Why "Fake" Sichuan Tea is a Real Good Deal
Sichuan is a world unto itself. The Sichuan Basin, surrounded by high mountains and famously covered in mist, has been fertile, warm, and moist enough to support millennia of human occupation and centuries of tea cultivation.
The Pre-Han artifacts now being dug up in the province’s Sanxingdui archeological site have revealed a lost civilization that prompts considerable speculation from Sichuan locals today. Is the alien, soul-stirring bronze work dug up from this site evidence of a super advanced Chinese past or perhaps a uniquely Sichuanese Atlantis? Zhang Zhongxian, like Mongol invaders before him, helped to depopulate the Sichuan Basin and erase completely any memory of the Pre-Han pas that produced these artifacts. Yet this peasant-rebel turned emperor also continues to captivate the public imagination in Sichuan. Some of the silver that famously sunk with his fleeing treasure fleet in the Min River appears to have been verified by archaeologists in Meishan[1]. One Meishan local we spoke to further speculated that riverside villagers had been secretly dredging up silver for years, selling various treasures to antique wholesalers in Chengdu and making “big money” enough to completely abandon farming or fishing. Zhang Xianzhong, who continues to be honored in at least one Sichuanese Daoist temple, accidentally produced the Sichuan we know and love today. Green tea consumption and chili-peppers followed the Hunanese settlers who came to repopulate the area in the 1700’s, while the folksy but intelligible Sichuan dialect came from the hodge-podge of Southern Chinese transplants attempting to speak Mandarin with one another in Chengdu and Chongqing.
Sichuan tea today occupies a complicated position in the Chinese tea market. No one can deny the historical pedigree of tea from Sichuan’s Emei and Mengding Mountains, nor does any one poo-poo Chengdu’s tea house culture. Mengding’s Huangya and Emei’s Zhuyeqing are, respectively, yellow and green tea both fine enough to gift your boss or father-in-law anywhere from Yibin to Harbin. Yet in the Central Chinese tea markets today, Sichuan tea has become a alternative tea term for “fake tea.” One producer in Bajiao Township lamented to us back in April: “I called out Sichuan in my last post, but I had to take the comment down. Sichuan tea is completely up-ending the market now. Some local people without liangxin (good hearts) are selling Enshi Yulu two, three even four weeks before we can get our harvest out to market. ” Another Yichang seller that same month complained that Sichuanese red tea has made local early-pick red tea completely nonviable. Earlier, on March 15th of this year, Tiktok channel Yuanzaishangcheng uploaded a video calling out a vendor who mislabeled Sichuan green as Xinyang Maojian, selling it for a third of price of Xinyang-produced tea the same day. Last year, the Shengshi JIaming Tea Company, also in Xinyang, was likewise fined for having more than 400 Jin of Sichuan green tea labeled as Xinyang Maojian.
The situation in Eastern China is much the same. A Xinhua reporter earlier this year found that despite 22 years of official protection for Biluochun, whose production area is nominally limited to two areas along Lake Tai, producers are still having a hard time competing against Sichuan imitators[2]. One local seller interviewed said that although local producers can still best the imitators in producing standard shape, the short picking window (just 7-10 days for Mingqian Green), mixed cultivars, and higher production costs in terms of labor makes genuine Biluochun quite uneconomic. Although government agencies want to enforce geo-labelling more strictly, local farmers themselves can also be part of the “grift,” and it is difficult to verify farmers’ self reported yields. According to one local expert, nothing before March 20th this year sold as Biluochun was genuinely the result of local production, yet literal truck loads of Biluochun before that date went to market.
Climate gives Sichuan tea growers a decisive advantage over competitors in other regions. According to the Chinese Meteorological Administration, the daily mean temperature in March was 11.6 °C in Enshi, 10.6°C in Xinyang, and just 10.4°C for Suzhou, but 13.7°C in Sichuan’s Emeishan City. With many days above 15 degrees, there simply is more harvestable tea in March. This year, picking started in the fourth week of February. That was not at all true for most green tea production areas in Central or Eastern China. Green tea production picked up for Suzhou, Xinyang, and Enshi growers only in the third week of March, and for us on March 22nd.
In our trip to Sichuan this year, it became clear that cheap but passable imitations of Central or Coastal Chinese tea were indeed a fact of the local tea industry. The Emei producer we ultimately partnered with has Jinjunmei, Biluochun, Longjing, and Anji White on offer. Local growers have long since planted a considerable amount of the leading cultivars from Zhejiang and Fujian needed for these teas, and we saw ourselves row after row of specialized equipment designed to produce Biluochun and Longjing. Their locally made imitation of Biluochun, they claim, was already sold out the first half of April. The early pick times combined with relatively lower daily wages for tea pickers makes the ultimate price point well below that of the “authentic” teas in Hubei, Henan, or Jiangsu. The limited total yield of Suzhou’s Xishan, Xinyang’s Wuyun Mountains, or Enshi’s Baijao Township compared to the public demand for the famous teas produced in these areas has always left a wide opening for imitators. Sichuan tea producers have done so successfully precisely because their price-quality ratio is perfect for the downturn in domestic consumer spending on luxury goods that tea producers are facing.
Imitation is not really a problem unique to Sichuan, but is rather ubiquitous throughout the industry. As reported on by Jinan Daily, one online celebrity just last month uncovered that tea grown in Hangzhou’s Yuhang District that was being passed off as Longjing grown in the Lion Peak Production Area. The fraudulent tea in question was priced at3880 RMB per Jin[3]. The seller exposed in the video was investigated and prosecuted by the local market control officials following the incident. Yet the flow of cheaper tea leaves from inland to coastal China continues unabated. Luyuangchun producers in Yangzhou we’ve talked to source cheaper tea leaves from Anhui, while Lu’an Producers buy tea in Enshi, who in turn sneak over tea from Emei and Mengding. The more than 400 varieties of tea covered in China’s Geo-Indicator (地理标志) system, including Luyangchun, Lu’an Guapian, Xinyang Maojian, and Biluochun all have legally defined growing regions. Enforcement of the law is however strongest only in cities like Xinyang or Hangzhou, and only in the production area’s local tea market itself. Just last October an agreement was signed between Enshi and Wuhan’s Municipal Government to increase enforcement of geo-labeling for key Enshi products in Wuhan markets, including Enshi Yulu and Lichuanhong[4]. More agreements like this are bound to be signed in coming years.
Yet just as sparkling wine from Napa Valley or Walla Walla is a fine substitute for champagne for most consumers most of the time, Sichuan “imitations” can also be technically well-made products that won’t let you down. This does not deny that certain X factors in soil science, especially surrounding the relationship between localized soil biomes and nutrient absorption, guarantee that there are still elements of terroir that are not completely reproducible. Enforcement of geo-labeling is indeed in consumers’ interest. For the most “authentic” experience, it is still worth it to try tea from the officially defined production areas. For middle-market daily drinker red teas and green teas, the value added from proper terroir is less obvious. It would be well worth your while to explore Sichuan teas, both established local favorites and newer imitations.
Articles Cited
1. 张献忠江口兵败藏银地初步确认_新闻_央视网(cctv.com) (cntv.cn)