility of the matcha industry in 2015.

In 2017, Jiangkou County of Tongren City introduced Guizhou Tongren Guicha Tea Industry Co., Ltd. to build a high-standard matcha base. In the second year, the matcha refining workshop with an annual output of 4,000 tons began to be put into use. This is also the largest single matcha refining workshop in the world.

Aerial photo of Guicha Tongren Industrial Park. Image source: Xinhua News Agency

At present, the annual growth rate of global matcha demand has reached 10%, and this number is still growing. However, Japan's matcha production capacity is close to saturation. Faced with the growing supply gap, Guizhou Matcha has found an opportunity to let the world know about "Chinese Matcha".

European standard matcha

How was it born?

Many people may have always had a question: Is Matcha just ground green tea?

In fact, as a high-end product among green teas, Matcha has very strict requirements on tree species selection, planting coverage, and production details.

In my country, the national standard "Matcha" (GB/T 34778-2017) defines matcha as follows:

Matcha is a micro-powdered tea product made from fresh leaves of covered tea trees that are withered with steam (or hot air) and dried, and then ground into a powder.

Sensory quality requirements and physical and chemical indicators of matcha

"Cover cultivation" is one of the key techniques of matcha - shading.

Tea gardens usually cover the entire tea field about 20 days before picking. The purpose of covering and shading is to inhibit the decomposition of theanine into tea polyphenols, thereby reducing the bitterness of the tea and forming a natural sweetness and seaweed fragrance different from ordinary green tea. The leaves are also greener, larger, thinner and more tender than ordinary tea leaves.

The chlorophyll and amino acid contents of green tea that has been covered and shaded have increased significantly. The carotenoid content is 1.5 times that of open-air cultivation, the chlorophyll is 1.6 times that of open-air cultivation, and the total amino acid content is 1.4 times that of open-air cultivation.

After the tea leaves are picked, they need to be withered and dried on the same day. The petiole and veins of each fresh leaf are removed, leaving only the flesh part to be steamed at a constant temperature to make "ground tea".

Although the "steam killing" method is not as good as my country's traditional "frying" process in stimulating aroma, it can lock in chlorophyll, which is why Matcha has a natural tea green color.

Image source: https://www.yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp/

Standard matcha needs to be extremely fine, usually at 800 mesh (18 microns). The tea powder ground by machine can reach 1000 mesh or even 1300 mesh, which is 10 times finer than flour.

The biggest advantage of Guizhou Matcha is that it is “clean and safe”.

Guizhou is the first province in China to legislate to ban the use of chemical herbicides such as glyphosate in tea gardens. The number of banned pesticides is more than double the 62 stipulated by the state, reaching 128.

Not only that, Guizhou people also use the "wisdom" of the mountains to carry out green prevention and control of pests and diseases.

There is more than just tea in the tea garden. Clover is interplanted between tea trees, and marigolds are planted in embedded areas. This is called a "forest-shrub-grass" composite ecological tea garden. When these plants grow up, the trees will suppress insects, the grass will suppress weeds, and the insects will control insects. This can not only reduce pests and diseases in the tea garden, but also suppress the growth of weeds.

In 2018, the new national standard for Matcha was officially implemented. In the same year, the provincial local standard for Guizhou Matcha was issued. This set of standards is based on the national standards, and some core indicators are even higher.

The establishment of local standards shows the confidence and pride of Guizhou people in Guizhou Matcha.

Guizhou "European Standard Matcha" tea garden. Image source: Guicha

The Guizhou Matcha Factory also hired senior Japanese Matcha experts to provide technical guidance throughout the process, and cooperated with many scientific research institutions and universities at home and abroad to develop and improve equipment such as stem and leaf separation and low-temperature grinding, and continuously optimized the production technology of raw leaf tea, and established a world-class Matcha automated production line.

These matchesas have passed more than 400 safety tests of the EU's famously stringent food safety standards and have been exported to Europe. As a result, they have become Guizhou Matcha's powerful global competitor - "European Standard Matcha", which has attracted cooperation from well-known brands such as Haidilao, Moutai Ice Cream, and Starbucks, and has also won the favor of buyers from countries such as Japan and the United States.

As of now, Guizhou's matcha exports rank first in the country and third in the world.

This is the strength of the "World Matcha Super Factory".

References

[1] Deng Dahai, Zou Linlin, Chen Mi. Analysis on the relationship between spring tea production and meteorological conditions[J]. Beijing Agriculture, 2015(14).

[2] Gao Chenxi, Ren Xiaomeng, Hu Xiao, Huang Yan. Historical origins and development of matcha culture in my country[J]. China Tea, 2020, 42(04): 19-23+35.

[3] The birth story of the “World Matcha Super Factory” https://www.zgcxjrb.com/zgcxjrb/fwsn/webinfo/2024/03/1704347424876174.htm

[4] Sun Jingjing, Zhu Xiaoyuan, Luo Xianjingli, et al. Effects of different shading treatments on green tea quality[J]. Journal of Anhui Agricultural University, 2015, 42(3):4. DOI:10.13610/j.cnki.1672-352x.20150424.018.

Author: Xiaozhan, a postgraduate student at Minzu University of China

Review丨Zhong Kai, Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center